Islamic Tradition and Meanings of Modernity

Research output

Complete citation

Poljarević, Emin. “Islamic Tradition and Meanings of Modernity.” International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity 3, no. 1 (2015): 29–57. https://doi.org/10.18352/HCM.475.

Status

Published (2015)

Publication type

Peer-reviewed journal article

Overview

This article revisits the longstanding debate about the compatibility of Islamic tradition and modernity by asking what “modernity” means in the first place. It analyses three influential interventions concerned with Arab reason, Islamic reform, and the modern state: works by Muhammad Abed al-Jabri, Wael B. Hallaq, and Samira Haj. Rather than treating modernity as a single, neutral standard against which Islam must be measured, the article shows that its meanings are contested and embedded in competing moral, intellectual, and political projects. Islamic tradition likewise appears not as a static inheritance but as an internally differentiated field of argument and practice. The article contributes a comparative conceptual reading that clarifies how claims about reason, reform, authority, and liberation shape contemporary understandings of Islam and modernity.

Research question or central concern

How do competing meanings of modernity shape the interpretation of Islamic tradition, reform, reason, and political authority?

Main argument, approach, and contribution

Through comparative analysis of al-Jabri, Hallaq, and Haj, the article treats both tradition and modernity as contested concepts rather than fixed opposites. It argues that debates over Islam’s compatibility with modernity often conceal normative assumptions about reason, freedom, and political order. The contribution is a clearer conceptual map of these competing intellectual projects.

Keywords

Islamic tradition; modernity; reform; Arab reason; Islamic state; Wael Hallaq; Samira Haj; Muhammad Abed al-Jabri