ABSTRACT
The previous chapter focused on the programs of reform and renewal of Islam that were developed by a number of enlightened Muslim thinkers living in the second half of the nineteenth through the first decades of the twentieth century. These programs were contrasted with the conservative reform movement of Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahháb and his Saudi supporters in Arabia in the second half of the eighteenth through the early nineteenth century. These events and thinkers represent the “formative period” of Islamic reformist movement, during which its foundational principles were articulated by a handful of concerned Muslim intellectuals. Some were inspired by al-Afgháni’s modernist agenda, others by the desire to restore the original purity of faith as believed and practiced by the first Muslim community under the leadership of the Prophet and his companions. These reformers acquired a traditional Islamic education and belonged to the ‘ulamá’ class. They sought ways to implement their ideas in reality either “from above” by winning rulers over to their cause (as was the case with al-Afgháni and Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahháb) or by instituting social and educational reforms and reaching out to the public at large via the printed word (as was the case with ‘Abdo and Rashíd Ridá). With the exception of Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahháb, they were not particularly successful due to their failure to establish a broad popular base and institutionalize their reformist ideas. However, in the long run, the reformers’ efforts were not in vain.
