APROPOS the article ‘The Return of Fazlur Rahman’ in Eos (May 20). Prof (Dr) Fazlur Rahman Malik was an Islamic scholar, who studied and taught in four different countries, and later rendered services to both Ayub Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as adviser on religious-cum-secular issues.

The article states that Ayub attempted to institutionalise the idea of ‘Islamic Modernism’ — a concept first pioneered in South Asia by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and later pursued by Allama Muhammad Iqbal.

What is Islamic modernism or an enlightened Islamic nation-state? We are still trying to assess and foster this philosophical thought in our less-than well-educated nation-state. We know we cannot evade Islam nor can we shy away from the current era of technology and modernity. So why not play around with a synthesis of the two ideals and we have it, Islamic modernity or Islamic modernism.

It is clear that we have to make a bitter-sweet journey ‘back to the past’ to the 60s and 70s when the philosophical narrative about what Islamic modernism was all about, or how the nation-state could adopt this philosophy for its perennial comfort and prosperity, were at their peak.

New local and international dynamics dictate all of us that we need to usher in a system of governance based on Islamic or Muslim modernism. This is something perhaps already going on in one form or another in Malaysia and Turkey. The latest example of IM being implemented in some manner is the ultra-conservative Holy Land, Saudi Arabia, which is pursuing widespread modernisation (if this is the correct term to paraphrase its current policies) under the command of its ambitious Crown Prince and de-facto ruler, Muhammad Bin Salman.

Islamic modernism or Islamic modernity is a topic or subject upon which tonnes can be written. Its contours and boundaries are yet to be fully defined. Nonetheless, it’s an issue of clear and present significance for each and every Muslim nation-state.

Countries which have understood and analysed their importance, such as Turkey and Malaysia, are far ahead of the rest of the pack. Pakistan, its scholars, think-tanks, universities, the military and civil bureaucracy and the politicians now have an ideal opportunity to evolve a new system of governance by fusion, which could take us forward.

Abbas R. Siddiqi

Lahore

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2018