Can Traditional Islamic Theology Still Explain the World We Live In?

 

Can Traditional Islamic Theology Still Explain the World We Live In?

 

Adis Duderija

 

 

Many Muslims sense that something is no longer working.

The problem is not Islam itself. The problem is that some of the theological frameworks through which Islam has been interpreted struggle to account for the world we actually inhabit.

This has become increasingly apparent in discussions of religious diversity, divine providence, human freedom, and salvation. Few recent scholars have articulated these difficulties more clearly than Imran Aijaz, whose critique of traditional Islamic theism deserves serious attention, whether or not one ultimately accepts all of his conclusions.

His arguments strike at the heart of some of the most deeply embedded assumptions in traditional Sunni theology.

And they point toward the urgent need for a new Islamic ontology and theology grounded in process-relational thought.

The Crisis of Plausibility

Aijaz’s central claim is remarkably simple.

Traditional Islamic theology often assumes that the truth of tawḥīd is universally evident, that all human beings possess knowledge of its truth, and that non-Muslims ultimately reject this truth knowingly and culpably. Consequently, those who reject it face divine punishment while those who affirm it receive salvation.

Historically, this framework made sense within a premodern worldview. Many theologians assumed that revelation, reason, and creation all pointed unambiguously toward the same theological conclusions.

But does this picture describe the world we actually see?

Aijaz argues that it does not.

Billions of people throughout history have never believed that Islamic tawḥīd  ( however differently interpreted even within the Islamic tradition itself)  is true. Many have examined Islamic claims carefully and sincerely yet remained unconvinced. Others have devoted themselves to moral and spiritual lives within different religious traditions. The claim that all such people secretly know Islam is true but deliberately reject it appears increasingly implausible.

The challenge here is not merely emotional.

It is empirical.

We know too much about humanity to sustain such a view.

Most Muslims today personally know non-Muslims whose lives exhibit intellectual honesty, moral integrity, compassion, and genuine spirituality. These individuals do not resemble the conscious truth-rejecters envisioned in many classical theological accounts. They appear instead to be people responding conscientiously to the religious and intellectual resources available to them.

The world itself exposes the inadequacy of traditional assumptions.

Religious Diversity Cannot Be Explained Away

The modern world confronts Muslims with a reality that classical theology never fully anticipated: enduring religious pluralism.

Religious diversity is not simply a temporary state arising from ignorance. It is a permanent feature of human existence.

People inhabit different cultures, historical contexts, linguistic worlds, and intellectual traditions. Their encounters with ultimate reality are mediated through these circumstances.

Yet traditional theological models often continue to operate as though religious truth were so self-evident that non-acceptance could only be explained through obstinacy or willful rebellion.

Aijaz correctly identifies the implausibility of this position.

A Cambodian Buddhist, a Japanese Shinto practitioner, a Norwegian secular humanist, and an Australian Christian are not merely Muslims in denial. They inhabit entirely different worlds of meaning and experience.

To explain their beliefs primarily in terms of culpable rejection is sociologically naïve, psychologically implausible, and theologically unsatisfying.

The modern study of religion has made such explanations increasingly untenable.

The Problem of an Unambiguous Providence

Aijaz’s critique extends beyond religious diversity.

He argues that traditional Islamic theology often presupposes a providentially unambiguous universe. God has supposedly arranged reality such that the truth of tawḥīd is evident to all rational persons.

Yet the world appears strikingly different.

Religious evidence is interpreted differently by different people.

The same phenomena generate belief for some and skepticism for others.

Scientific discoveries inspire faith in certain individuals and unbelief in others.

Theological disagreement exists not only between religions but within them.

Human beings encounter ambiguity everywhere.

This observation is difficult to deny.

The modern world is not characterized by universal certainty but by competing interpretations of reality.

Traditional theology frequently treats such ambiguity as a defect in human perception.

Aijaz invites us to consider a more radical possibility: perhaps ambiguity is part of reality itself.

Perhaps God has created a world in which certainty is not imposed.

If so, entirely new theological possibilities emerge.

The Moral Crisis of Traditional Eschatology

Aijaz’s strongest arguments concern hell.

Classical Islamic theology has often maintained that many non-Muslims will experience eternal punishment.

Regardless of the various qualifications theologians have introduced over the centuries, the basic structure remains deeply problematic.

The issue is not simply whether eternal punishment is emotionally difficult.

The issue is whether it coheres with our most fundamental moral intuitions and with the Qur’anic emphasis on divine mercy.

If billions of sincere human beings fail to accept Islam because they genuinely remain unconvinced, can eternal punishment really be just?

Aijaz argues persuasively that this traditional model creates profound tensions between divine justice, divine mercy, and observable human reality.

Many Muslims already live as though they recognize this tension.

They cannot easily imagine their loving parents, friends, colleagues, spouses, or children being eternally condemned simply because they belonged to other religious traditions.

The moral imagination rebels against such conclusions.

Perhaps that rebellion is itself instructive.

Why Process Theology Matters

This is where process-relational thought becomes indispensable. Process theology begins with a different ontology. Reality is not composed of fixed substances governed through unilateral divine control. Reality is relational, dynamic, and continuously becoming. God does not dominate the world through coercive power. God works persuasively within it.

This shift changes everything.

Religious diversity no longer appears as a failure of divine revelation. It becomes a natural consequence of finite beings encountering the infinite from diverse historical and cultural perspectives. Religious ambiguity no longer appears as an embarrassing problem. It becomes an inevitable feature of genuine freedom and authentic relationship. Human beings do not respond to overwhelming divine certainty. They respond to divine invitation.

Toward a Process-Relational Islamic Vision

A process-relational Islamic theology takes the Qur’an’s emphasis on divine mercy, relationality, and continuous creation with full seriousness.

It understands revelation as dynamic rather than static.

It understands divine power as persuasive rather than coercive.

It understands human beings as genuine participants in the unfolding of reality.

Most importantly, it recognizes that God relates to a world characterized by plurality, contingency, emergence, and freedom.

Such a theology is not a capitulation to modernity.

It is a recognition that theology must be accountable to reality.

Aijaz has correctly diagnosed many of the central shortcomings of traditional Islamic theism: its implausible account of religious diversity, its unrealistic doctrine of providential certainty, and its morally troubling understanding of salvation and damnation.

The challenge now is not merely to criticize.

It is to build.

Developing a process-relational Islamic ontology and theology offers one of the most promising ways forward. It allows Muslims to remain deeply rooted in the Qur’anic vision while simultaneously engaging honestly with what we know about the world, human diversity, and the nature of religious experience.

The future of Islamic thought may depend on whether Muslims can move beyond metaphysical systems built for the medieval world and develop theological frameworks capable of speaking convincingly to the realities of the twenty-first century.

A process-relational Islam is not the abandonment of tradition.

It may well be its most creative renewal.

 

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