ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a comprehensive discussion of the normative imperatives behind progressive Muslim thought and its worldview. It considers normative imperatives of progressive Muslim thought can be gleaned from the delineating features of the major themes, values, and ideal. The book focuses on the work of Ebrahim Moosa, a major theoretician behind progressive Muslim thought. It also presents the arguments of several progressive Muslim thinkers, including Mohammad Shahrur, Khaled Abou El Fadl, and Abdolkarim Soroush, in critiquing the static if not retrogressive nature of classical Islamic epistemology. The chapter examines the main arguments employed by the proponents of progressive Muslim thought for legitimizing the idea of divinely willed religious pluralism in the context of the late modern episteme. It explains the main ideas and arguments of leading progressive Muslim liberation theologians including Farid Esack, Shabbir Akhtar, Ali Ashgar Engineer, and Hasan Hanafi.
