The Paradigm of Knowledge of the Modern Islamic Resurgence

Abstract

Political and social explanations for the contemporary Islamic resurgence abound. Most of these, however, are reductionist in that they do not pay attention to the religious component of a clearly religious phenomenon. Without rejecting its social and political locations, I believe the Islamic resurgence represents a paradigm shift involving a major reinterpretation of Islamic sources in the modem world. In the modem world, Muslims draw on a treasure of significant insights into the dilemmas and options facing them. The sources of these insights, from Shariati to Bennabi to Khomeini, may vary in many respects and often differ in fundamental fonnulations. In Islamic organizations and movements, however, Muslims draw on this diversity to construct meaning in uniquely modem ways. At the level of practice, in contrast to that of the thinkers, a measure of affinity is clearly noticeable in terms of modem Islamic thought and practice. I believe that the idea of a paradigm, proposed by Kuhn, is a useful and fertile way of coming to understand this common meaning-making exercise. A new paradigm of understanding and living Islam, under the impact of the West, has taken shape over the past two centuries. The West as villain, the implementation of the Shari'ah, the search for Islamic solutions, and the Islamization of the sciences are some of the most important features of this new paradigm. In this paper, I will explore the basic idea and structure of the modem Islamic paradigm. Knowledge, Power, and Paradigms In his analysis of modem medical, human, and social sciences, Michel Foucault has unmasked the power relations inherent in the formation of ...