Toward Our Reformation
Understandably, Muslims tend to bristle at the common quip by non-Muslims (especially in the West) that Islam is badly in need of a “Reformation” – referring to the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation that, despite the violence it unleashed in Europe for the next two centuries, did actual...
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| Formato: | article |
| Lenguaje: | EN |
| Publicado: |
International Institute of Islamic Thought
2013
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://doaj.org/article/7b011d76db5548baafdc677e3d5dad11 |
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| Sumario: | Understandably, Muslims tend to bristle at the common quip by non-Muslims
(especially in the West) that Islam is badly in need of a “Reformation” – referring
to the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation that, despite the violence
it unleashed in Europe for the next two centuries, did actually engender
some positive changes within the Catholic church. No people, regardless of
who they are or where they live, like outsiders telling them that they need to
set their house in order.
This book, by contrast, is written by an insider telling other insiders (Muslims)
that Islamic law needs serious revamping, a weighty charge indeed. The
author faces an extra hurdle based on the fact that he does not belong to the
traditional ulama class, the gatekeepers of Islamic jurisprudence. Farooq earned
a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Tennessee, taught in the United States
for over a decade, and now heads the Bahrain Institute for Banking and Finance’s
Centre for Islamic Finance. Rashid Rida would have said in his day
that Farooq represents the new face of the ulama: one well versed in many aspects
of the Islamic sciences and yet, because of his parallel expertise in the
modern sciences, one who could provide indispensable guidance to society in
the name of Islam.
Why does Islam need a reformation? Much of the book seeks to expose
the abuse, misapplication, and distortion of the Shari‘ah committed by states
and individual ulama alike, for it “is being used to rubber stamp extremist, violent
behavior, the abuse of women, and the unfair control and imprisonment
of human beings” (p. 16). Speaking of South Asia in particular, he writes that
the following are “prevalent”: “[t]he torture and persecution of brides over
their dowry, the throwing of acid onto girls who do not either want to accept
a proposal of marriage or to concede to extramarital sex, the practice of honor
killings and so on …” (p. 86) ...
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