The Challenges of Modernity: The Ulama and Authority of Religious Knowledge in Islam

Muhammad Qasim Zaman

[Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics, c 2002]
"In general terms, it is a combination of their intellectual formation, their vocation, and crucially, their orientation, a certain sense of continuity with Islamic tradition that defines Ulama as Ulama; and it is this sense of continuity that constitutes the most significant difference between them and their modernist and Islamist detractors."

The challenges of modernity have hit the ulema hard. Mass higher education and impact of print and other media have made deep inroads into the ulama's privileged access to authoritative religious knowledge, even as the "reflexivity" of modernity i.e the need to constantly adapt existing forms of knowledge, institutions and social relations to relentless flow of information poses severe challenges to the credibility of their discourses.

The modern bureaucratic state seeks to bring all areas of life under its regulation. And the transformative forces of global capitalism grow ever more relentless in undermining culturally rooted identities and social relations. How have the Ulema responded to these challenges, to the fragmentation of their authority, to the rapidly changing world around them?

The religiopolitical activism of the college – and university educated, the professionals and the urban bourgeoisie – the "Islamists" as they are often called – has now come to receive extensive attention: and thanks to the leadership of the Iranian revolution of 1979, so have the Shi'a Ulema. These "Islamists" are typically also products of modern, secular educational institutions…but are drawn to initiatives aimed at radically altering the contours of their societies and states through the public implementation of norms they take as truly Islamic.

The modernist project is guided by the assurance that once retrieved through a fresh but "authentic" reading of the foundational texts, and especially of the Quran, the teachings to Islam would appear manifestly in concord with the positions recommended by liberal rationalism.

Modernists and Islamists differ…what is shared is that one certainly does not need the ulama to interpret Islam to the ordinary believers. That authority belongs to everyone and to no one in particular.

In general terms, it is a combination of their intellectual formation, their vocation, and crucially, their orientation, a certain sense of continuity with Islamic tradition that defines Ulama as Ulama; and it is this sense of continuity that constitutes the most significant difference between them and their modernist and Islamist detractors.

Their larger claim on our attention lies in the ways in which they have mobilized this tradition to define issues of religious identity and authority in the public sphere and to articulate changing roles for themselves in contemporary Muslim politics.

Excerpts from: The ulama in contemporary Islam: custodians of change, Princeton University Press, 2002

Muhammad Qasim Zaman is the Robert H. Niehaus ’77 Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Religion at Princeton University, a position he has held since 2006. Prior to coming to Princeton, he taught at Brown University from 1997 to 2006. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Humanities Center, the Institute for Advanced Study, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. He has been awarded a fellowship by the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, to examine various aspects of Islam in Pakistan in their interrelationship and their varied contexts. http://www.princeton.edu/~nes/faculty_zaman.html

The Idea Behind 'Intermediation' in Islam

Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri

Intermediation is a twofold act: on the one hand, it acknowledges the humility and helplessness of the creature who has a pressing need to be fulfilled; on the other hand, it asserts the superiority of an act which has been hallowed by divine sanction, or of a personage who enjoys divine approval through a series of noble deeds. 


The idea behind intermediation is not to vitiate or supplant divine authority but to facilitate the acceptance of human needs through the act of prayer. Thus the act of intermediation involves a sliding-scale of graded functions: at the bottom is the humble creature who hopes for a favourable divine response; in the middle is the sanctified act or the personage who has developed closer affiliation with God through meditation, prayer and human service and at the top is God Himself Who Alone possesses the power to grant the prayer.

The concept does not imply that the intermediary will grant the prayer or that he will pressurize God to grant the prayer of an individual or condone his sins. This is an egregious misconception, which haunts the minds of a number of people. In fact, the prayee believes that when he mediates his prayer through divinely blessed persons, after positing his own helplessness and after articulating the praise of God, He will fulfill his need as a token of courtesy to the intermediary. He does not even have the creeping notion that the intermediary is a partner in divinity.

It is, therefore, vitally significant to grasp the reality of intermediation to obviate any misunderstanding, especially on the part of those who are prone to interpreting it in a characteristically un-Islamic sense.

It should be understood at the very outset that intermediation is only a form of prayer to be answered by God Alone. The intermediary is only a medium who serves as a means to activate the process of its fulfillment.

Besides, it is not necessary that mediation alone should serve as a guarantee for the realization of prayer, because Allah says:

And (O beloved,) when My servants ask

you about Me, (tell them,) “I am Near.”1

(O beloved,) say, “Call upon Allah or

call upon ar-Rahmān (the most Merciful), by

whichever name you call on Him, His are

the most beautiful names.”2

No one can dictate to Him, we can only beseech Him. It is only an expression of His infinite mercy that he has upscaled some of His creatures on the grounds of their love and obedience and turned them into agents of redemption for millions of ordinary people who, without their mediation, might have drifted in sheer hopelessness and frustration. This is an indirect divine recognition of their services that God puts a positive spin on whatever is associated with them. It is for the same reason that sacred places and objects are offered as means. The purpose is to boost human expectation for the divine reprieve.

Read full book: The Concept of Intermediation

http://www.minhajbooks.com/images-books/tawassul-en/tawassul-en_1.pdf

His Views on Terrorism & Foreign Policy of Pakistan (Feb 2010/ARY)



BIOGRAPHY Professor Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri:

Professor Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri earned his MA in Islamic Studies in 1972 with the University of the Punjab Gold Medal, achieved his LLB in 1974 and began to practise as a lawyer in the district courts of Jhang, Pakistan. He moved to Lahore in 1978 and joined the University of the Punjab as a lecturer in law and completed his doctorate in Islamic Law.  He also held the position of the Head of the Department for LLM in Islamic Legislation.

He is the founding leader of Minhaj-ul-Qur’an International (MQI), an organization with branches and centres in more than 90 countries around the globe, working for the promotion of peace and harmony between communities and the revival of spiritual endeavour based on the true teachings of Islam.

Dr Tahir ul Qadri is a prolific author and researcher. He has authored around 1000 books out of which 360 books are already published, and the rest of the 640 are yet to be published. An unrivalled orator and speaker, he has delivered over 5000 lectures (in Urdu, English and Arabic), on a wide range of subjects.

Courtesy:

http://www.minhaj.org/english/tid/8718/A-Profile-of-Shaykh-ul-Islam-Dr-Muhammad-Tahir-ul-Qadri.html