Ummah Or Nation? Identity Crisis in Contemporary Muslim Society (book)

Ummah or Nation? Identity Crisis in Contemporary Muslim Society is a 1992 book by Abdullah al-Ahsan, a Pakistani historian and professor of Political Science and International Relations at Istanbul Şehir University (Wikipedia, 2026). The work examines the tension between Islamic universalism and modern nationalism in post-colonial Muslim societies, arguing that competing claims of loyalty to the ummah (global Muslim community) and to the nation-state have produced an identity crisis (Voll, 1993).

Summary

The book opens with a conceptual analysis of the Qur'anic term ummah and its historical development in Islamic civilization. Al-Ahsan then traces the rise of nationalism in the modern world, focusing on the colonial experiences of Turkey, Egypt, and South Asia. He argues that nationalist movements in these regions adopted secular frameworks as a strategy of resistance against European colonialism, inadvertently marginalizing Islamic universalist ideas (Al-Ahsan, 1992).

According to al-Ahsan, the problematic relationship between European secular thought and traditional Islamic ideas has created a crisis of "supreme loyalty" in contemporary Muslim societies. This crisis is not merely the coexistence of multiple identities—which he considers natural—but rather a conflict over which identity claims ultimate allegiance (Voll, 1993). For a supreme loyalty to be successful, al-Ahsan writes, it should "be strong enough to generate a sense of unity among its adherents and at the same time be flexible enough to accommodate other identities within its fold" (Al-Ahsan, 1992, p. 126).

The book concludes with a case study of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which al-Ahsan describes as an entity trapped between its aspiration to represent the ummah and its structural reality as an organization of competing nation-states (Voll, 1993).

Major themes

Al-Ahsan's central thesis is that the identity crisis in Muslim societies stems from the inauthentic origin of nationalism in the Islamic world. Unlike Europe, where nationalism emerged from internal secularizing processes, nationalism in Muslim-majority countries was largely imported as a colonial-era reaction. This explains, in his view, why Islam has "returned" as a potent political and social force following the failures of post-independence nationalist elites (Al-Ahsan, 1992).

The author also examines the distinction between the ummah as a flexible spiritual ideal and nationalism as a rigid political construct. He suggests that the ummah concept has the capacity to accommodate diverse local identities, whereas nation-state nationalism tends to demand exclusive loyalty (Voll, 1993).

Reception

In a review published in the American Journal of Islam and Society, historian John Obert Voll described the book as "an important contribution to the explanation and understanding" of interactions between Islamic and Western worldviews (Voll, 1993, p. 553). Voll praised al-Ahsan's analysis of the OIC as "both a potentially ummatic entity and an organization of nation-states" (Voll, 1993, p. 554).

The book has been translated into Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian, Turkish, and Urdu (Wikipedia, 2026).

Publication details

Title: Ummah or Nation? Identity Crisis in Contemporary Muslim Society
Author: Abdullah al-Ahsan
Publisher: The Islamic Foundation (Leicester, United Kingdom)
Year: 1992 (1413 AH)
ISBN: 978-0860372202
Pages: 158

References

References

Al-Ahsan, A. (1992). Ummah or nation? Identity crisis in contemporary Muslim society. The Islamic Foundation.

Voll, J. O. (1993). [Review of the book Ummah or nation? Identity crisis in contemporary Muslim society, by A. Al-Ahsan]. American Journal of Islam and Society, 10(4), 553–554. https://doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v10i4.2478

Wikipedia. (2026). Abdullah al-Ahsan. In Wikipedia. Retrieved May 17, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_al-Ahsan