CHAPTER EIGHTTHE CRISIS OF MODERNISATION AND
ISLAMICISATION: FROM REFORM TO REVIVAL
(1800 A.C.–20TH CENTURY)Introduction
Whenever Muslims are in a state of despair they turn to their religion
for help and assistance. Throughout the history of Islam, religious
leaders emerge, invariably identifying the problems of Muslims as
being the result of their desertion of the correct path of their reli-
gion. To improve their conditions, the argument always goes, Muslims
have to return to the purity of Islam and apply its fundamental
teachings to their daily life. This has always been the case throughout
history from the time of the first schism in Islam over the caliphate,
Fitnah, to the time of the crushing defeat of the Egyptian, Syrian
and Jordanian armies by the Israelis in the 1967 six-day war. Calls
for religious reform did not go unopposed. The call for secularisa-
tion was equally strong though it was a call for a move in the oppo-
site direction. The effect these movements may have had on the
environment of the development of Islamic economic literature in
the twentieth century are outlined below.
Conveniently, our starting point is the late eighteenth century and
the movements are divided into three main categories: Traditional
movements, reconciling movements and secularised movements. For
the purpose of this classification, the traditional movement refers to
the call for the return to the Qur"àn and Sunnah in a strict man-
ner. Modernization ought not be imported at the sacrifice of Islamic
norms and ideals. Innovation in religious rules, in both sides of Sharì"ah,
ritual and societal, is not permissible and is regarded as bid"ah, and
every bid"ahis dhalalah, and every dhalalahis in Hell Fire. The second
movement is the reconciling movement which while confirming the
need for a return to the Islamic prime sources in the Qur"àn and
Sunnah, sees no harm in importing Western culture and knowledge
if it were for the general benefits of the community. The third group
argues that secularization is the way forward as it is imperative for the