The Elusive <i>Ummah</i>: Between the Political, Sectarianism, and Authority

Mahomed, Nadeem

doi:10.13169/reorient.7.1.0027

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ReOrient

Volume 7, Issue 1

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The Elusive Ummah: Between the Political, Sectarianism, and Authority

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Author(s): Nadeem Mahomed ^* ^,

Publication date Pub: 06 May 2022

Journal: ReOrient

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: Islam, community, ummah, Muslims, sectarianism

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Abstract

The thrust of this article provides an exposition of considering Islam not simply as a constricted theoretical and discursive tradition, but as a broad historical phenomenon that is shaped by the ummah (the global heterogeneous Muslim community) which in turn is influenced by the manner in which Islam was understood by the those from the ummah who have come before. Accordingly, the article argues for Islamic inclusivity in such a way that it translates into freedom from sectarian ideological provincialism and the ability to be free to enter and remain within Islam as a Muslim on terms that may not necessarily be considered as sufficient by other Muslims. In this sense, it is both liberation from dominant orthodoxies and the existence of freedom which allows groups and individuals to debate together and participate with each other in determining the affairs of Islam and what it means to be Muslim.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Nadeem Mahomed:

Bio :

Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study University of Johannesburg Email: nmahomed@ 123456gmail.com

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.13169/reorient

Title: ReOrient

Abbreviated Title: ReO

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Electronic): 2055-561X

ISSN (Print): 2055-5601

Publication date Pub: 06 May 2022

Publication date Collection: 2022

Volume: 7

Issue: 1

Pages: 27-45

Author notes

[* ] Correspondence: Nadeem Mahomed ( nmahomed@ 123456gmail.com )

Article

DOI: 10.13169/reorient.7.1.0027

SO-VID: f1075052-1fe6-41e3-8fd8-86262bb69a88

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All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

History

Page count

Pages: 19

References

R. Abbasi (2021) Islam and the invention of religion: A study of medieval Muslim discourses on Dīn. Studia Islamica. 116 (1): 1–106.
S. Ahmed (2017) What is Islam? The Importance of Being Islamic. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
A. Anderson (1998) Imagined Communities. London: Verso.
T. Asad (1993) Genealogies of Religion. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
M. Bukhari (1995) Al-Jāmi’ al-Musnad al-Sahīh al-Mukhtaṣar min umūr Rasûl Allāh wa sunnanihi wa ayyāmihi. Book 65, number 398. Trans. Khan, M. M. Beirut: Dar al-Salaam.
N. Calder (2001) The Limits of Islamic Orthodoxy. In F. Daftary (ed.), Intellectual Traditions in Islam. London and New York: I. B. Tauris: 66–86.
P. Crone (2005) Medieval Islamic Political Thought. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
F. M. Denny (2011) An Introduction to Islam. New York: Routledge.
S. B. Diagne (2011) Islam and Open Society: Fidelity and Movement in the Philosophy of Muhmmad Iqbal. Dakar: CODESRIA.
F. M. Donner (2010) Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
M. Foucault (1971) The Order of Things. New York: Vintage Books.
M. Foucault (1998) Different Spaces. In J. D. Faubion (ed.), Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology: Essential Works of Foucault, 1954–1984. Trans. R. Hurley New York: New Press: 175–85.
S. Haj (2009) Reconfiguring Islamic Tradition: Reform, Rationality and Modernity. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
M. Iqbal (1977) Gabriel’s Wings / L’Aile de Gabriel. Trans. into French by Said-Uz-Zafar Chagtai, M. and Bussac, S. Paris: Albin Michel5).
B. Jezernik (2004) Wild Europe: The Balkans in the Gaze of Western Travellers. London: Saqi Press.
K. Jomaa (2020) Social justice and Islamic legal/ethical order: The Madinah constitution as a case study from the prophetic period. In D. R. Vishanoff (ed.), Islamic Law and Ethics. London and Washington, DC: International Institute of Islamic Thought: 162–206.
N. Khan (2012) Muslim Becoming: Aspiration and Skepticism in Pakistan. Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press.
G. Lubber (1989) The Muslim Judicial Council – a Descriptive and Analytical Investigation. PhD thesis, University of South Africa, Pretoria.
S. Mahmood (2004) The Politics of Piety. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
P. Mandaville (2001) Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Umma. London and New York: Routledge.
Msimang. S. (2016) With Friends Like These: The Politics of Friendship in Post-Apartheid South Africa. In S. WalshJ. Soske (eds.), Ties that Bind: Race and the Politics of Friendship in South Africa. Johannesburg: Wits University Press: 33.
O. Roy (2007). Secularism Confronts Islam. New York: Columbia University Press.
A. Sachs (2011) The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law. London: Oxford University Press.
S. Saeed (2017) Politics of Desecularization: Law and the Minority Question in Pakistan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
E. W. Said (1983) The World, the Text and the Critic. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
E. W. Said (2003) Freud and the Non-European. London and New York: Verso.
J. P. Sartre (1973) Existentialism and Humanism. London: Methuen.
S. Sayyid (2014) Recalling the Caliphate: Decolonization and World Order. London: Hurst & Company.
H. Sherwood (2017) More Muslim leaders refuse funeral prayers for London attackers. The Guardian, last viewed 31 May 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/06/more-muslim-leaders-refuse-funeral-prayers-london-attackers.
C. Taylor (1995) Philosophical Arguments. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
J. R. Willis (1996) The Fatwas of Condemnation. In M. K. MasudB. MessickD. Powers (eds.), Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and their Fatwas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 153–61.
M. Q. Zaman (2018) Islam in Pakistan: A History. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
H. M. Zafer (2021) Ecumenical Community: Language and Politics of the Ummah in the Qurʾan. Leiden: Brill.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] R. Abbasi (2021) Islam and the invention of religion: A study of medieval Muslim discourses on Dīn. Studia Islamica. 116 (1): 1–106.

