Back to the Roots, the Origins and the Beginning: Reflections on Revival (tajdīd) in Islamic Discourse

Revival takes on many different forms in Muslim societies. This article explores and identifies a ḥadīth discourse of revival, based on a famous ḥadīth and its commentary that promises renewal at the head of every century. Using an inter-textual analysis, it argues that revival was rooted in the first crisis faced by the early Muslim community when the Prophet died and could no longer personally guide Muslims. Across time and place, the discourse of revival confronts this original crisis by naming and renaming it, and offering a resolution. I also suggest that the first crisis was beyond resolution, as according to Muslim belief the prophetic line of succession ended with Muhammad. The discourse of revival thus became potentially recurrent, as resolution was always prone to disruption

Revolution in Egypt and the Middle East

This lecture can be used to supplement lectures in history, film and media or politics related to the 2011 revolution in Egypt. The lecture can be used as a general interest podcast. This seminar discusses the revolution in Egypt and the Middle East, specifically: 1. Events in Egypt and how it relates to politics in Africa and South Africa 2. Events that led to the revolt in Egypt 3. Egypt and political communication - as well as personal reflections by Dr Ibrahim Saleh 4. Role of islam and politics of the Muslim Brotherhood The image used is Victory-Crowd by darkroomproductions and is available under a Creative Commons Non Commercial Lincese

Reading religion and the religious in modern Islam

Contains fulltext : 19531.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)16 p

Decolonizing the study of religions: Muslim intellectuals and the enlightenment project of religious studies

The term ‘religion’ as a discursive term occupies a dominant, but neglected feature of Muslim intellectual reflections since the 19th century. Intellectuals from Muḥammad ʿAbduh (he died in 1905) to recent scholars like Naṣr Ḥāmid Abū Zayd (he died in 2010) have used religion as a critical term to develop a critique of tradition and modernity, and a strategy for renewal. This discourse may be compared with the study of religion since the 19th century that has also used religion to develop a perspective on the religious history of humankind. In this contribution, I argue that the two intellectual traditions that have employed religion – Kantian and the modern Islamic – point to very different ways of relating to the world, to the self and the ‘other’, and to the political condition of modernity. Rather than using the hegemonic Western tradition to make a judgment on the modern Islamic, I use the latter to point to the former’s peculiar proclivities. Using the modern tradition among Muslim intellectuals, I invite an inquiry into both from each other’s positions.Keywords: Islamic studies, Islamic modernism, Islamic reform, religious studies, religion, Talal Asad, postcolonial, decolonia

Religious Studies, Ethics and Modernity

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Islamic Politics in South Africa between Identity and Utopia

This article identifies three sites of Islamic politics in South Africa for closer and critical analysis and appraisal. It proposes that Islamic politics inscribed an idealistic vision for the future. It promoted a utopian vision that was by definition unattainable. Secondly, the paper argues that Islamic politics was preoccupied with representation, a relentless and somewhat impossible task of representing Islam and Muslims in the public. Utopia and perfect representation, then, were the chimeral quests of Islamic politics