PIR06.

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Historical Precursors of the Current Islamic Revival

(The Salafiyyah, the Islamic Modernists, and the Muslim Brotherhood)

I. The Salafiyyah Movements (ofthe 18th and 19th century)

A. Salaf (= predecessor/ancestor) refers to the righteous elders of the early
Muslim Community; seen as models of emulation for all Muslims

Salafiyyah movements desire to return to the ways of the original

righteous elders ofthe Muslim community.

B. Salafiyyah Movements of the 18th and 19th centuries swept the Islamic
world from the Sudan to Saudi Arabia to India

Motivating Factor: general malaise and decline afflicting the Islamic world,
e.g.:

- Political disintegration ofthe three great Muslim Empires ofthe time

(Ottoman, Safavid, and MUghal) due to military challenge from within
and without

- Economic weakness due to effects ofof European competition in trade

and manufacturing.

- Cultural malaise due to rigidity and stultifying conservatism

C. Explanation of "What went wrong" that most powerfully resonates with

Muslim community?
Not political or socia-economic explanations but rather spiritual
explanations

The malaise in the Islamic world was attributed

to the moral corruption ofthe Muslim Community-specifically:

the accretion to Islam of beliefs and practices that were unIslamic in

origin.
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D. Salafiyyahs call for cleansing Islam, going back to the ways of the
ancestors, and going back to the original revealed sources of islam:
the Koran and the Sunna (the ways ofthe Prophet)

E. Salafiyyah's goals not simply spiritual; also had political ambitions: to

create a state that would apply these salafiyah reforms.

F. Three important examples of Salafiyyah movements:

i. The Wahhabi movement

Originated in Saudi Arabia in the 18th century
Advocated a literal interpretation ofthe Koran and the Sunna
Violently denounced Sufi practices such as Saint worship and
tomb pilgrimages
Lay the spiritual and political basis for the future Saudi state.

ii. The Sanusiyyah Order

Based in North Africa in the early 19th century.

Preached the purification ofIslam through a return to the Koran
and the Sunnah.
Created a network oflodges throughout North, Central and West
Africa devoted to missionary activity
Were committed to establishing their own Islamic state and
society

iii. Mahdiyyah Movement

Originated in Sudan in 1880s

Aimed to purify Islam from the alien unIslamic practices
Sought to build a state to be led by the Mahdi, that would be
modeled along the lines ofthe earliest Muslim state ofthe salafs.

G. Salafiyyah Movements anticipated five themes of current revival

movements:

i. They subscribed to the view that Islam was the solution for the
malaise and decline suffered by the Muslim world

ii. They rejected taqlid, that is, blind immitation of tradition

iii. They advocated a return to the original revealed sources of islam:

the Koran and the Sunna
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iv. They embraced both political and spiritual goals

v. They were willing to use force, to conduct jihad (holy war)

in order to achieve their goals.

, H. Key difference between Salafiyyah and current revival movements:

Salafiyyah movements were largely internally driven•..

they were not responding to any direct cultural challenge from the West, at
least not in their original formulation.

II. Islamic Modernismflslamic Reformism (19th and 20th centuries)

A. Grows out ofthe Islamic world's increasing contact with the W~st
(At ftrst via elite Muslim "missions to Paris/London"; Later
via. the arrival of European imperialism to the Islamic world

The conquering force ofEuropean imperialism Muslim elites to confront

two questions:

How can the comparative weakness ofthe Islamic world be explained?

How can this imbalance ofpower be redressed?

B. Three different responses among Muslim elites to challenge posed by the

West:

i. Refusal and withdrawal

Shun western schools and institutions and culture
Hope that the threat would pass

ii. Wholesale embrace ofthe West

Embrace secularism and westernization.

iii. Islamic Modernism:

Identify and harness the sources of Western power

without compromising one's Islamic identity
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C. Islamic Modernists attributed the ascendance ofthe West

to one of three factors:

i. The West's intellectual tradition of reason and science

(=the source of technological advances that were the root

of Western power and prosperity)

ii. The West's development of effective political institutions

such as constitutions and parliaments

(= the source of good government that would foster society's

prosperity)

iii. The West's commitment to freedom, especially freedom of

ideas

(= the source of a culture that was vibrant and innovative)

D. Islamic Modernists attributed the decadence of of the Muslim world

to parallel deficiencies:

1. The Islamic world had lost its own cultural tradition of reasoned
thought and innovation and science
ii. The Islamic world was burdened with despotic political
institutions that preyed upon society and did not advance the
cause ofgeneral prosperity
111.The Islamic world suffered from religious stagnation due to the to
the embrace of taqlid, blind immitation ofthe past
E. Ambition of Islamic Modernists: Reconcile Western practice and Islam.

