Muslim Identities and Modernity

The Transformation of Egyptian Culture, Thought and Literature

Maha Habib

• Editorial: I.B. Tauris
• Año: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780857729989
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Literatura
• Categoría: Colecciones literarias de Oriente Medio

What have the concepts of modernity and secularization meant for Islamic tradition, culture and society? How have the discourses which surround all of these issues influenced Muslim self-perception and individual identity? There have been many attempts to describe and analyse the encounter between Islam and modernity in the Middle East, but few have been able so effectively to explore the impact this has on the idea and reality of religious identity and individual religiosity. Maha F. Habib examines modernity from this angle, offering socio-cultural, philosophical and literary perspectives. She assesses how this is played out in Egypt, analysing cultural changes in the country through its intellectual thought and literature, from the nineteenth century to the present day. Her references to the works of Muhammad Abdu, Muhammad Husayn Haykal, 'Abbas Mahmud al-'Aqqad, Naguib Mahfouz, Alaa al-Aswany and Salwa Bakr reveal contemporary issues and concerns which will interest those researching the cultural and social milieu of modern Egypt.

PART 1

SECULARIZATION, ISLAM AND THE PREDICAMENT OF IDENTITY

Introduction

Islam has, throughout its history, played a pivotal role in the lives of its adherents. Islam's significance for its adherents stems from and is informed by it as ‘a doctrine’, a system of discipline and ritual, and ‘a system of social ethics and practices’.¹ Throughout Islamic history, Islam has undergone significant reformation efforts as was socially and culturally perceived to be necessary from within its community. However, with the advent of colonialism, the introduction of the concept of the nation state, and the ushering in of the age of modernity, the form and structure of such reformation was much informed by the relationship of Islam and its adherents to the ‘other’ (the West) and its knowledge systems. Islam has since been confronted with the question of its own validity, from inside and outside the community of adherents. The struggle with the place of religion, the place of the sacred, has played out through the history of Islam within Egypt, at times expanding, at others withdrawing, as it dealt with political, social and cultural forces. This has presented and continues to present its adherents with a dilemma of identity: a constant shifting, manipulating, rejecting and reforming of religious symbols and meaning and further knowledge systems within Islam – an attempt to deal with the state of (post)coloniality, and the project of modernity.

Most Middle Eastern societies, after the end of the Ottoman Empire, have suffered fundamental problems over national identity, Muslim identity, and ways in which to compromise, comprise and live the ‘self’ in a ‘modern’ Middle East. The colonial experience has wrought unprecedented change, disruption and chaos to the Middle East: the society, the culture. With the advent of colonialism in Egypt, religion and religious institutions increasingly began to be situated within the peripheries of social, cultural and political thought. Al-Azhar, as a centre for religious learning, among many other religious centres within Egypt, became a target of criticism and reform; its position as a key representational body and a centre of learning was both threatened and attacked. This threat was directed not only at al-Azhar as a religious institution of religious learning and knowledge, but also at the ‘ulamā’, as figures of authority. During the reign of Mohammed Ali, and later the British administration (represented by Lord Cromer) the subsequent efforts at reform changed the nature of religion as understood and practised by the community of adherents within Egypt.² Al-Azhar, and, de facto, religious institutions were decentralized as centres of knowledge, learning and authority. Other centres were introduced and other points of reference gained currency.

Western systems of thought, based on Enlightenment principles of the primacy of scientific empiricism, rationality, individualism, freedom and, by extension, constitutional rights, gained and received an increasing level of interest, attention and focus for the intelligentsia of the time. Colonialists, nationalists and Islamic modernists all attempted to re-frame the sacred, all having a great and effectual role in knowledge creation and representation of and about Islam, its doctrine, its system of codes and ethics, and its practice. For colonialists, Islam provided faith in tribal and uncivilized forms of ethics and practices. For nationalists, it was only a part, at times expressed as an inconsequential part, of a nation's (Egypt) expression of identity, history and culture, and thus, of no direct and necessary bearing on social and political thought and organization. For Islamic modernists, it was the key to understanding the world and the basis for understanding, tackling and dealing with all issues of concern in Egypt.

