PROFESSOR KHALED ABOU EL FADL’S PREFACE TO MY BOOK :
Constructing a Religiously Ideal “Believer” and “Woman” in Islam Neo-traditional Salafi and Progressive
Muslims’ Methods of Interpretation ,Palgrave 2011.
There is a growing number of academic studies on
contemporary Islamic thought published in the West each year. Yet despite the
sharp increase in books that attempt to study the works of modern Muslim
theologians and jurists, only a few of these studies manage to offer original
insights on the normative assumptions and choices made by the internal
participants to the current Muslim discourse. Fewer still are successful in
analytically engaging the internal debates of contemporary Muslims on their own
terms without projecting onto these debates assumptions and values that
inevitably distort and even misrepresent them. It is the relative absence of
sound and thorough scholarship in this critical and timely field that makes
this book by Adis Duderija so compellingly necessary.
This book, which is the fourth in the Palgrave
Series in Islamic Theology, Law, and History, is remarkable in its breadth and
depth. The author takes on the formidable task of analyzing the thought of the
most influential and important orientations in contemporary Islamic thought:
what the author calls the neo-traditional and progressive orientations. The
author focuses on a pivotal issue that oddly enough has received but scant
attention in non-Muslim and Muslim scholarly analysis. In an admirably tight
and rigorous exposition, the author investigates the methodologies deployed by
the representative participants of each orientation in understanding,
narrating, and representing the role and meaning of the Qur’anic text and
traditions of the Prophet, his family, and companions. The author carefully and
systematically unpacks the methodologies that define how various theological
and legal thinkers relate to the Islamic tradition and its role and
relationship to the contemporary realities and challenges of the world today.
One of the truly valuable contributions of this book is the author’s analysis
of the epistemological, hermeneutical, and moral assumptions at the core and
foundations of the methodologies employed by the proponents of each orientation.
The author ably demonstrates the extent to which normative moral and
epistemological assumptions dramatically influence the methodologies of each
orientation and indeed, the very attitude and way that they understand,
conceptualize, and construct the Islamic tradition and its normative role in
the modern world.
Perhaps the most original and profound contribution of this
book is the author’s eye-opening analysis of the ways that the two main
orientations have contrasting conceptions or constructions of the prototypical
Muslim believer and of the normative commitments expected or anticipated from
such a believer. The author also convincingly demonstrates that the imagined
and constructed conceptions of “the Muslim believer” have a direct effect upon
the adoption of the normative assumptions at the heart of a particular
orientation’s methodology in dealing with and interacting with the text.
Indeed, this is the first systematic study to explore the intricate and
necessary relationship between the theological conception of the believer, as
the prototype for the pious and orthodox Muslim, and the methodologies per
which the religious text is understood and represented. This book is a must-read for students of
contemporary Muslim thought, and it is also a necessary study for readers
interested in the future of Islamic movements, institutions, and the
possibilities of reform.
But beyond the field of Islamic Studies, all readers
interested in questions of authenticity, legitimacy, and the construction of religious
meaning in the modern world will find the contributions of this work invaluable
for any comparative understanding of the role of religious texts in negotiating
between, on the one hand, the normative impact of tradition and history, and on
the other, the contingencies and imperatives of the present. As this book
powerfully demonstrates, stereotypical generalizations about the avowed
determinism of Islamic texts or the determinative role of revelation in Islam
are to say the least deeply problematic. Like other religious traditions
wrestling with the same issues, Muslims struggle to anchor themselves in a
perceived orthodoxy and authenticity as they confront and negotiate the
numerous challenges of modernity and post-modernity.
The Palgrave Series in Islamic
Theology, Law, and History endeavors to publish works that make truly original
and indispensable contributions to understanding the internal micro-discourses
and debates taking place within the Islamic tradition. This new study by the
gifted young scholar, Adis Duderija, substantially raises the bar for all
future studies dealing with the issues of fundamentalism, traditionalism,
reformism, and authenticity and progress in Muslim thought. One of the most
insightful and even startling contributions of this book is that it
analytically and rigorously interrogates the claims of various and disparate
Muslim participants that their thought and methodology authentically represents
the religious truth of Islam—the religious truth as embodied in the text of the
Qur’an and the oral traditions of the Prophet Muhammad. Upon reading this book,
no Muslim or non-Muslim researcher will be able to rest with the superficial
assumption that either the traditionalists or reformers are more genuinely anchored
in the textualist sources of Islam. In my opinion, what makes this book a
necessary read for any Muslim or non-Muslim interested in the future of Islam
and Muslims is that it convincingly demonstrates the pivotal importance of
scrutinizing the interpretive and constructive methodologies of Muslims
competing to represent Islamic authenticity. Employing a scholarly methodology
that is uncompromising in its objectivity, detachment, and rigor, Adis Duderija
demonstrates that there is a considerable gap between dogmatic perceptions of
legitimacy and authenticity, and the extent to which the methodologies employed
by neo-traditionalists and progressives actually reflect normativities inherent
or necessary to the religious foundational texts of Islam.
At the very least,
anyone reading this book will be forced to seriously re-examine their
understanding of the dynamics governing the relationship between critical
conceptual categories such as orthodoxy, authenticity, tradition, and progress.
The author of this book does not determine who authentically speaks for modern
Islam. But he does invite Muslims and non-Muslims alike to a serious critical
engagement with the value choices and coherence of various participants
claiming to represent Islamic normativities in the world today.
Khaled Abou El
Fadl Los Angeles, California April 2011
https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9780230120570
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