wassslam

The reason why akhi, is that to some, people like Dr Tariq Ramadan would be considered a ‘modernist’ who is compromising many of the ‘fundamentals of the din’ and to others he may be a scholar trying to balance tradition and modern challenges. While some will hold Dr al-Qaradawi a liberal modernist and others will give him the title of Shaykhul Islam. I hope you could shed some light?

Some (ill-mannered) people even say Ustadh Yasir Qadhi is a modernist, and that Muslim-Matters is also a modernist website!! Or that Hamza Yusuf and Zaytuna are modernists, SunniPath are modernists, etc.

It seems that the word ‘modernist’ is very subjective. To some people, *I’d* be a modernist and so would MM, YQ, SunniPath, HY, etc. Yet, to others, we’d all be considered ‘fundamentalists’. I guess it just depends on who you hang out with. If you hang with people to the left of you, they will say you are a fundamentalist, and if you hang with people on the right of you, they will say you are a modernist.

jazakallahu khairan katheeran for such another thought-provoking post. As it was requested on Part 1, it would be best if you could examples of some ‘modern’ and other groups in our times because many laymen like us may misundersand one for another.

Shaykh, please make your visit more frequent on the forum and continue to share your wisdom with us inshAllah :)

p.s. we’re still eagerly waiting for Part 2 on the Taqlid topic inshAllah.

please allow me to quote from part 1, and then pose a question to you.

To add some sense of nuance, I’d like to sub-divide the traditionalists into two groups, thus giving us three broad responses to change…

As for the modernists, it is difficult to pigeon-hole them into a single unified narrative. Modernism is more of a rubric for a number of diverse ideas, trends and peoples: reformists, liberals, progressivists, secularists. What may be said to characterise them all is their jettisoning of tradition which, in Islam’s case, refers to an unbroken chain of learning and received wisdoms reaching all the way back to our Prophet, peace be upon him. Tradition is backward looking; it suffocates progress; it’s a relic of the past, the modernists would have us believe.

as i read the three groups you have offered, and as i consider the little i have studied of the history of Islam, i wonder where does one place groups that claim to be responding to change but are in fact initiating radical changes of their own. doesn’t one have to lump them in with the modernists because whenever these groups do look to authentic sources they do so selectively and with disregard to any authorities that contradict their agendas?

for example, even the khawaarij could be characterized as responding to change. but those who never recanted had to ignore the arguments of the sahabah, to ignore Qur’an and sunnah that contradicted their radical plans, to ignore the students of the Prophet sull Allaho alayhi wa sallam. in our own times, modern khawaarijists often put on the trappings of ultraconservatives — claiming to be defenders of Islam, to be restoring Islam, or at least to be adhering to the fundamentals of Islam — but they pick, choose, and ignore sources to justify what can only be called villainy.

so to me they seem to be very much closer to the modernists than to the two groups of traditionalists you discuss.

finally, i do not know if you have any plans (or desire) to be in Texas at the end of December, but i know all of us here in Houston would love to see you at TDC.

JazzakAllah for the articles brother Abu Aliyah. It may be good to give some examples of who these modernists and progressives are. Many of us are not very nuanced on this subject and to fully comprehend the points your forwarding I would appreciate it if you could give some examples? The reason why akhi, is that to some, people like Dr Tariq Ramadan would be considered a ‘modernist’ who is compromising many of the ‘fundamentals of the din’ and to others he may be a scholar trying to balance tradition and modern challenges. While some will hold Dr al-Qaradawi a liberal modernist and others will give him the title of Shaykhul Islam. I hope you could shed some light?

Wassalam

The number of things one has to factor into discussions of these sorts are too many, and I think that’s why it’s the most challenging topic this Ummah faces. But it’s good to see it being discussed.