The ontological status of politics in Islam and the epistemology of Islamic revival
General Material Designation
[Thesis]
First Statement of Responsibility
Winkel, Eric Alexander
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
University of South Carolina
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
1988
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
369-369 p.
DISSERTATION (THESIS) NOTE
Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree
Ph.D.
Body granting the degree
University of South Carolina
Text preceding or following the note
1988
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
The study of Islamic revival poses special problems to the modern analyst of social change both because Islamic revivalists often make truth claims about Islam that are irreconcilable with modernism and because certain concepts in Islamic politics--such as "non-separation of church and state"--meet with tremendous resistance from modern political philosophy. The most sophisticated level of criticism for studying "alien" cultures--post-modernism--because it cannot allow certain Islamic assumptions, fails to bring a full appreciation of Islamic revival. The solution to this dilemma is in my thesis that mystic attempts in Islam to remove the veil correspond to the reduction of epistemologically distorting interests in post-modern criticism. We can coopt the tools of the post-modern critic, while remaining in the Weltanschauung of Islamic revivalists, and thus accomplish two things. First, we achieve a full understanding and appreciation of Islamic revival, and second we can turn the tables and arrive at a logical, systematic, and persuasive critique of post-modernism itself. This work examines classical Islamic revivalists who are sufis or who are influenced by sufism and sacred wisdom (), namely Ibn al-'Arabi, Abu Hamid Ghazali, Ibn Khaldun, and Shah Wali-Ullah. It then analyzes modern revivalists (who often borrow from these classical revivalists) such as 'Ali 'Abd ar-Raziq, Sayyid Qutb, Maulana Maududi, and Ayatallah Khumayni. The contrast between liberal ideology, which is central to some Western thought and some Islamic fundamentalist thought, and is brought out as a foil to the analysis of these revivalists.