Religion as critique : Islamic critical thinking from Mecca to the marketplace / Irfan Ahmad.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Notes on Transliteration – Prologue -- PART I Formulation -- 1 Introduction -- The Ubiquitous Absence, or the Received Wisdom -- The Absent Ubiquity, or the Argument --Amartya Sen and The Argumentative Indian -- Design of Intervention -- 2 Critique: Western and/or Islamic -- The Enlightenment as Ethnicity -- Anthropology and Critique -- Reconfiguring the Axial Age: Critique before the Enlightenment -- Islam as Critique -- 3 The Modes: Another Genealogy of Critique -- Critique---Tanqid/Naqd---in Urdu -- Elements of an Alternative Genealogy -- Religion and Literature: Believing Ghalib -- Divine Critique -- PART II Illustration -- 4 The Message: A Critical Enterprise -- Maududi Dereified -- Frame and Method: The Permanence of Ijtihad and 'Aql -- The Postulates -- The Aims -- 5 The State: (In)dispensable, Desirable, Revisable? -- Rupture and Continuity -- Forceful Arguments -- Recovering Universalism -- Exceptions of the State -- 6 The Difference: Women and (In)equality -- Maududi's Janus-Like Neopatriarchate -- Neopatriarchate in Its Place: Multiple Critiques -- Context of Transformation -- Terms for Use -- 7 The Mundane: Critique as Social-Cultural Practice -- Critique in Movement -- Homo Khidmatiqus -- Critique in Everyday Life: The Power of Proverbs -- The Greed of the Mullah, the Creed of the Ungodly

"Irfan Ahmad makes the far-reaching argument that potent systems and modes for self-critique as well as critique of others are inherent in Islam--indeed, critique is integral to its fundamental tenets and practices. Challenging common views of Islam as hostile to critical thinking, Ahmad delineates thriving traditions of critique in Islamic culture, focusing in large part on South Asian traditions. Ahmad contemplates and interrogates Greek and Enlightenment notions of reason and critique, and he notes how they are invoked in relation to "others," including Muslims. Drafting an alternative genealogy of critique in Islam, Ahmad reads religious teachings and texts, drawing on sources in Hindi, Urdu, Farsi, and English, and demonstrates how they serve as expressions of critique. Throughout, he depicts Islam as an agent, not an object, of critique."-- Provided by publisher.