The postcolonial period has meant an extension and further expansion of colonialism and the dilemmas it has inflicted on Middle Eastern societies. In the case of Egyptian society, the peoples of Egypt did not so much move beyond colonialism, rather, they have continuously attempted to deal with the chaos, the disarray and madness of colonial invasion of the societies, lives and identities of its peoples. Central to this struggle is the rewriting of historiographical narratives as attempts to legitimize relationships of proximity to the West; these are relationships of either closeness or distance, in terms of social, cultural, political, scientific and religious thought. They are attempts at gaining and acquiring a sense of validity, and acquiring a movement forward towards globally established conceptions of civilization, development and progress. This struggle is a crisis of how to deal with the project of ‘modernity’ on an individual and social level. Though colonized people (most often) respond to colonial legacy by writing back to the centre, writing back to the Empire, the struggle for Egyptian society was that at the crux of this response was writing back to the self. This act of writing to the self has taken the form of consistent and continual self-reflection and criticism that simultaneously addresses cultural meaning and self-perception, and colonial perspectives on the self. Thus it serves to address social and cultural concerns, and responds to perception and meaning emanating from the Empire. Egyptian society is continuously struggling with the place of the sacred; various religious traditions have provided the ‘self’ ways in which to deal with and respond to the polarities of religion and secularism, tradition and modernity. Furthermore, there is the struggle to find a place for the sacred in the face of (Western conceptions of) rationalism, liberalism and secularist thought, while struggling to contain/maintain a coherent, consistent Islamic ‘thought’, in the broadest sense of the word.

During the periods of reform of the nineteenth century, Islamic reformers, in the face of threat to Islam, attempted to validate it and express its centrality as a doctrine, a system of social ethics and practice, and as the basis for social and political organization. They also attempted to prove its congruity with rationalism. These efforts emulated the conviction that Islam has a vital role in Egyptian society and is of crucial importance to Muslim life. However, after World War II, the Islamic order experienced an increasingly regressive role in social and national politics, as there was scepticism about Islam's ability to theoretically and practically provide development and progress in the modern period (1900–30s). Some thinkers began to emphasize and glamorize the Pharaonic heritage of Egypt; others attempted to link Egypt to the historical development of the West, while others insisted on a shared history and culture of Arab peoples of which Egypt and Egyptians are attested to be a part. The position of the ‘ulamā’ became increasingly ambivalent as secularist politics became the dominant ideology (1950s–Mubarak era). Islam began to be increasingly re-framed; it was no longer being characterized as a religious norm that is binding in nature based on Divine law, but rather, as an ethical code. The perspective from which to understand Islam shifted.

Despite these variations in thought, it would be false to assume that, as a part of historical development, secularism will replace religion in an irreversible evolutionary process – the Islamic tradition consistently plays a vital and defensive role in the lives of Muslims in Egypt. It has across history been a source of social and cultural definition, and since the nineteenth century has played a definitive and defensive role. Instead, responses to such a predicament have constituted revivalism, reformism and the resurrection of a Muslim self and a Muslim society in the midst of a context undergoing modernist forces of change. Islam in modern Egypt continues, within circles of religious thought, to be viewed as a comprehensive theoretical and practical framework; it remains the origin and basin of faith. The battle to preserve and pronounce the pivotal role of Islam was expressed by religious institutions or organizations. Al-Azhar battled with the government over the changing face of both religious and educational institutions (1950s–present), and religious organizations, such as the Muslim Brotherhood (1920s–present), aimed at the reform of society (based on Islamic doctrine and principle) and for political representation.³ Since the Islamic resurgence of the 1970s, Islam has experienced a re-centralization, a movement from the peripheries of social, cultural and political organization to the centre. However, the colonial legacy of secular ideology, and current various manifestations of neo-colonial efforts to realize ‘progress’ in the Middle East, and the variant Muslim responses have all left irreversible marks on the intellectual landscape – it is currently an intellectual anomaly. Egyptian society has been penetrated by a wide array of referential points that inform members of society of parameters by which to measure various concerns, and of various levels of commitment to a variety of issues within Divine law. Furthermore, it has accepted and appropriated these various frames of reference.

The current intellectual anomaly is threatening and unsettling to an individual sense of (Muslim/religious) identity. The intellectual landscape within a Muslim context has become far too fragmented, and can be characterized with uncertainty, and a lack of a uniform consensus on the means of understanding Islam and its practice. Within a modern context, the Qur'an, the Sunna and Shari‘ah are being used and misused to justify various social, cultural and national projects. The understanding of Islam itself has become problematized as new methods for understanding, reading and interpreting religion and sacred knowledge have been introduced. The outcome on a social and individual level is: polarity in thought; profound confusion; and a distorted understanding of self in relation to the world and in relation to the transcendent. The nature of Egyptian society is a mélange of Islamic and Western, traditional and modern, with boundaries difficult to differentiate. On an individual level, this means a schizophrenic self that unconsciously is manifest in individual choices, thoughts and actions. This predicament of identity can be characterized as: a lack of stability; existential anxiety; ontological uncertainty; psychological displacement; and a threatened sense of identity. This is the predicament of identity that Muslim selves face within Egypt.

