DISCOVERING ISLAM
Making Sense of Muslim History and Society
Revised Edition
Akbar S. Ahmed
from the Preface
In two seminars held in Islamabad in 1985 when presenting some of the ideas in this book I cited the Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz and the Islamic scholar Maulana Mawdoodi. I was criticized by the distinguished ‘rightist’ scholars present for the former (‘godless communist’) and ‘leftists’ for the latter (‘agent of Western imperialism’). Neither side was prepared to conduct a dialogue or attempt to understand the other point of view. Western scholars at the seminar criticized me for being too ‘Islamic’, some Muslims for not being Islamic enough. As I believe Islam to be the middle path—the Quranic ummah-i-wast, the middle nation or, to echo Imam Khomeini, nah sharq nah gharb, neither East nor West—and that a Muslim must steer a middle course I was unrepentant. This book will no doubt arouse similar reactions; its middle position will thereby be vindicated.
Making Sense of Muslim History and Society
Revised Edition
Akbar S. Ahmed
from the Preface
In two seminars held in Islamabad in 1985 when presenting some of the ideas in this book I cited the Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz and the Islamic scholar Maulana Mawdoodi. I was criticized by the distinguished ‘rightist’ scholars present for the former (‘godless communist’) and ‘leftists’ for the latter (‘agent of Western imperialism’). Neither side was prepared to conduct a dialogue or attempt to understand the other point of view. Western scholars at the seminar criticized me for being too ‘Islamic’, some Muslims for not being Islamic enough. As I believe Islam to be the middle path—the Quranic ummah-i-wast, the middle nation or, to echo Imam Khomeini, nah sharq nah gharb, neither East nor West—and that a Muslim must steer a middle course I was unrepentant. This book will no doubt arouse similar reactions; its middle position will thereby be vindicated.
A literary rather than academic form has been adopted in order to address a wide and general readership. For this purpose footnotes and page references are omitted in the text. The South Asian usage of Arabic (ul for al, etc.) is an anthropological reflex not meant to offend the punctilious Arabist.
The material is largely based on seminars given between 1982 and 1985, and what I learned from discussions with colleagues at various academic centres in Harvard, Princeton, Moscow, Delhi, Jeddah, Tokyo, Istanbul, London, Islamabad and Paris. I would like to acknowledge their hospitality and support.
No comments:
Post a Comment