ABSTRACT

Having explored in the previous chapters aspects of the diachrony of the interpretive tradition of Islam, the notion of development and its manifestations in the concepts of renovation and reform, I tried to clarify the boundaries of mutability, development and human reasoning vis-à-vis immutability, traditionalism and divine revelation. No understanding of the Muslim worldview and code of behavior is possible without profound knowledge of the scriptural fundamentals and their diverse human conceptualizations that give form to the collective Muslim identity. The Quranic text, God’s immutable word, inspires various interpretations and meanings (h.amma-l awjuh),1 and intrinsically influences the different tafsı-r-schools and trends. It is revealed in the most perfected form of Arabic; a language and a source of creativity for the Arabs, which diachronically produced diglossic variations with many dialects and vernaculars, hence levels of reading, understanding and contextualization of the divine text. The Islamic Sharia remained always the fixed “center” surrounded by diverse fiqh schools and deduction methods (ijtiha-ds), which reflect the human endeavor to understand the divine revelation. The great diversity that characterizes this Islamic diachrony functioned as a historical mechanism of production of many intraIslamic epistemological, theological, socio-political and cultural spectra. It was always the generating factor of a plethora of ideas, approaches, practices and reform projects of the modern and contemporary Muslim world. Thus, the notions of development, progress, revival, renovation and reform remain inherent to the Islamic worldview, and the door of ijtiha-d remains always open to meet all new mundane developments. In modern times, especially from the nineteenth century onwards, Islamic

reformism emerged as a religion-based precondition for the revival of the Muslim ummah. This did, and does not, happen in a historical vacuum or a geopolitical and cultural independence. The Islamic “alternative,” generated in a historical crisis of deterioration on different levels and fields, raised many questions about the validity of a religion-centered civilizational project versus a non-religious but “superior” project, which presents itself in terms of rationalism, secularism, epistemic revolutionism and pluralistic multiculturalism. In this respect, a revival of an Islamic alternative is viewed as an anachronistic

reproduction of an obsolete historical stasis already surpassed by Western modernity. Being religion-based, any Islamic socio-political reformative project, seen a priori as inherently pre-modern,2 could be criticized as being exclusive, mono-cultural and non-democratic. To put all this into a hermeneutical context we need to broaden our investigation to include the Islamic view of a non-Islamic diversity. This brings us to a wider discussion of the Islamic diachrony and development concerning the encounter between Islam and all that exists outside its realm of belief, modalities of life and civilizational project. Therefore, in this chapter, I will discuss the dynamics of an Islamic reaction to, and interaction with, the challenge of diversity outside the realm of Islam. I do this aiming at a reconstruction of the cognitive model based on some Islamic pluralistic values which constitute some Muslim and non-Muslim approaches to the subject. Tackling the issue of pluralism from an Islamic perspective would broaden the focus of this study on the contentious critique on any modern Islamic reformative approach: its inability to encompass any form of “otherness” as it claims to be the self-sufficient representative of the divine truth. Based on the previous chapters, I will try to show, in the four sections of

this chapter, how the concepts of Islamic universality and diversity affect and permeate the Muslim perspective on the worldly diversity and plurality. This is also a question that we need to bring forth before we discuss, in the following chapter, the Islamic Sharia-oriented political thought, and its view of democracy where pluralism is a prerequisite. I will begin with the scriptural foundation of the Islamic concept of universality. Afterwards, I will try to reconstruct the relation of Islam and the “Other” by defining the relevant terminology in linguistic, theological and historical contexts. Thirdly, I will expand the discussion on the Muslim religious and cultural identities as an attempt to understand the intricacies of the Muslim world of ideas in terms of self-knowledge. Finally, I will approach the Muslim status quo within a globalized and a multicultural context. I need to emphasize that it is not my aim here to handle all critical problems of religious pluralism, but rather to review some crucial and general points related to an Islamic theory of religious diversity, which can help to enhance a pluralistic society with the Islamic principles taken seriously.