ABSTRACT
Authenticity implies a standard that is more rigorous than some other standard. "Authentic Italian cuisine" implies that there must be some Italian cuisine that is inauthentic. The four writers considered in this study all seek to reestablish foundations upon which meaningful, effective, modern lives can be built and societies constructed. All build upon a religious tradition, but none finds mainstream Islamic theology, either Sunni or Shi'i, adequate to the task. Iqbal, Qutb, Shari'ati, and Arkoun have all failed in their endeavors. Iqbal and Arkoun are especially cognizant of the pitfalls in speaking of Muslim particularity, or even Sunni Muslim particularity. For Iqbal and Shari'ati, Islam emerges as a path toward authenticity rather than the exclusive formula for authentic living. The plausibility of Arkoun's view depends on an insistence among all advocates of authenticity that one's experience must be one's "own".
