Islamic Revivalism and Its Internal Critics in the Indo-Pak Subcontinent

Abstract

Recent scholarship on the practices of critique has unsettled the Eurocentric assumption that critique is something specific to and the hallmark of secular/Western societies. By implication, Muslim societies and their various religio-social trajectories by virtue of their location in traditional-religious environments are unable to develop critique. Based on TalÉl Asad’s, Saba Mahmood’s and others’ deviant approaches that question the validity of the stated thesis, this research focuses on an empirical example of dissident voices within and around MawdËdi’s ideology of political Islam (and Islamic state). The internal contestants challenged the internal logic, ideological premises of MawdËdi’s thought. The paper focuses on numerous examples in the sub-continental Muslim intellectual tradition, wherein the dominant narrative of political Islam in the modern Muslim world was challenged by a number of scholars who were once close believers’ in MawdËdi’s ideology of Islamic revival. Methodologically, the paper analyses a number of key texts by MawdËdi and his internal critics within the framework of TalÉl Asad and Saba Mahmood.