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Religion Theology

Muslim Ethics and Modernity

A Comparative Study of the Ethical Thought of Sayyid Ahmad Khan and Mawlana Mawdudi

by (author) Sheila McDonough

Publisher
Wilfrid Laurier University Press, CCSR
Initial publish date
Oct 2010
Category
Theology, Ethics, Rituals & Practice
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781554587483
    Publish Date
    Oct 2010
    List Price
    $32.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780889201620
    Publish Date
    Feb 1985
    List Price
    $34.99

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Description

A study of modern Muslim ethics, focused upon the lives and writings of Sayyid Ahmad Khan and Mawlana Mawdudi, this book sheds light upon the modern ethical problems of contemporary Islam.

Sayyid Ahmad Khan, often called a liberal, a modernist, or an acculturationist, represents the "liberal" trend of Sunni Muslim ethics. Khan's approach borrows much from reason, but, for Khan, reason and revelation are not in conflict. Reason guides the interpretation of Islam when revelation is insufficient. In contrast, Mawlana Mawdudi's fundamentalism is, at least in part, anti-rational; it depends upon revelation (as it comes to one man in particular) and is very autocratic.

McDonough is concerned with Khan and Mawdudi, both writers within the Indo-Pakistan Muslim tradition. Their conflicting views, their differing interpretations of ethics that suit Islam in the contemporary world, exemplify the difficulties and turmoil faced by Muslims the world over. For these men, modernity has not spelled the end of Islam; yet each has found a different way of relating Islam to the present and the future in faithfulness to traditional Islam.

This book will be of interest to students of contemporary Islam, as well as to those interested in questions of comparative ethics, for the liberal/fundamentalist conflicts outlined in this monograph are analogous to manifestations of the same dichotomy in all world religions.

About the author

Sheila McDonough taught in Pakistan for three years at the Kinnaird Institute for Women and currently teaches Islam and Comparative Religion in the Department of Religion of Concordia University, Montreal.

Sheila McDonough's profile page