(In part by claiming many Western ideas as their own ( i.e. showing
that many Western ideas were intrinsically part of tradition in the
Islamic world)

F. Attitude of Islamic Modernists toward the West: ambivalent

G. Two Major Weaknesses of Islamic modernist movement:·

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i. Their synthesis of Islamic and Western though was wholly

eclectic and ad hoc; they did not develop an interpretation of
Islam that was internally driven and internally consistent.

ii. The Modernists did not develop a large popular base for their
ideas.

H. Similarities of Modernists to Salafiyyah:

i. Both looked to the reform of Islam as the means to address

, malaise in the Islamic world

ii. Both condemned unquestioned veneration and imitation ofthe

past (taqlid) and enthusiastically embraced ijtihad, the radical
reinterpretation of Islam, as a means to rejuvenate religious
practice.

I. Differences between Modernists and Salafiyyah:

i. the Salafiyyah were internally driven, inspired by a sense of

internal moral and political and social decay.

The Modernists were inspired by contact with an ascendant and

domineering West

it The modernists movement did not seek to return to the

pristine Islamic past of the 7th century

But rather actively sought to embrace modernity

iii. The modernists generally did not mobilize force

to impose their vision of Islam

J. Two ways Islamic Modernists anticipate trends in the current Islamic revival
i. Both embrace modernity
ii. Both endorse the practice of ijtihad, the radical reinterpretation of
Islamic tradition in the face of current conditions

K. Important Difference between Islamic Modernists and current revivalists:

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Islamic modernists were much more positively disposed toward

the West
They sought to reconcile Islamic thought with Weterrn ideas...
To collude in the intrusion of the West

III. The Muslim Brotherhood

A. Founded in 1928 in Egypt by Hassan al Banna

B. Original Goal: primarily cultural and spiritual.

Combat Westernization
Revitalize Islam (via sponsorship ofschools, newspapers, athletic clubs,
associations, and mosques)

Advance social justice (via organization of clinics, job training

programs, community development projects, and charitable
organizations).

Create an exemplary counter society in Egypt

Originally: their goal was not to seize the reigns of power and impose
an Islamic society from the top down

But rather to rejuvenate Islamic society from the bottom up ...

C. Wildly successful. Built a huge mass base by late 40s

D. Began to move in a more explicitly political direction

due in part to success in winning such a large mass base

and in part to political events (persistence ofBritish imperialism

in Egypt; growing strength of Zionist movement in neighboring
Palestine; terrific success ofAtaturk in carrying out secularization
in Turkey)

E. By late 30s, embraces two explicitly political goals:

i. To free the Islamic world of foreign domination

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it To build an Islamic state that would govern society in accordance

with the precepts of Islam

F. Muslim brotherhood comes into direct conflict with the Egyptian

government,

Due to: its immense popularity

its embrace of violence as a political tactic

G. This ultimately led to the assassination ofal-Banna himself in 1949 at the

hands ofthe Egyptian secret police.

H. Muslim Brotherhood survives the founder's.death to this day

I. Similarities between MB and the earlier movements we have discussed:

i. Argued that Islam was the solution.

ii. Rejected slavish worship oftradition.

Al Banah argued for "tajdid" (renewal) not "taqlid"

(imitation)

iii. Insisted on the creation ofan Islamic state and the insertion of
Islam in politics

iv. Embraced modernity

J. Differences between MB and the earlier movements:

i. Hassan al Banna took his cause directly to the people

He mobilized the masses in a nation-wide organization to
advance his cause.

ii. Hassan al Banna differed fonn the Modernists in that he was

much more hostile to the West
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K. Six themes of the current revival that the MB anticipated:

i. Beliefthat Islam was the solution to the malaise ofthe Islamic world..

ii. Embrace of the marriage of religion and politics

iii. Strong hostility to the West; driven by strong desire to exorcize the
humiliation suffered by the Muslim world at the hands ofthe west

iv. Strong hostility toward the official religious elite

v. Strong plea for cultural authenticity

VI. Willingness to embrace force and violence to advance the cause