ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the theme of change and development in Islam, and the limits of renovation, contextualization and reform. It is crucial to discuss this theme before turning to the discussion of the concepts of pluralism and democracy in the Islamic view, because of the alleged incompatibility between this view and the very idea of socio-political modernization and reform. Both the concepts of pluralism and democracy have substantially developed to reach their status quo in a global perspective. The tense relation between tradition and renovation in both the classical and modern Islamic thought resulted in a variety of interpretive and jurisprudential views, which are crucial to the understanding of any modern Muslim reformism. The pious devotion to the immutable texts, along with the developing and changing human status, put the Muslim intellect in a perpetual process of confronting contemporary and variable queries about the position of religion concerning the new issues. Hence, the tension between traditionalism, revivalism and renovation emerges. The traditional school of taqlı-d (imitation/traditionalism) tends to repro-
duce the conclusions of early Muslim readings, and, usually, sees in Islam a totality which overcomes the spatiotemporal limits of every human development. Nevertheless, the school of ijtiha-d – with the assiduous attempt of the ‘uluma-’ to deduce rules from the unchangeable texts to the changeable historical circumstances – finds justifications for renovation in this same Islamic tradition. In this latter view, the notions of tradition and renovation in Islam may be in juxtaposition and intrinsically interwoven. This is because of the diversity that permeates the Islamic interpretive and jurisprudential tradition, and makes the balance between tradition and renovation an Islamic virtue. Based on the scriptural sources and the early Islamic experiences, there is always a place for religion wherever human interest lies. Our discussion of this theme is divided into four sections. The first focuses on
the concept of development as a religious value in Islam. I expound this value as an element of Islamic faith, and analyze the scriptural and jurisprudential fundamentals for the nature and meaning of development in the Islamic view. The second section explains how Islam utilized, refined and developed even its most hostile pre-Islamic Arabic tradition, in all aspects that could be perfected by the spirituality of the divine guidance. In the third section, I discuss
the concept of “perfection” of religion in Islam and its correlations to the notions of revivalism and renovation. Some examples, from the views of classical and modern scholars, are given and analyzed. Finally, in the fourth section, I tackle the concept of reform in a Muslim context, showing the peculiarities of this concept in the Muslim view and proposing a reading of the philosophy and fiqh of an Islamic reform.
