Why the next religious revival in the West may be Islamic

[Firdousi]

Why the next religious revival in the West may be Islamic

Is ISIS Islamic?

The president has weighed in, describing ISIS as a perversion of Islam. Graeme Wood's massively researched cover story for The Atlantic argues that, by the lights of the group's own adherents, yes, ISIS is very Islamic.

Still others point out that the very question is endlessly complex. Who has authority to pronounce on what is Islamic? What is the source of that authority, and how is that authority accepted?

Difficult as it may be, the question is going to become more important in the West, because the West is becoming more Islamic. Millions of Muslims have immigrated to Europe in recent decades, and it is likely that millions more will follow. The number is smaller in the United States, though the rate of Muslim immigration has increased over the last 20 years. (Reputable pollsters estimate that the U.S. population of Muslims is around 2.75 million, though the Council on American-Islamic Relations proclaims it is more than twice that.)

And it isn't just immigration. The French author Michel Houellebecq's new novel Soumission exaggerates wildly by foretelling a France that finds renewal in Islamization within the next decade. But Islam does win converts in the West, and there are good reasons to expect that some of the next great religious awakenings in the Western world will be Islamic ones.

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For one, Islam is a living faith, whereas the established Christian churches are mostly dead. Islamic imams make headlines for proclaiming what they believe. Christian theologians and pastors make headlines for announcing what they doubt or no longer believe. However far behind the Islamic world is from the West economically, the presence of an Islamic government in Iran, and the wide-ranging Sunni revival that is upending the Middle East, speak to a faith that has immediate relevance.

In Europe, Islam comes across as streetwise and assertive. Mosques are full and thriving, the anchors of growing communities. Churches are wan, empty, scandal-ridden, and irresolute.

Even the worst of Islamism has not been a barrier. The British journalist Yvonne Ridley was kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan, but has since converted and become an activist on behalf of Muslim causes in Britain. Conversions to Islam in the U.S. increased after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Islam is also proud of what it offers believers. Muslims happily share and teach core texts, sayings, and the history of their faith. These offer consolation, understanding, and a guide to life far more compelling than Western popular culture. By contrast, most Western Christians know very little about their own beliefs.

Even committed Christians will find themselves envying the unity and devotion that is prevalent across Islam. My own experience walking through Cairo at evening during the call to prayer taught me this lesson. The ancient chant rises above the city, and in alleyways men from all classes roll out mats and bow in prayer. Some shopkeepers momentarily slide curtains in front of their entrances. The less devout may continue walking, but chat more quietly, as a hush descends over a city of 8 million. As the chant ends, one can almost sense a citywide sigh of relaxation. Only a low-functioning animal would not be impressed by this.

Among Christians, this kind of wide, open, unselfconscious, nation-defining piety is entirely absent. The only Christian analogue that comes to mind is the way, in the 1980s, drivers in the west of Ireland might still cross themselves as they passed by a parish church. But that habit has since died, and anyway it is rather like comparing dipping water from a malfunctioning faucet to the roar of a living river.

Christianity concerns itself with theological debates and orthodoxy first, and also with the regulation of the moral lives of its faithful. Its march out into the public square is slightly constrained by its theology ("my kingdom is not of this world") and by history. The separation of church and state and the centuries of secularization give the impression that Christian theology is conducted in an almost private sphere. In important ways, Christians have internalized the idea that the church is merely a private pursuit.

Meanwhile, the great social, political, and moral issues are debated in terms that are public. Environmentalism, feminism, anti-racism, and all manner of social reform movements do not hole themselves up in private institutions — they issue forth into the public square and demand reform. Islam matches this way of thinking. Islam does not need to invent intellectual disguises like "natural law" to sneak ideas into the public square.

It may be more honest to say that Islam often subsumes the political sphere into the religious one. Islam's primary intellectual project is not theology, but jurisprudence, the right conduct and governance within the ummah. In the way that moral and political reform are blurred together, a post-Christian culture may look more and more like a pre-Islamic one.

