Dolly,

This is an important debate you’re starting, and I would like to add my voice to it. I would like to make a distinction between “Reformation” and “reform”. I’m not sure whether you intend these terms to be used interchangeably, but they are vey different. If I may, I should like to share my understanding: “Reformation” is the transformation of the fundamental tenets of a religion, short of its complete abolition. An Islamic example might be the scrapping of the Shahada or the abolition of jihad. “Reform” I understand as more superficial (though not necessarily less serious), or even ancillary, to religion, such as scrapping a husband’s right to beat his wife, or parents’ right to kill their child. By no means am I belittling reforms when I make this distinction. But it is important to know which of the two we are observing when we see a country or society undergoing change.

“Al-Azhar vs reformations” raises important points that I hope more readers will engage with. Crucial, I would argue, is to understand that the changes underway in Egypt (and other Arab states) are not Reformations, but reforms. Having said that, the changes underway in Saudi Arabia do indeed seem like a Reformation (hidden behind a plethora of reforms). The question that then arrises, in my opinion, is whether Islam is susceptible to a Reformation. Many will disagree with me, but I understand Islam to have a built-in mechanism against Reformation. Throughout the long history of Islam, all attempts at Reformation have invariably provoked a pendulum swing back to real Islam. I do not argue this merely as an empirical observation (e.g.., the Al-Murabitun driven from power by the al-Muwahhidun), but from analysing the cumulative interplay of Islam’s various compulsions and prohibitions.

Of course, there is and has been much tinkering around the edges, and because at the end of the day, even Muslims are human with human passions, fears and desires, Islam has tolerated reforms of all kinds down the ages, until some Muslim takes a good look at the Qur’an and takes it upon himself to remind everyone that they are going astray and then does something about it. The contradiction between Islam as “complete way of life” and Muslims as human beings is the fundamental driving contradiction of Islam. Because Muslims are human, there will always be attempts at reform, whether officially or unofficially, otherwise Muslims would survive under the insanity of a permanent ISIS (real Islam) and destroy themselves. When the reforms, driven by the human nature of Muslims, have gone far enough for someone to care about the erosion of the fundamentals of “the perfect religion”, a violent “correction” takes place.

I think I’ll leave it at that and look forward to reading other perspectives. Thank you for the opportunity to engage with your thoughts.