CHAPTER 1

THE ENLIGHTENMENT PROJECT AND SECULARIZATION IN THE WEST

Introduction

Religion has been struggling for definition and place across history. The three monotheistic faiths can attest to a history of conflict of this sort. With the progression of human intellectual thought, divine-based thought lost relevance. Tension or conflict between religion and secularism became spelled out in eighteenth century Europe, and nineteenth century Egypt. This tension has much to do with the place of religion within the political sphere, as societies changed their nature, structure and course from one that is transcendent to one that is immanent. A new form of spiritual life has been constituted within the West, and is on a drive for continuous re-constitution within the East. In light of these changes, and in light of continual conflict between transcendent (Divine, above, beyond; God as mover) and immanent (material; in existence; of the material world) worldviews, it is imperative to define religion and religious meaning for the individual within social and political spheres.

Belief and faith form the crux of religion; a belief in a divine, in divine power, among other things. Religion has a spiritual aspect that is intrinsically connected to and defining of a form of religious consciousness, one that allocates meaning to the self and to the world, and from which value is of an inherent nature. It provides keen self-awareness: one of identity, answering a question of ‘who am I?’ and one of ontological self-awareness, providing a continuous existential ‘critical review and evaluation’¹ of intent-based actions. It also provides an awareness of the world; and it provides a sense of confidence in faith itself as it is attached to convictions put into practice within life, endorsing and affirming a life of human self-worth and purpose. It assists human beings in interpreting life and their existence within it, and in interpreting the entire scene of human existence and human relationships and interactions.

Religion as it is defined here has serious implications for social and political orders and structures. Within the social sphere, religion has seen an institutionalization of its theological doctrines in the form of religious, educational and social institutions and organizations that play various roles, and have various functions within religious societies. In this sense, it is not only a provider of education, social cohesion and unity, spiritual and moral guidance, among other roles, as it also acts as a marker of identity and belonging. As religion affirms self-worth and meaning individually, it, further, affirms strength and power socially and communally.

The role that these institutions play within the political sphere further provides religion with a third meaning. On a political level, there is representation of the community of adherents, and of their understanding of religion in terms of symbolic forms, in terms of conditions of existence, and in terms of purpose. This unity, the unity of a religious community, is a form of solidarity that operates to impact relationships with other religious communities and with political government/representation. Its relationship with other religious communities draws out tensions and conflicts with regard to shared or disputed understanding of religion, transcendence and existence,² while with political organization, it forms various relationships of power. The political organization can function to:

1. (1) meet the needs and ends of a religious community;
2. (2) be ‘pre-eminent’ over the needs and ends of a religious community;
3. (3) hold ‘sway over religion itself’.³

In this third sense, religion is masked, privatized, individualized, as society is secularized.

When religion is restricted in the performativity of its functions for individual adherents and the society of adherents (faith for the individual, and organization for the whole society), it is in fact not only constricted, but further subjugated – a subjugation that is deeply felt and experienced by an adherent of religion, as his/her conditions of existence change form and purpose. The political sphere has functioned within the West to provide new meanings of religion, and religiosity. It has re-articulated what it means to be an individual within a society. The new allocated meaning, to the individual and his/her place in society, re-fashioned the relationship to the transcendent (the Divine), the meanings of self and world, and the function of the human being within it, and it re-fashioned the ways in which an adherent of faith can sense self-worth and purpose in life. These acts of re-fashioning or ‘reform’ took various shapes over various phases of time in history: state sovereignty, nationality and nationalism, economic development and political economy, racial supremacy and colonialism/imperialism. Based on political needs and aspirations (ends and agendas) a further re-fashioning took place. These developments take away from the form and intent of religion; they subtract from the spiritual experience of the adherent of religion and from his/her relationship to the transcendent, along with all other meanings with which this relationship is endowed. As such, religion within the individual and social sphere can only be fully realized and fully function in the first sense described, and it is this first sense (and its loss) that is of utmost importance for this study.

The inevitable changes that took place over time provide societies with a different set of definitions, far removed from those described above. These new definitions of what religion is in modern society provide a foundation for a humanistic value in which religion/faith or religious culture is grounded. Such values in...