This is why the question of whether something is Islamic will come up more often. The ummah is not at all analogous to the Christian church. It's conception of the public sphere, and the role of the believer in public life, is different from the one that informs Christianity and Western secularism. Respecting Islam means admitting this difference.

Islam is going to play a public role in the West, which means we are all going to have to have some familiarity with its texts, its sources of authority, and its interpretive traditions. We may have to become as comfortable criticizing it in corporate terms as we do with Christian churches. And if we can't manage that critical closeness and comfort, there's always Soumission.

[Firdousi]

I came across this article on Twitter. Although is two years old I believe its interesting.

[jama0112]

I like how i'm reading this while watching some outlast 2 gameplay.

[Khostai]

Sure Jan.

[Karachi]

lol, Islam is dying in the west, even many muslims are leaving it. Islam is a religion is done unless it adjusts itself to the 21th century

Things like slavery, child marriage, Jihad, Kaffir hatred, dont work anymore even many muslims have realized this

[Iblis_Efreetzai]

The who were raised Muslims who seem to have similar attitudes of Karachi are people who suffer a deep seated feeling of inferiorty from their interactions with Westerners and desperately wanting their respect and trying to fit in. It's more a consequence of their psychological profile than some profound insight that they try to make believe is rooted in some sort of humanistic enlightenment.

Rational thinking people tend to understand that reality is incredibly complex and cannot be simply remedied by such simplistic notions about human variables like religion.

[ذو الفقار]

The Islamic revival of the 1970s and 1980s peaked at the early 2000s. After that, there has been a steady decline in religiosity and a sharp rise of secularism and irreligiosity in the Muslim world.

Islamic revival happens at the beginning of every century. In our calendar, the beginning of the 15th century corresponded to the year 1979. That was a very turbulent year in Islamic history. There was Iran's Islamic revolution, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the beginning of the Mujahideen movement to resist it, and the takeover of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca by a group of fanatics led by Juhayman al-Otaibi. Similarly, Zia-ul-Haq had risen in Pakistan and began his process of Islamization, while Islamic radicalism was taking off in Egypt and would result in the assassination of Anwar al-Sadat in 1981.

Now in the year 2017, I see the youngest generation of Muslims are very secular. The young "Islamists" and enthusiasts for Islam back in the 80s and 90s have now become middle aged and are getting older. I see a decline in the energy that was once present in dynamic movements like Tablighi Jama'at which were instrumental for the religious and pietist revival among individual Muslims.

I believe enthusiasm for Islam and personal piety among Muslims will continue to fall steeply for the rest of the century, until the beginning of the next century when we can hopefully expect the next religious revival.

Those who think that liberal Islam and Hadith-rejecting ideas will help Islam adjust to the realities of the 21st century don't realize that such a tendency is only going to sap the dynamism and uniqueness of Islam which made it so appealing in the first place. Islam is all about lifestyle and being different from the rest of the world. The ideas of liberalism and modernism, however, are based on the desire for Muslims to integrate into the rest of the modern world and become normalized. This is why you hear such liberals particularly emphasize the need for women to be educated in a modern sense and for feminism to liberate women from patriarchal Islamic culture and tradition. They also want to eliminate the idea of "Jihad" or armed resistance to the new world order, in order to make Muslims bow in submission to the modern secular state and never again think of challenging it.

Finally, the liberals want Islam to be more personalized and a private affair, exactly how the Protestant reformation and the enlightenment relegated the influence and role of Christianity to one of insignificance. I very much see Christianity in the West as an old woman dying of cancer. It's only a matter of time before she breathes her last. She may be surrounded by her loving family showering her with flowers and placing get well cards and prayers around her deathbed, but that cannot stop the inevitable.

