Does Modernization Accordance with Sharia?

By Hassan Kamal on April 20, 2015 • ( 1 )

Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian fundamentalist theorist and the leading member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s and 1960s.

By: Hassan Kamal

Many scholars from the West and the Middle East countries claim that the modernization accordance with the Sharia and Islamic tradition. Their viewpoint back to the first half of the 20^th century in Egypt that the Muslim Brotherhood called for the modernization of Egypt in accordance with the Sharia and Islamic traditions. And the Muslim Brotherhood also wasn’t opposite to the modernization. I completely disagree with this idea and in this essay I will explain my point of view.

First and foremost, one should define what does mean modernization to find out if it accordance with Sharia or not. In term of sociology, modernization means the transformation from a traditional, rural, agrarian society to a secular, urban, industrial society. See the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Hence, modernization is associated with modernity regarding to accept secular society that led to industrial society. And the modernization according to this definition based on secularization that led to industrial age then later scientific-technological revolution in the 20^th Century. So the secularization is the essential part of modernization.

As regard sharia, looking at Sayyid Qutb’s works (the leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood), Future of the religion & Islam and civilization’s problems, he was completely against Western civilization that includes secularization, enlightenment and modernity. In addition to that, Qutb was opposite to industrial age in the West and calling for agriculture age instead of industrial age that is a core for modernization. And it was clear that Qutb was against Western values.

Another issue is that Sharia adapts Islamic fundamentalism (Sharia) as a way of thinking, and this way is completely opposite to secularization as an open ideology, because secularization concerns about relative not absolute truth that Islamic fundamentalism claim that can grasp it. For this reason, Sharia is a noticeable opposite to modernization.