Diseño de la Base de Datos

Three movements were selected from AJK that are active in different fields in AJK to bring changes to the society and build a society using their own Islamic vision. For this purpose, they utilise different strategies, tactics and religious interpretations and explanations as a catalyst to mobilise the people. By revivalism, the researcher means, making the religion relevant to the larger society and taking it away from stagnation to activism in the changed circumstances, which is closer to Nasr’s (1997, p.3) assertation: “Islamic revival as a social movement”.

This study focuses on the Islamic revival in a specific location, however, as Yadegari (1986, p.38) contends that:

“Revivalism is a world-wide movement. It arose from a need to find solutions to problems facing oppressed peoples of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The blacks of America also face problems similar to Third World nations. The basic problem is the social, political, and economic conditions of these oppressed people”.

Hence, it has many faces and from local and global perspectives, it depends upon different factors, such as, the circumstances people face, and most importantly, is led by movements, intellectuals or by a free thinker. Revival, reform and renewal are used interchangeably in the classic Islamic literature; however, they have different literal meanings and scope.

Contemporary intellectuals such as Fazlur Rahman (2000) and Osella and Osella (2007) contend that reform, or more specifically reformism is particularly troublesome as a term,

49 because it covers diverse scopes, but it must be noted our focus is on Islamic activism by the Islamic activists not by the intellectuals at large. In this study Ihya and Tajdid will mean simply revival and renewal, it is to re-activate or resurrect religious traditions and make them relevant to the people and their affairs. Reform will be used in the meanings of islah or straightening both individuals’ behaviours and religious practices for the Islamic revival as an end goal as classified by Haj (2009).

A movement can be either a reformist or renewalist movement by choosing the way of changing some religious elements in the practices and beliefs of the people through reform or islah for the broader aim of Islamic revivalism. When it is promoting an ideology of returning to the practices of a perfect past, Islamic traditions and legacy, both religious and socio-political, will be classified as an Islamic revivalist movement. When the same movement is talking about leaving some aspects or practices or adopting more or different practices, that becomes a reformist movement. So, reform either in the practices and beliefs or reforming the intellectual heritage or Islamic sources by the intellectuals both will lead to the Islamic revivalism which is an end goal of every movement.

50

ISLAM

MADINA STATE

REVIVALISM- Ihya

REFORM RENEWAL

Islah Tajdid

Practices and Beliefs

Tradition and Thought

Figure 3.1

Today’s revivalism has two different dimensions, one is the eradication of some Western influences and focuses on secular governments (Lapidus, 1983) and second is offering the alternative socio-economic models to those governments, (Zubaida, 2009; Robert, 2002;

Wickham, 2002). Yadegari (1986 and 1989) mentions Ali Shariati in the similar terms, that in the process of reform, when it comes to the local context, the Islamic movements make it specific with religious aspects, whereas it should be general and should cover the whole society in the respect of keeping socio-cultural aspects of the society in the mind. Islamic revivalism consists of several modes and dimensions.

The three examples in practice are: revivalism by the political Islamic movements, or those that intend to have the political power to implement a socio-political Islam in a state. The second example is of the traditionalists, those who are more concerned with religious practices, beliefs and piety of the masses and of course if the government system falls under

51 this it is advantageous. The third type is of the radical Islamic movements, those that want to implement or impose Islam by using violent means (Iskauskaite, 2012, p.105).

This study is only focusing mainly on the first and then on the second type of the movements and their strategies in the light of the social movement theory, which falls under the

“eclectic” state of Muslim thought (Al-Alwani, 1994, p3-4) which covers socio-political and socio-economical dimensions of the Islamic movements. As it is clarified that Islam has two main dimensions; ‘mystical intuition’ and ‘role of the man on this earth’, the first approach can be studied using theological and philosophical methods, while the second one, requires applying historical and sociological methods, which this study aims to achieve (Shariati, 1997, pp.60-61).

3.2.1 What is the Practice: Revivalist Movements or Individual Mujjadids?

In the classical literature on the Islamic revivalism, the focus has been on the role of individual revivalists throughout the Islamic history, however, from the nineteenth century onwards the trend shifted to the revivalist movements (Saeed, 2006; Lahoud, 2005). There is a lot of literature on the approaches and focus of the Islamic revivalists in the different fields of Islam and Muslim lives.

Mawlana Mawdudi, like many other revivalist writers, invokes the built-in system of Islamic revival which does not only give justification for reviving Islam, but also a requirement based on the hadith of the Prophet that: “At the head of every century someone will come and revive the religion of Islam” (Hadith, 1535 Abu Dawud). Mawlana Mawdudi (1987) and Tahir-ul-Qadri (1996) both maintain there can be one person, a movement or movements.

52 This matter can be elaborated further while assessing the role of the individual revivalists as free thinkers and as organised movements for Islamic revivalism.

The movements seeking revivalism both highlight pros and cons. A movement will collectively mobilise many people and resources to change some aspects in the society, which has greater chances for success, but on the other hand, it will create more division and polarisation in the society which is against the basic ethics of Islam and the concept of ummah or a wider Muslim community. Over time, the movement will enclose itself in a shell of its members with separate identity-based loyalties and ʻasabiyat. Again, sometimes the movement becomes more important for the committed activists than the aims it supports for broader society and Islam. Furthermore, there are different types of movements providing a range of perspectives, such as, either state or society and their use of strategies, both violent and non-violent. However, currently, non-violent movements are more popular but measuring their success in the political field is a matter of further exploration beyond Olivier Roy’s approach (Al-Sayyid, 2003).

While coming to the individual revivalists and reformers as free thinkers it can be viewed from Al-Ghazali to Iqbal who have made a huge impact at different levels. In the contemporary political arena of the Islamic states; Iran is considered as the most significant intervention. But, the Iranian revolution was a product of the earlier teachings of the free thinkers, such as, Ali Shari’ati (Yadegari, 1983). Another example can be given of Pakistan which was established based on a “Two-Nation Theory,” which was initiated by Muhammad Iqbal (Mawdudi, 1966).

Individual thinkers or revivalist and reformists had the advantage of being less controversial and on the other hand the ability to think freely and change views according to the circumstances while keeping the focus on the broader society rather than their own members

53 as receivers of the message. This also can be linked with academic intellectuals or those who are critical of the revivalists and reformist approaches, but they only managed to spread their influence in the academic circles rather than to the masses (Saeed, 2006; Rahman 2001).

The politics of recognising someone as a revivalist itself is a matter of exploration, for instance, for one author a specific intellectual will be a revivalist, but for someone else a cause of Islamic decline. Mawdudi (1987) calls this Mujaddid and Mutajaddid as the earlier is true but later is false. Similarly, the same is the case with the Islamic movements and counter movements; all Islamic movements will be called Islamic revivalist movement but some of them will be in the response of existing revivalist movements (Isik, 1981). In the rest of the chapter and coming sections, three Islamic movements will be explored looking at their emergence, arrival in Kashmir and their vision in general, and for AJK society. The study will begin with the Sufi tariqa which appeared as a more local or indigenous movement in the AJK, and then progress to consider, Jamat-e-Islami and, finally, offer a discussion of Minhaj-ul-Qur’an.