ABSTRACT
This chapter is about modernists. In English, those referred to as such are frequently described more specifically as "Islamic modernists", conveying the notion of simultaneously and mutually reinforcing modernizing and Islamicizing agendas. The literature on modernism presents a variety of issues to be addressed and negotiated in relation to nomenclature. For modernists, a sound form of Islam was one that, looking back, aligned with the norms of early Islam. This was to be established by following the example of the early Muslims, identified as the first generation, the Companions, or as the first three generations, the Companions, Successors, and Successors of Successors, the last of whom died around the early 9th century. Modernists were no less critical of those who followed another path, that of imitating Westerners and/or embracing such ideas as materialism and secularism. The modernist stress on the need for consensus in political life may be seen together with or as an elaboration of the principle of consultation.
