ABSTRACT
This book attempts to support Muslim societies in articulating indigenous solutions to the myriad of political challenges confronting them. Continuously facing intellectual and ethical alternatives to their own convictions, these rapidly changing societies are looking for pragmatic solutions that do not necessarily compromise their own principles, values and ideals. Specifically pertaining to the political realm, many Muslim polities grapple with the reconciliation of modernity and tradition. In other words, they attempt to intelligently contend with ‘permanence’ (thabit) and ‘change’ (mutaghayir). This process of reconciliation often leads to ideological and, consequently, political instability. Accordingly, with reconciliation not forthcoming, political institutions, or politics per se, fail to capture the imagination of the masses. That, then, was the raison d’être of this book – an exploration of the dynamics of political instability, or mismanagement of permanence and change, in Muslim polities, with Pakistan as a case study. Yet even to initiate confronting such a colossal enigma, our exploration necessitates a host of preliminary issues.
