SOAS Research Online

Abstract

In recent decades with Muslim global migration patterns, modernist Islamic thought has extended to the relatively new context of large numbers of Muslims living in non-Muslim countries. This thesis views this as a continuation of modernist thought which deserves to be evaluated in its own right with regard to its aims, methodology and findings. This study observes continuities and discontinuities with modern thought and classical fiqh. I aim to analyse a selection of primary sources on particular chosen topics, in relation to contemporary socio-political developments as well as internal consistency and the history of Islamic fiqh. Muslim minority fiqh is a relatively new phenomenon in Islamic legal history. This new development of modernist thought needs to be evaluated in its own right such that its aims, content, and nature can be understood in its totality as a body of opinions and rules which display both continuity and discontinuity in relation to modernist thought and fiqh. I examine the work of selected minority fiqh scholars, including al-Qaraḍāwī, ʿAbdallāh Bin Bayya and ʿAbdallāh b. Yūsuf al-Judayʿ to name but a few. The claim to authenticity in terms of upholding the fundamentals of religion is a key assertion of modernist thought. It does not opt for modernism for its own sake but rather consonance with the times is seen as an abiding facet of Islam which has been lost as intellectual rigidity set in. I aim to critically assess the modernist response, as represented by minority fiqh, to the challenges and questions of modernity. There is also a need to assess the contribution and impact minority fiqh has made not only to the needs of the Muslim minority communities in the West, but also to their involvement and engagement with the wider non-Muslim society