Muslim Modernists

Various Muslim modernists have advanced a basic reinterpretation of Islam.а For example, Chiragh-Ali (1844-1895) regards Islamic law, i.e., the sharia, as "by no means unchangeable or unalterable."а The only immutable law of Islam is the Quran.а In the early development of Islam, the Quran, he contends, was not recognized as "the sole and all-sufficient guide" of the Muslim world.а

"Legislation," he writes, "is a science experimental and inductive, not logical and deductive.а The differences of climate, character, or history must be observed; the wants and wishes of men, their social and political circumstances must be taken into consideration, as it was done in the various stages of the first days of the growing Muslim Empire."

Consistent therewith, there are four systems of Sunni Muslim law.а The Hanafi school, Islam's most tolerant system of canon law, claims the allegiance of perhaps 60 percent of all Muslims and is dominant in the eastern Mediterranean and the Indian subcontinent.а The Malaki school dominates North Africa, but has its adherents in other areas as well.а The Shafi'i school, which tends to reflect ancient trade routes, is found in eastern Africa and other coastal areas, as well as in the Muslim countries of Southeast Asia, such as Indonesia.а Lastly there is the Hanbali school, which has few adherents outside the Arabian peninsula.

But to this we must add the Shi'i law schools, which will be found in Iran, parts of Iraq, and Pakistan.а The Shi'i and Sunni law schools vary most on the question of government, a difference that stems from their opinions on the question of who rightly succeeded Muhammad.а

The sharia developed as a jurist's law, for there was no rule for the state as lawmaker.а Hence the sharia has been regarded as Islam's "common law" in contradistinction to "statute law."а Despite the historical development and diversity of Islamic law, various Muslims have made an ideology of the sharia, meaning they have "closed" or rigidified the canon law.а It is precisely this freezing of Islamic law to which Muslim modernists like Chiragh-Ali object.

Ali argues that "The Quran does not profess to teach a social and political law."а Its precepts were merely aimed as a complete regeneration of the Arabian community (a community steeped in paganism).а "It was neither the object of the Quran, the Muhammadan Revealed Law, to give particular and detailed instructions in the Civil Law, nor to lay down general principles of jurisprudence."

Thus, in opposition to Muslims like al-Bazzaz and Mawdudi, who define Islam as a political religion that entails an all-embracing way of life (see the previous article of this series), Chiragh-Ali contends that Muhammad "never combined the Church and the State into one," that the Quran neither interferes in political questions, nor does it lay down specific rules of conduct.а It merely teaches "a revelation of certain doctrines of religion and certain general rules of morality."

Amir Shakib-Arslan (1869-1946), a member of a leading Lebanese Druze family, takes a similar position.а While rejecting "ultra-modern" Muslims for rejecting tradition and aping the West, he is also critical of Muslim "conservatives" for "the blind obstinacy with which they insist upon the maintenance of hackneyed conventions," and who "insist that no change can be permissible in anything."а

One such ultra-modern is Sadiq Al-Azm (1936-), a Syrian Marxist who holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale University.а Al-Azm goes so far as to say that "the Islamic religion comprises opinions and tenets on the growth, composition, and nature of the universe, on the origin, history, and life of man through the ages which ... are clearly in opposition to our scientific understanding of these subjects."

Abdullah Laroui (mentioned in a previous article), ridicules the alleged tolerance of Islam, citing the persecution of the Mu'tazlites (for their Greek rationalism) and the auto-da-fe's of the ninth century.а Islamic ideologues, he writes, make democratic mountains out of Muhammadan mole-hills.а "The Prophet was wrong once concerning the technique of pollinating date palms and frankly admitted his error.а From that the conclusion is abusively drawn that Islamic dogma does not impose a strict organization of public powers and that it can, consequently, accommodate itself to any regime whatever that Muslims choose."

Laroui pours scorn on Muslims apologists.а "Ijma (juridical consensus) becomes a veritable democratic charter, corroborated by the procedure which the Caliph 'Unmar chose to designate his successor.а Ignorant or forgetful of the lessons of ethnology, he claims that the Arab is by nature free and that he cannot independently found a regime which is not democratic."

Needless to say, Laroui's candor is not typical of the Arab-Islamic world.а The question is whether Islam is susceptible to reform?а The question will be discussed in the next article.