Faithful Muslims during this century, before the next expected arrival, have to necessarily be more defensive than offensive. We have to make an effort to preserve the practice of our faith by forming counter culture, proverbially going "underground". Those Muslims who are still involved in a political struggle for "Islamism" or ideas of creating an Islamic state etc., are engaging in the futile and wasting their time. This is not the time for that at all. I don't even think this is a time to focus on Da'wa to non-Muslims, because we will only end up humiliating ourselves and cannot convince any non-Muslim what is so great about Islam right now that they should leave their attachment to a superior civilization and join forces with a Religion that is weak and has nothing to offer at the moment. First we have to sustain a strong counter society that is rooted in Islam and is free of hypocrisy and other morally questionable things. The best form of Da'wa is not through pamphlets or debates, but by deed and example.

[Iblis_Efreetzai]

a.) Secular and Liberal are not the same thing

b.) "Uniqueness" is not even something that Islam uses this as one of its talking points, on the contrary, it's a revelation from the system rooted in the primordial cosmos and dilineated to mankind. Islam's goal is not to be unique, it's to give humans the tools to address relevant concerns and problems while simulatenously elevating the human consciousness, if one or the other is left out, the the endeavor has failed.

c.) Adjustments in context to contemporary problems and situations is nothing new, in fact these was addressed even in the Qur'an when talking about prior ummat. Islam never was nor ever will be a static phenomena. The problem arises when people abandon the cardinal precepts of Islam, trying to redefine the substratum of Islamic Morality or when people make auxilliary aspects of Islam the immutable substratum of Islam. Both trends miss the point. Dynamism in Islam is being relevantly applicable to current variables. For example, today we live in a world where women have acquired more qualified skills in labor, compared to generations prior, it is simple necessity to allow more qualified skilled persons , even if they're women more financial and economic opportunities for the working of society. On the other hand this narcissitic culture of plastic surgery and cosmetic enhancement has no need for being ratified just because we have the facilities for it, humans will be just fine if they don't look like creepy alien Transvestites.


There's a median ground between those who simply want to efface Islam of its meat and those who want to keep islam in a perpetual state of rigor mortis. Those are the people who will be the torch bearers of Islam.

[ذو الفقار]

a.) Secular and Liberal are not the same thing

Not technically anyways, though you will find that most secularists are liberal and vice versa. Secularism isn't simply a political position of the state being neutral when it comes to religion. Secular is also an adjective which describes a non-religious lifestyle and worldview. It is especially the latter kind of secularism which Islam hates.

b.) "Uniqueness" is not even something that Islam uses this as one of its talking points, on the contrary, it's a revelation from the system rooted in the primordial cosmos and dilineated to mankind. Islam's goal is not to be unique, it's to give humans the tools to address relevant concerns and problems while simulatenously elevating the human consciousness, if one or the other is left out, the the endeavor has failed.

Your specific idea that Islam only offers moral principles and not any specific ordinances is a rejection of the concept of Shari'a altogether. More than this, such a conception of Islam means Islam is no longer distinct from any other religion or philosophy which more or less share the same principles. Therefore, its not about Islam wanting to be unique, but maintaining the distinctiveness of Islam, since Islam is all that remains today in conflict or opposition to the universalist modernism that has enveloped the world. Once Islam too is stripped of its specific Shari'a ordinances through which a distinct lifestyle is derived, it becomes redundant, since there remain no reason to not simply accept the universalist philosophy.

I challenge you to show me something of the legal or political tradition of Western civilization that you oppose. You will find that everything in their legal and political structure accords with your "cardinal precepts of Islam" at least as how you define them.

You criticize plastic surgery. Do you advocate for it to be illegal? Which "cardinal principle" of Islam will you invoke for that purpose? You will not be able to prevent a single vice you hate if you dismiss the so-called "auxiliary aspects of Islam"

[Iblis_Efreetzai]

Cosmetic issues like "Being unique" is not the aim of Islam. Justice is the aim of Islam.

I'm not against all applications of plastic surgery; I only described one variation of it used for simply vanity and surrendering to feelings of inferiority perpetuated by contemporary cultural messages as a contrast to another point regarding why Islam is not a static phenomena and that not all aspects of Islam need be treated statically especially when doing so has disadvantages than advantages. It's an incredibly juvenile mindset to do things "just" to be unique. The uniqueness of things happens by their own process, not but some deliberate motivation to be unique. That's pretentious and in actuality not unique at all.

