Islam and Modernity in Crosshairs of History

Abstract

Static view of religion is a cause of concern in all religious communities because it not only gnaws at their dynamism, more often it tends to swing history back to the old life patterns which have lost their validity and moral force. On the other hand history moves forward and seeks its direction intuitively. So, traditional view of religion collides with the forces of history in futile effort to cease the torrential stream of time. Resultantly, time or history crush them or throw them in the yokes of slavery of others who entertain ever fresh and dynamic view of history and religion. Same went with Islam. With an advent of modernity after European renaissance when Europe collided horns with Islam, once all the Muslim world submerged in European colonialism.it forced Muslim intelligentsia on serious soul search and brought forth three schools of thought the traditionalist who strictly cling to tradition even if it had relevance to the emerging realities of history or not; the revivalists who seek assuage in pristine Islam and turn the tide of history back while modernists sensing new realities harness materieux of history for moral cause and go hand in hand with history. Modernity is also a departure from mythos to the rationale so the most crucial question of todays’ scholarship is whether Islam and modernity are compatible or poles apart in context of history.