Islamic reform

Islamic reform comprises efforts to reinterpret Islamic traditions and institutions in response to changing conditions. Its movements differ over which sources, methods, and social goals should guide renewal.

Islamic modernism: A movement that sought to reconcile Islamic thought with modern science, education, and political institutions. It became a prominent nineteenth- and twentieth-century program for renewing Muslim thought.
Ijtihad: Independent legal reasoning used to derive rulings from Islamic sources. Reformers often argue that renewed ijtihad can address circumstances not covered by inherited rulings.
Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan: An Indian Muslim educator and reformer who advocated modern education and a rational interpretation of Islam. His educational program and approach to scripture exemplify one influential reformist response to modernity.
Islamic traditionalism: An orientation that emphasizes continuity with inherited Islamic scholarship, institutions, and practices. It differs from reform movements that prioritize revising inherited interpretations or institutions.
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani: A nineteenth-century Muslim political activist and thinker who advocated Muslim solidarity and opposed European imperialism. His calls for political revival helped shape reformist debates across Muslim societies.
Tajdid: The renewal or revival of religious life, an idea rooted in Islamic traditions of periodic renewal. It supplies a longstanding religious vocabulary for reform without treating renewal as wholly novel.
Muhammad Iqbal: A South Asian poet and philosopher who called for renewed Islamic thought and self-renewal. His philosophical case for reconstructing religious thought connected reform with individual and communal agency.
Salafism: A Sunni movement that calls for emulating the earliest Muslim generations in belief and practice. Some reformers share its call to return to foundational sources, while differing over methods and conclusions.
Muhammad Abduh: An Egyptian religious scholar and reformer who promoted educational and legal renewal in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His reinterpretation of Islamic sources became a lasting model of modernist reform.
Usul al-fiqh: The principles and methods by which Islamic jurisprudence interprets sources and derives legal rulings. Disputes over reform often turn on which methods of legal interpretation are legitimate.

Linked from 3 pages