The Shifting Politics of Identity 273a vision of past historical completeness and contemporary decadence. Thus,
scholars debated on the introduction of the radio, loudspeakers and other tech-
nologies into the societies in general, and into religious practices in particular.
A more careful examination of their arguments on these issues will highlight
their approach, and their contribution to identity. Below, an examination of a
prominent religious scholar in Pakistan will present the alternative to reformists
and Islamists.
Mufti Muhammad Shafi (1897–1976) was one of the leading scholars of
Deoband of South Asia. The fi rst such school was founded in 1867 in the town
of Deoband in the aftermath of the Indian Mutiny (1857) when the British took
full control of India. The scholars of Deoband founded the school to preserve
and propagate the teachings of Islam in this new political climate. The model of
Deoband was quickly duplicated in other towns and villages throughout India.
Metcalf’s studies have left us with great insights into the history and political
impact of the Deoband. She has identifi ed it with religious revivalism, in con-
trast with even more traditionalist approaches in India. In this sense, one might
think of Deobandi revivalism as a form of tajdid, which self-consciously keeps
modernity at bay, but engages in a renewal modelled on earlier Islamic pat-
terns. Deobandi revivalism, however, was not resistant to all changes. Metcalf
(1978, 1982, 1995) has shown how the school was open to institutional and
organisational changes, which helped it to thrive in the modern contexts. But
traditionalists keep themselves aloof from the kind of reformist approaches that
I have discussed, as well as from the modernist references that mark Islamist
discourses.
Mufti Muhammad Shafi moved to Pakistan immediately after partition. He
established a Dar al-Ulum in Karachi, and played a leading role in the early dis-
cussions on the Pakistani state. He has written extensively on a variety of issues,
and is the author of a voluminous commentary on the Quran. A review of
several key fatwas on some crucial aspects of modern societies illustrates the value
of his ideas for identity. The Deoband approach included a grave resistance to
change and innovation, and Mufti Shafi ’s fatwa on the introduction of technol-
ogy in Islamic ritual helps to clarify this point. He was asked if the installation
and use of loudspeakers in mosques for the call to prayer, sermons, recitation
of the Quran and the prayer worship (salat) were permissible. In his response,
the mufti distinguished between a religious obligation and its particular form.
Sometimes, he asserted, the form was indistinguishable from the obligation.
While he admitted that some formal changes could be acceptable for certain
religious obligations, the introduction of a loudspeaker into mosques and into
the various forms of daily worship would not be one of them. Through a care-
fully crafted argument, in which he weighed the benefi ts and injuries of using
technologically amplifi ed sound, he eventually cautioned against its use. His
main argument was that Islamic practice should remain simple, unencumbered