This idea that Islam must be stagnantly affixed to a model whose variables were more present in the 7th century, is a form of Spiritual and Intellectual Rigor Mortis; not a vibrant thriving sense of faith or spirituality.

Islam is different in that its goal is not to be different for the sake of being different. The Creator of the universe is not some "edgy" Juvenile that feels they have to look "hip" to be taken seriously.

Furthermore I never argued that all aspects of Islam are effaceable; that's a strawman this is more your rendering based on what I understand of you, stems from a belief any piece of iconography historically attached to Islam, whether it's using a miswak or whether we should be wearing a thawb, rather than pants are by default sacrosanct and thus immutable.

This is not worship of Allah(swt) this is worship of Iconography, a very pertinent difference that is often unrealized by most.

So your question almost has no relevance to me. I am not "Anti-West", I am anti-dysfunction, whether that dysfunction comes from the West or from Muslim societies, doesn't matter. It just so happens so many aspects of the West are dysfunctional, but there's quite a bit worth applauding as well. I can separate those two, you may not be able to. Likewise with among Muslims.

If what you argued was true than the entire enterprise of Islamic Jurisprudence was an entire waste of effort. The fact that new variables arising required Muslims to address those issues and whether the injunctions of Islam were pertinent in that light, is what made jurisprudence a vibrant vocation.

The core of Islam will always be the core of Islam, nothing will mute that, but clearly whether or not your sons or daughters deserve more inheritance, when you have an autistic son and a nobel laureate daughter is pretty much an easy answer without needing to abide to a verse intended for specific conditions.

[Nekrofrost]

Most europeans look at islam(and islamists) the same way they looked at communism(and communists) back in the day. They will just end up reforming their governments slightly by maybe making all tje meat halal or something of similar sorts but nothing serious cuz thats what they did with the communists. They tried to shut em up by making minute changes like maybe providing free healthcare and education in some countries but thats pretty much it.
But tbh i dont see much happening cuz in europe and the US im seeing these.right wing groups gaining more popularity and these idiots will do everything in their power to have the world go into some kind of retarded race war.
Altho there are alot of westerners who are converting to islam and are sick of the wests ultra capitalistic and hedonistic lifestyle theres way too many people who like it and theres a large number of idiots in our countries also promote that dumb****ery. So i dont really see what you are saying to happen any time soon.

[Firdousi]

The Islamic revival of the 1970s and 1980s peaked at the early 2000s. After that, there has been a steady decline in religiosity and a sharp rise of secularism and irreligiosity in the Muslim world.

Islamic revival happens at the beginning of every century. In our calendar, the beginning of the 15th century corresponded to the year 1979. That was a very turbulent year in Islamic history. There was Iran's Islamic revolution, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the beginning of the Mujahideen movement to resist it, and the takeover of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca by a group of fanatics led by Juhayman al-Otaibi. Similarly, Zia-ul-Haq had risen in Pakistan and began his process of Islamization, while Islamic radicalism was taking off in Egypt and would result in the assassination of Anwar al-Sadat in 1981.

Now in the year 2017, I see the youngest generation of Muslims are very secular. The young "Islamists" and enthusiasts for Islam back in the 80s and 90s have now become middle aged and are getting older. I see a decline in the energy that was once present in dynamic movements like Tablighi Jama'at which were instrumental for the religious and pietist revival among individual Muslims.

I believe enthusiasm for Islam and personal piety among Muslims will continue to fall steeply for the rest of the century, until the beginning of the next century when we can hopefully expect the next religious revival.

