Book Review - Carool Kersten- Contemporary Thought in the Muslim World. Trends, Themes and Issues (Routledge 2019)

 

Book Review

Contemporary thought in the Muslim world: trends, themes, and issues

by Carool Kersten, London and New York, Routledge, 2019, 218 pp., £96 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-415-85507-5 

Reviewed by Dr. Adis Duderija, Griffith University

Kersten’s highly informative book comes closest to truly qualifying as providing a global overview of contemporary Muslim thought in both Muslim minority and majority contexts which is what it purports to do. This book leaves just about no stone left unturned when it comes to providing an overview of the intellectual landscape of contemporary Muslim thought. Of particular importance is the rare acknowledgment of the progressive Muslim thought as an independent and coherent intellectual category in its own right that this book review author has theorized on and discussed at length elsewhere for over a decade (Duderija 2011; Duderija 2017).  Also, unlike other studies on contemporary Muslim thought that usually are dominated by studies on scholars from the Middle East and South Asia or have either a Sunni or Shi’i focus, this book not only gives due consideration to the important ideas of academics and intellectuals across the major sectarian divide but also incorporates views from scholars based in Indonesia such as  Nurkolich Majid and Yudian Wahyudi and to a lesser extent those from Malayasia.

In the introduction the author explains that the book is syncretic rather than analytical in nature with the view of not only deconstructing the ideas of selected Muslim intellectuals but also aiming to “point out parallels and contrasts, differences and similarities between thinkers and their ideas, presenting a variety of themes and issues of interlocking concerns for contemporary Muslim intellectuals” (p.1).

The first chapter deals with the problem of taxonomy and categorizing contemporary Muslim intellectual thought. Kersten provides a useful overview of major current typologies and comes up with a conceptually fruitful (but somewhat reductive if approached from a sociological perspective) three-fold typology, namely: traditional, reactionary and progressive. The first category is associated with  mainstream taqlidi madhhab based approach whereas the second is associated with the neo ahl al hadith cum salafi camp. This review agrees that this typology is “at the same time broad and accurate enough to capture and characterize the enormous variety of ideas circulating in the Muslim world today” (p.3). Kersten correctly acknowledges that no typology can do justice to this bewildering variety. As noted above Kersten is to be commended for emphasizing the existence and discursive coherence behind the progressive Muslim category, a trend which is often overlooked in many works on contemporary Muslim thought. In this context Kersten provides a very useful genealogy and correctly identifies Muslim academics and intellectuals who can be placed into this category that largely corresponds to and expands on those identified by this reviewer (Duderija 2011; Duderija 2017). Furthermore, Kersten also, in this reviewer’s mind, correctly recognises  that the most innovative and creative thought is found in this camp and that female Muslim scholars are almost exclusively associated with it (pp.17-20).

The second chapter is titled “The Philosophies of Knowledge- Transmission and Reason” and focuses on the question of and various approaches to epistemology in contemporary Muslim thought that has been historically dominated by Islamic disciplines of usul ul fiqh and fiqh. The author adopts Al-Jabiri’s threefold typology (bayani, ‘irfani and burhani) to describe these various approaches. Kersten places the emphasis on the ideas of the heritage thinkers of Al-Jabiri (d.2010) , Hassan Hanafi (d.2021), Muhammed Arkoun (d.2010) and Abu Zayd ( d.2010) which all could be seen as proponents of the burhani epistemology (associated in classical Islam  with Ibn Rushd d.1198 CE). Moreover, in his survey Kersten discusses the ideas of scholars associated the Ankara School of Theology as well as the so-called New Intellectuals in Iran. He also includes a discussion on rationalist approaches to Islamic philosophical spirituality ( ihsan) as discussed by Khaled Abou El Fadl ( as encapsulated in  his idea of God’s Beauty (husn)  to be employed  as a hermeneutical lens through which to correctly understand not only Islamic ontology but also epistemology).

The third chapter carries the title of “Scripture-Alternative Ways of Engaging with the Qur’an”. Here the focus is on explaining non-mainstream  approaches to Qur’anic interpretation associated with contextualist hermeneutics developed by Abdullah Saeed, literary approaches adopted by Amin Al-Khuli ( d.1966) and his student Abu Zayd , contemporary  scriptural hermeneutics-informed ideas  developed by Farid Esack,  ‘feminist’  tafsir of amina wadud (whose method like that of Saeed has been greatly influenced by the great modernist of the 20^th century  Fazrul Rahman (d.1988)) , the somewhat ‘eccentric’ approach of the Syrian engineer Muhammad Shahrur  ( d.2019) , the Sudanese scholar Mahmoud Taha ( d.1985)- who was executed by the Sudanese regime of that time for his idea on Qur’anic interpretation- as well as the ideas of the Shi’i cleric Shabestari  and the Iranian intellectual living in exile in America, Abdolkarim Soroush.

“Spiritual Dimension of Contemporary Muslim Thought” is the title of the fourth chapter that focuses on and approaches Islamic spirituality(tasawwuf), known in the west as Sufism, from the perspective of psychology, literature and Islamisation of knowledge perspectives. In concert with other chapters, and keeping with the book’s broad scope, Kersten here not only provides brief historical description of the development of tasawwuf  but also discusses  the ideas of a wide number of Muslim scholars  writing on the topic from very different perspectives including the ideas of such as Syed Hossein Nasr , Ziauddin Sardar, Nurkolish Majid ( d.2005), Osman Bakar ,Naquib Al-Attas,  Al-Taftazani and many others including scholars from Turkey and Indonesia.

