THE GOLDEN MEAN BETWEEN SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISMS: REVISITING AL-FARABI’S AL-MADINAT ALFADILA AND IDEOLOGIES OF ABU BAKR ALRAZI AND AL-GHAZALI

Authors

  • DAWOOD MIRZA, DR. FARAH DEEBA KHAN

Abstract

Throughout the medieval period, regardless of internal discords, Islam happened to possess a considerable influence over the world. Despite the presence of Christian Byzantium in the mix of Islamic states, the Middle Ages in large part, borrowing Adam Mez’s phrase, saw ‘The Renaissance of Islam’. As Islam flourished, the world outside the realm of Islam positioned itself with the Muslim world. However, things steadily started to change towards the end of the medieval period and at the outset of the modern age, and eventually, the roles reversed between the Muslim world and the west in the wake of the European Renaissance and Enlightenment. As the realization of the fading political influence set in, the Islamic world sought to address the west’s ideological challenge in the guise of secularism and modernism, and scrambled for relevance in the new world order. The Muslim response to modernism, in a broad sense, can be divided into two fundamentalist tendencies, secular fundamentalism and religious fundamentalism; trends inherited primarily from thoughts and ideologies of medieval Muslim polymaths and philosophers. In view of the above, this article, first, attempts to examine the two fundamentalist tendencies of Muslim attitude by tracing their roots in the works of Abu Bakr al-Razi and Muhammad al-Ghazali. Secondly, an ethical review of al-Farabi’s concept of happiness and his treatise al-Madinat al-Fadila (The Virtuous City) will be presented as a sui generis reference point for mapping out an ideal tendency for devising a balanced Muslim response to the phenomenon of modernism which shall certainly take position between the two extremes of religious and secular fundamentalisms. A contemporary reconstruction of the ideologies of the mentioned Muslim philosophers, and most importantly of alFarabi’s work, in conclusion, may enable us to effectively put our past to use in order to address and tackle the doctrinal and functional challenges that lie before the Muslim world in the present times.

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Published

2021-09-30

How to Cite

DAWOOD MIRZA, DR. FARAH DEEBA KHAN. (2021). THE GOLDEN MEAN BETWEEN SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISMS: REVISITING AL-FARABI’S AL-MADINAT ALFADILA AND IDEOLOGIES OF ABU BAKR ALRAZI AND AL-GHAZALI. Quarterly Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society, 69(3). Retrieved from http://phs.com.pk/index.php/phs/article/view/134

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