The roots of Islamic Universalism

Abstract

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of Islamic universalism, which is the key idea of many Muslim ideologists of the modern times, such as Sayyid Qutb, Ismail al-Faruqi and others. The article puts under consideration the religious and socio-political elements of Islamic universalism, the formation of which roots back mainly to the times of the building the Islamic tradition. The religious aspect of Islamic universalism is determined by the postulation of the superiority of Islam as a religion. It includes the following elements: consideration of this religion as the last revelation in the Abrahamic tradition, strict monotheism as opposed to the Christian idea of the God’s trinity, the existence of a direct connection, without intermediaries, between a man and the God, religious equality of men and women. A special place among them is occupied by the idea of man’s faith (al-Iman), which is interpreted in terms of man’s submission to God. The socio-political aspect of Islamic universalism is determined by the degree of adaptability of the Islamic tradition to changing historical conditions. Among the main socio-political elements of Islamic universalism there are the absence, at least in Sunni Islam, of the institution for the faith legalization, the absence of a clear demarcation between the religious community and the state, the presence in Islam of the “mechanism” of faith renewal (ijtihad), and the exibility of the concept of Jihad’s interpretation, which has both physical and spiritual-moral dimensions. The exibility of Islam can also be explained by the presence of contradictions in the Islamic primary sources, which allow different Islamic groups to justify their beliefs and make the Islamic tradition more resilient and adaptable. The absence in Islam of a clear demarcation of a state and the ummah makes it possible to use religious rhetoric in the sphere of social and political action.