Intellectual origins of Islamic resurgence in the modern Arab world

Abstract

Intellectual Origins of Islamic Resurgence in the Modern Arab World, by Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi`. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996. xii + 264 pages. Notes to p. 333. Bibl. to p. 365. Index to p. 370. $19.95 paper. Contrary to the view that a total vacuum of Islamic intellectualism exists in the modern Arab world, the author of Intellectual Origins of Islamic Resurgence, a professor of Islamic studies at Hartford Seminary, affirms that Islamism emerged as a viable movement invoking the authority and seeking the legitimacy of the central Islamic (p. 45). Stressing that Islamic resurgence in general more than a political phenomenon, Ibrahim Abu-Rabi` says that it must treated in philosophical terms as well, and it should be placed in the larger category of modern Arab history (p. II). Modern Islamic resurgence a reaction not only to the political and military burdens of colonialism, but also to Western values and institutions regarded by Muslims as a threat to their way of life. The challenges to Islamic values posed by modernity, which makes man the creator of his own world and destiny, may be subsumed under the headings of secularism, nationalism, rationalism, and humanism. To overcome these challenges, Islamism proposes an Islamic to be governed by Islamic law, education, and ethics. Such a scheme calls for a return to the original sources of Islam, in particular, the Quran and the Hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad). The slogan Islam the solution encapsulates the various ways in which these sources are understood and interpreted. In chapter one of Intellectual Origins, AbuRabi` describes the context within which Islamic resurgence has developed and the phases that preceded the resurgence. He expounds the ideas, views, and interpretations of leading Arab/Muslim intellectuals and representatives of the nahda (renaissance) phase, who responded in one form or another to the challenges of secularization and Westernization. The central issue confronting most Muslim writers today how to reconcile the turath (Islamic heritage) with modernity-how to become modem and remain Muslim at the same time. Abu-Rabi` notes that two major schools of thought emerged to address this issue. A reformist school sought to reinterpret Muslim thought in terms of modem culture, and the second, a modernist school, was Western-oriented and secular, without necessarily rejecting the whole Islamic tradition. Both schools, in the author's opinion, failed, leaving a vacuum to be filled by the modern Islamic resurgence. The formative phase leading to the Islamic resurgence, in the modern Arab world, began with the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood movement by Hasan al-Banna, an Egyptian preacher and religious activist. Al-Banna's thought and ideas are the intellectual underpinnings of the resurgence, along with ideas of some of his prominent disciples, most notably Sayyid Qutb. Steering clear of al-Banna's political activities, which led to his assassination in 1949, Abu-Rabi` concentrates on the Islamic discourse al-Banna originated, which represented the most serious challenge to secular and traditional religious discourse. Al-Banna's thought has been dealt with extensively, and the author avails himself (with acknowledgement) of an abundance of sources, original and secondary, to weave a cogent portrait of the founder of the most influential Islamic movement in the 20th century. Supreme Guide al-Banna's basic idea, which shaped the thought of all his followers, is based on a worldview of Islam, understood as a religion, civilization, a way of life, an ideology and a state (p. 65). AlBanna's ideological and uncompromising position, that the Islamic tradition superior to modem culture, responsible for certain rigidities in his thought, and, in Abu-Rabis words, rules out any rapprochement between Islamism and the West (p. …