272 Islam and Modernity
He claimed that the system was natural in its cosmic and human sense. He
expected Muslims to apprehend this overall vision of universality and totality.
The irony is that the universality of Islam drew its strength from the universals
of science, and the particular details were provided by the particulars in the
Islamic legacy.
The implication for identity construction is clear when we see the continu-
ity and discontinuity between reformist and Islamist approaches. The Islamists
depended on a universalistic construction of identity by claiming the rationality
and naturalness of Islam on one level. To this extent, the modern inspiration of
their constructions was derived from the reformers. But they also invested the
particulars with a universality that the reformists, positing the universal on a dif-
ferent level, wanted to change. Reformists embraced some aspects of historical
change, but Islamists demanded a full vision of history, at least from the time
of the Prophet Muhammad, that admitted no difference. Taking this position
meant that the reformists had to embark on a critique of existing Muslim society
and its past, while the Islamists resorted to a moral and subjective solution.
The Islamist solution for identity expected believers to comprehend Islam as a
natural system in its entirety. This conviction had to be grasped in Mawdudi’s
case, at least, in a mystical union with the Prophet (Adams 1976; Brown 1996).
But the individual was really trapped, since the scheme was confi ned to a total
vision. There was no redefi nition of Islam that matched the way that individu-
als would concede or strip away in order to be part of a broader society. The
natural order of Islam, as articulated by Mawdudi, was highly particularistic in
detail. The subjective comprehension was invested with the burden of persuad-
ing the believer to see this naturalism and this order in their minute details. In
general, this absoluteness has correctly been criticised for the totalitarianism
that it promised.
Traditionalism
The traditionalists’ position needs equal attention in order to make sense of the
sources of modern Muslim identities. A number of studies have pointed to the
varied reaction of the ulama towards change and modernisation (Keddie 1972;
Green 1976; Gilsenan 1990; Zubaida 1990). Careful attention to detail has
yielded insights into the subtle changes introduced in the traditionalist frame-
works. In spite of these differences, however, one can safely say that the major-
ity of the ulama could not see any valuable outcomes for Islam in the changes
proposed by colonial authorities, by Muslim reformers and by Islamists. From
the reforms that were attempted by eighteenth-century Ottoman Sultans to
British reforms in India, the ulama developed a rejectionist approach to innova-
tion. They were particularly vehement against religious innovations, but were
most often wary of changing formal aspects of everyday life as well. Theirs is