Those who think that liberal Islam and Hadith-rejecting ideas will help Islam adjust to the realities of the 21st century don't realize that such a tendency is only going to sap the dynamism and uniqueness of Islam which made it so appealing in the first place. Islam is all about lifestyle and being different from the rest of the world. The ideas of liberalism and modernism, however, are based on the desire for Muslims to integrate into the rest of the modern world and become normalized. This is why you hear such liberals particularly emphasize the need for women to be educated in a modern sense and for feminism to liberate women from patriarchal Islamic culture and tradition. They also want to eliminate the idea of "Jihad" or armed resistance to the new world order, in order to make Muslims bow in submission to the modern secular state and never again think of challenging it.

Finally, the liberals want Islam to be more personalized and a private affair, exactly how the Protestant reformation and the enlightenment relegated the influence and role of Christianity to one of insignificance. I very much see Christianity in the West as an old woman dying of cancer. It's only a matter of time before she breathes her last. She may be surrounded by her loving family showering her with flowers and placing get well cards and prayers around her deathbed, but that cannot stop the inevitable.

Faithful Muslims during this century, before the next expected arrival, have to necessarily be more defensive than offensive. We have to make an effort to preserve the practice of our faith by forming counter culture, proverbially going "underground". Those Muslims who are still involved in a political struggle for "Islamism" or ideas of creating an Islamic state etc., are engaging in the futile and wasting their time. This is not the time for that at all. I don't even think this is a time to focus on Da'wa to non-Muslims, because we will only end up humiliating ourselves and cannot convince any non-Muslim what is so great about Islam right now that they should leave their attachment to a superior civilization and join forces with a Religion that is weak and has nothing to offer at the moment. First we have to sustain a strong counter society that is rooted in Islam and is free of hypocrisy and other morally questionable things. The best form of Da'wa is not through pamphlets or debates, but by deed and example.

Excellent points. But I disagree. Its true that secularism is taking root in the Islamic world but I don't think it won't last forever. Liberalism is in crisis and its main stronghold is the West. Since this civilization is in decline liberalism will decline too. Eastern Europeans, the Islamic world, China and Africa are illiberal "civilizations" by nature. Many Muslims are turning to Liberalism because the lack of any proper alternative. The Islamic way has been a failure and the Islamist forces have been the main losers in the Arab Spring.

Also I don't buy this "Islamic revival" of every century. I remember first time I read it was in a book about Islam written by Hans Kuhng. There was no Islamic revival in the end of the XIX century and the beginning of the XX century. Muslims were defeated, colonized and all the social estructures were destroyed. No Islamic force could challenge this change.

[ذو الفقار]

Also I don't buy this "Islamic revival" of every century. I remember first time I read it was in a book about Islam written by Hans Kuhng. There was no Islamic revival in the end of the XIX century and the beginning of the XX century. Muslims were defeated, colonized and all the social estructures were destroyed. No Islamic force could challenge this change.

Revival is not only in the geopolitical sphere. The revival at the beginning of the 15th century Hijri was certainly geopolitical, but the one at the beginning of the 14th century Hijri was an intellectual revival while Muslims for the most part remained colonized and subjugated by the European powers.

This pattern is based on the Prophet's Hadith that at the beginning of every century Allah will send a Mujaddid (reformer/revivalist) who renews the Religion.

The Umayyad ruler Umar bin Abdul Aziz is considered the first Mujaddid. Through him Islamdom experienced a political revival after nearly a century of nepotism, dischord and oppression. Some scholars even go to the extent of considering Umar bin Abdul Aziz a Khalifa Rashid along the lines of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali (Radi Allahu anhum)

However, the next century after that saw a religious revival that was theological and not political. It was led by Imam Ahmad bin Hambal, considered the second Mujaddid, and was a reaction to the threat of Mutazilite rationalism and Hellenic philosophy which was threatening to disintegrate the Muslim Umma. This is why Imam Ahmad is given the title "Imam Ahlus Sunna"

Other well known religious revivalists include Ibn Taymiyya, Mujaddid Alf Thani (Ahmad Sirhindi), Shah Waliullah, and Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab.

Therefore I say that we can expect the next great Mujaddid or religious revival in Islam at the beginning of the 16th century. Right now it is the year 1439, so we have to wait for about 60 more years. I could certainly be wrong, but this is what my gut tells me.