Religion, Modernization and the Islamic Ummah: Difference between revisions

This is a paper by Riaz Hassan which explores the impact of modernization and social change on the Islamic ummah (community of believers)  and how they are shaping the emerging struggle between ‘hybridity’ and ‘authenticity’ among Muslims and Islamic movements. The paper will explore the challenges of this struggle and its sociological implications for the ‘de-centering’ of the Muslim world into multiple autonomous regions. I argue that the future of the Muslim ummah may gain strength not as a unified and unitary community, but as a differentiated community consisting of ummahs representing different Islamic regions. Each regional ummah will possess and embody a unique character that has been moulded by the history and temperament of its people. The paper will conclude with some observations on the future religious, intellectual, economic and political trajectories of Muslim countries.

The concept of ummah has inspired the imagination of Muslims, especially Muslim intellectuals, from the very early days of Islamic beginning. The term ummah appears over sixty times in the Quran, where it has multiple and diverse meanings ranging from followers of a prophet, or of a divine plan of salvation, to a religious group, a small group within a larger community of believers, misguided people and an order of being. From its numerous and, sometimes, vague meanings in the early days of Islam, it came to symbolize and embody the very   notion   of   an  Islamic  community,  gradually  acquiring  socio-legal  and  religious  connotations. Sociologically, ummah became a transformative concept in the sense that it played a significant role changing, first, the Arab tribes into an Arab community and, later, as Islam began to expand to non Arab lands, different groups of Muslims into a community of believers.