[2] S. Ahmed (2017) What is Islam? The Importance of Being Islamic. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

[3] A. Anderson (1998) Imagined Communities. London: Verso.

[4] T. Asad (1993) Genealogies of Religion. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

[5] M. Bukhari (1995) Al-Jāmi’ al-Musnad al-Sahīh al-Mukhtaṣar min umūr Rasûl Allāh wa sunnanihi wa ayyāmihi. Book 65, number 398. Trans. Khan, M. M. Beirut: Dar al-Salaam.

[6] N. Calder (2001) The Limits of Islamic Orthodoxy. In F. Daftary (ed.), Intellectual Traditions in Islam. London and New York: I. B. Tauris: 66–86.

[7] P. Crone (2005) Medieval Islamic Political Thought. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

[8] F. M. Denny (2011) An Introduction to Islam. New York: Routledge.

[9] S. B. Diagne (2011) Islam and Open Society: Fidelity and Movement in the Philosophy of Muhmmad Iqbal. Dakar: CODESRIA.

[10] F. M. Donner (2010) Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press

[11] M. Foucault (1971) The Order of Things. New York: Vintage Books.

[12] M. Foucault (1998) Different Spaces. In J. D. Faubion (ed.), Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology: Essential Works of Foucault, 1954–1984. Trans. R. Hurley New York: New Press: 175–85.

[13] S. Haj (2009) Reconfiguring Islamic Tradition: Reform, Rationality and Modernity. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

[14] M. Iqbal (1977) Gabriel’s Wings / L’Aile de Gabriel. Trans. into French by Said-Uz-Zafar Chagtai, M. and Bussac, S. Paris: Albin Michel5).

[15] B. Jezernik (2004) Wild Europe: The Balkans in the Gaze of Western Travellers. London: Saqi Press.

[16] K. Jomaa (2020) Social justice and Islamic legal/ethical order: The Madinah constitution as a case study from the prophetic period. In D. R. Vishanoff (ed.), Islamic Law and Ethics. London and Washington, DC: International Institute of Islamic Thought: 162–206.

[17] N. Khan (2012) Muslim Becoming: Aspiration and Skepticism in Pakistan. Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press.

[18] G. Lubber (1989) The Muslim Judicial Council – a Descriptive and Analytical Investigation. PhD thesis, University of South Africa, Pretoria.

[19] S. Mahmood (2004) The Politics of Piety. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

[20] P. Mandaville (2001) Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Umma. London and New York: Routledge.

[21] Msimang. S. (2016) With Friends Like These: The Politics of Friendship in Post-Apartheid South Africa. In S. WalshJ. Soske (eds.), Ties that Bind: Race and the Politics of Friendship in South Africa. Johannesburg: Wits University Press: 33.

[22] O. Roy (2007). Secularism Confronts Islam. New York: Columbia University Press.

[23] A. Sachs (2011) The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law. London: Oxford University Press.

[24] S. Saeed (2017) Politics of Desecularization: Law and the Minority Question in Pakistan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[25] E. W. Said (1983) The World, the Text and the Critic. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

[26] E. W. Said (2003) Freud and the Non-European. London and New York: Verso.

[27] J. P. Sartre (1973) Existentialism and Humanism. London: Methuen.

[28] S. Sayyid (2014) Recalling the Caliphate: Decolonization and World Order. London: Hurst & Company.

[29] H. Sherwood (2017) More Muslim leaders refuse funeral prayers for London attackers. The Guardian, last viewed 31 May 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/06/more-muslim-leaders-refuse-funeral-prayers-london-attackers.

[30] C. Taylor (1995) Philosophical Arguments. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

[31] J. R. Willis (1996) The Fatwas of Condemnation. In M. K. MasudB. MessickD. Powers (eds.), Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and their Fatwas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 153–61.

[32] M. Q. Zaman (2018) Islam in Pakistan: A History. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

[33] H. M. Zafer (2021) Ecumenical Community: Language and Politics of the Ummah in the Qurʾan. Leiden: Brill.