 

The fifth chapter focus on Islam and Politics and ideas of secularity, freedom and democracy. Kersten, in this respect, rightly emphasizes the organic link between epistemology, theology and political ideas in contemporary Muslim thought. He identifies and groups two approaches with respect to conceptualizing the relationship between religion and politics into conflationists and de-conflationists ( p. 103) the latter of whom advocate a minimalist influence of religion in politics. The chapter focuses primarily on the ideas of deconflationists from across the Muslim world including Iran, Indonesia, Turkey, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and western Muslim intellectuals such as Tariq Ramadan and Bassam Tibi.

 

Chapter six has its focus on Shari’a in the context of Muslim scholars’ debates on its nature and whether this concept should be conceptualized as a broad ethical guide or a specific and fixed Islamic legal system. Among others, Kersten discusses the concept of maqasid al shari’a as playing an important role in these discussions. Again, consistent with his overall broad-based approach, he incorporates the views of many scholars writing on the nature of the concept of Shari’a such as Khaled Abou El Fadl, Hashim Kamali and Jasser Auda but crucially also incorporates the less well-known views of scholars from Indonesia such as Yudian Wahyudi. Kersten also includes in this chapter a discussion on new jurisprudence for Muslim minorities (al- fiqh al aqalliyyat) as developed by scholars such as taha Jabir Al-Alwani (d.2016), Yusuf Al-Qaradawi and Tariq Ramadan.

 

Chapter seven is titled “Dealing with Difference and Plurality-Emancipation, Toleration and Human Rights”. The chapter is based on the assumption, correct in my view,  that Muslim attitudes toward women, gender equality and religious plurality should be all linked to and subsumed under, for conceptual and analytical purposes, to discussions on modern human rights (p.149). Kersten here discusses Muslim feminist writers and scholars from the 20^th and 21^st centuries including male pioneers of Muslim women emancipation such as Qasim Amin (d.1908) and Tahir Al-Haddad (d.1935) as well as contemporary scholars such as amina wadud, Ziba-Mir Hosseini, Asma Amrabat, and Sadiyya Shaikh. In relation to religious pluralism, Kersten discusses the ideas of Norcholish Majid (and some of his high-profile students) and Farid Esack. With respect to intersections and conceptual relationship between modern human right schemes and Islamic law Kersten incorporates   the views of Ali Bulac, Abdullahi An’Naim, Mohsen Kadivar, Al-Jabiri , Soroush and Khaled Abou El Fadl who all advocate for the possibility of reconciling the two human rights traditions.

 

The final chapter eight carries the title “Issues of the twenty -First century -Globalisation, Ecology and Medial Ethics”. Faithful to its overall approach and structure, Kersten provides an informative overview of major Muslim contemporary scholars writing on the issues pertaining to globalization ( e.g. Sadiq Al-Azm (d.2016), Hassan Hanafi, Syed Hussein Alatas ( d.2007), Ali Bulac and Muhammad Arkoun), ecology ( Syed Hussein Nasr and other less well known scholars) and medical ethics/bioethics ( Ebrahim Moosa and Omar Haque).

Now to some minor criticisms. With respect to Malaysia in the context of the chapter six on shari’a more attention should have been given to the ideas of Hashim Kamali on tajdid, Islam Hadhari, and maqasid as shari’a as he has been writing on these themes for close to four decades contributing significant novel and original insights on these issues. Moreover, the important ideas of Ebrahim Moosa on Shari’a as an intellectual enterprise in Islamic ethics warranted inclusion in this chapter as well. In the western Muslim context with respect to the relationship between Islam and politics, Kersten does not mention the concept of fiqh al al-aqlliyyat which would have been more logical compared to chapter seven in which concept is briefly discussed. Moreover, the important ideas of Nader Hashmi and Ali Abkar on compatibility of Islam with religious secularity should have been discussed in this chapter.  On the question of the intersection between Islamic and natural law in chapter seven dealing with difference and plurality, the significant ideas of Anwar Emon from University of Toronto deserved at least a mention. In the eight chapter on the concept of Islamic medical and bioethics important work being done by scholars associated with the Centre for Islamic Law and Ethics (CILE) in Qatar such as Muhammad Ghaly and Mu’taz Al-Khattib should have been included and in the context of globalization important insights by Abdenor Prado and Samir Amin (d.2018) deserved at least a mention.

Another more significant lacuna that needed filling would be in the field of contemporary Hadith and Sunna studies, particularly important works of progressive minded Muslim scholars such as Javed Ghamidi, Faqihuddin Abdolkodir ,Sadiyya Sheikh, Nimet Barazangi and myself who have been revising the concept of sunna and have provided creative and original  ideas with respect to classical hadith sciences with specific reference to reform/renewal Muslim family laws. The omission of inclusion of the ideas of scholars from western Balkans such as that of Enes Karic and Ahmet Alibasic who do write in English is also a setback. Finally, the absence of a conclusion is rather curious and is a missed opportunity for the author to reinforce the interlocking of the themes discussed in the book and perhaps look into the future developments when it comes to likely developments in contemporary Muslim thought.

Overall, however, I would highly recommend this book to upper level undergraduate students in the broad field of Islamic Studies onward and anyone who is interested in contemporary Muslim thought, especially  the progressive trend where, according to both the author and this book reviewer, the most creative and innovative thought in contemporary Muslim thought  is to be found.