ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter, we examined some of the ramifications of the modern period as they have been felt within the structures of Muslim family life and as specifically related to women. In this chapter, subtly altered understandings of the basic ritual activities of Islam will be discussed as illustrating some aspects of the transformations which are taking place in modern Muslim faith. Once again, these changed understandings and interpretations flow from changes in attitude towards the fundamental sources of Islam, the Qur’an and the sunna, although, in most instances, the abstract intellectual discussions regarding these sources are not brought to the forefront when Muslims conceptualize their basic religious practices within the modern context. What continues to be of interest for our purposes, however, is the way in which the issues and approaches employed in the considerations of the Qur’an and the sunna are also manifested in the approaches to the various issues which surround the role and function of ritual practice in the contemporary context.
