Islamic Revival Movements of the 20th Century

# Islamic Revival Movements: The Major Currents of Modern Islamic Renewal

The Concept of Renewal in Islam

The idea of Islamic renewal — tajdid — has deep roots in the Islamic tradition. The Prophet ﷺ said: "Allah will send to this ummah at the beginning of every century someone who will renew its religion for it." (Abu Dawud, authenticated) The concept of the mujaddid (renewer) gave Islamic history a framework for understanding reform: a renewal of the authentic practice of Islam against accumulations of innovation, neglect, and deviation that inevitably accumulate over time.

The major Islamic revival movements of the 18th-21st centuries represent different attempts at this renewal — responding to the challenges of colonialism, modernity, Western dominance, and internal Muslim decline in ways shaped by their specific contexts. They differ significantly in their theological orientations, their methods, their geographical bases, and their relationships with political authority. Understanding them requires distinguishing what they share — a desire to restore authentic Islam — from what divides them, often profoundly.

The Wahhabi-Salafi Movement

The 18th-century movement of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1115-1206 AH / 1703-1792 CE) in the Najd region of Arabia represents the first major modern Islamic reform movement. Ibn Abd al-Wahhab studied the Hanbali tradition and was deeply influenced by the writings of Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim. His reform message was focused on theological purification: the elimination of what he characterized as shirk (polytheism) and bid'ah (blameworthy innovation) from Muslim practice.

His alliance with Muhammad ibn Saud established the Saudi-Wahhabi political-religious alliance that eventually produced the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The movement's spread, funded by Saudi oil revenues from the 1970s onward, gave the Wahhabi-Salafi orientation global reach through mosque construction, madrasa funding, scholarship programs, and the distribution of printed Islamic literature.

The term "Salafi" — referring to the methodology of following the Salaf al-Salih (the righteous predecessors, i.e., the Companions and the first three generations) — is used by many who share a broadly similar theological orientation but differ in legal and political positions. The distinction between apolitical "quietist" Salafism (associated with scholars like al-Albani and Ibn Baz) and "activist" Salafism is important: quietist Salafis prioritize theological purification and regard political engagement as a distraction, while activist Salafis seek to apply Islamic law through political and social change.

Ahl us-Sunnah scholars' assessment of the Wahhabi-Salafi movement is mixed: the insistence on returning to Quran and authentic Sunnah, rejecting unwarranted innovations, and prioritizing correct theology reflects genuine Islamic revival principles. The movement's excesses — particularly extreme positions on the status of other Muslims, rejection of the jurisprudential richness of the classical schools, and in its political dimensions the contribution to extremist ideologies — have been criticized by mainstream scholars.

The Deobandi Movement

Founded in 1867 CE (1283 AH) at the town of Deoband in northern India, the Darul Uloom Deoband represented a response to British colonial rule and the 1857 Mutiny — the failure of Muslim military and political resistance — by focusing on institutional Islamic education as the primary vehicle of community preservation and renewal.

The Deobandi approach: rigorous training in the traditional Islamic sciences (Quran, hadith, fiqh, Arabic language, logic) within the Hanafi legal tradition, using the Dars-i-Nizami curriculum that had been the standard of Islamic education in Mughal India. The theological orientation is Maturidi in aqeedah, Hanafi in fiqh, and draws on Sufi spiritual formation within the Chishti and other tariqa traditions — though with a strong emphasis on Sufi practices being grounded in Quran and Sunnah.

The founders — Qasim Nanautwi, Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, and their successors — produced scholars of extraordinary depth. Ashraf Ali Thanvi, Muhammad Anwar Shah Kashmiri, and others shaped Sunni Islam in South Asia for generations. The movement's greatest achievement was institutional: Deoband produced a network of madrasas across the subcontinent and eventually the world that maintained traditional Islamic learning under colonial conditions.

The Deobandi movement's political dimensions are complex. The Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind supported Indian independence and a united India; the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam in Pakistan has been a major political actor. The Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan are rooted in Deobandi madrasas, though scholars within the Deobandi tradition are divided on the Taliban's methods and positions.

The Barelvi Movement

The Barelvi movement, named after the scholar Ahmad Raza Khan Barelwi (1272-1340 AH / 1856-1921 CE) from Bareilly in northern India, emerged partly in response to what its founders saw as the Deobandis' excessive austerity and rejection of traditional Muslim devotional practices.

Barelvi theology is Maturidi in aqeedah, Hanafi in fiqh, and places strong emphasis on the unique spiritual status of the Prophet ﷺ, the permissibility of celebrating the Prophet's ﷺ birth (Mawlid), the intercession of saints, and the ongoing spiritual presence and blessing available through the Sufi tariqa orders. Barelwis represent the majority of South Asian Muslims in many parts of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the diaspora communities from these countries in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

The theological disputes between Deobandis and Barelwis — particularly on questions of the Prophet's ﷺ knowledge of the unseen, the status of the Awliya (saints), and the permissibility of celebrating Mawlid — have sometimes generated bitter intra-Muslim conflict. Ahl us-Sunnah scholars' approach to these disputes recognizes that both traditions have deep roots in Hanafi-Maturidi Sunni Islam and that the differences, while significant, should not be occasion for takfir or sectarian violence.

The Muslim Brotherhood

Founded by Hassan al-Banna in Egypt in 1928 CE (1346 AH), the Muslim Brotherhood represents the most globally influential attempt to articulate an organized political Islam — a movement that engages with the state, participates in democratic processes, and aims to establish governance grounded in Islamic principles through gradual reform of society.

Al-Banna's foundational insight was organizational and sociological: Islamic revival required not only theological clarity but institutional capacity — schools, clinics, social welfare, political participation. The Brotherhood built all of these simultaneously. Its comprehensive vision of Islam as a "total system" covering all aspects of life — individual, family, social, economic, political — became the template for political Islamic movements worldwide.

The Brotherhood's theological orientation is mainstream Sunni — Ash'ari or Maturidi in aqeedah, pluralistic in madhab (accepting all four Sunni schools), and drawing on both classical Sufi spirituality and modern Islamic reformism. It is not Salafi in the technical sense, though later Brotherhood-affiliated movements have incorporated Salafi theological elements.

The Brotherhood's diverse international branches — in Jordan, Syria, Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan, Gaza (Hamas), and elsewhere — have developed in different directions shaped by local conditions. The theological assessment of the Brotherhood requires distinguishing its foundational principles (which many Ahl us-Sunnah scholars affirm) from specific political decisions by specific branches (which are subject to the same evaluation as any political decisions).

The Tablighi Jamaat

The Tablighi Jamaat (Society for the Propagation of Faith) is perhaps the world's largest Islamic movement by active participation, with tens of millions of members across the globe. Founded in India in 1926 CE by Mawlana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi (1303-1363 AH / 1885-1944 CE), the movement focuses on personal spiritual renewal through itinerant preaching — groups of men travel from city to city and mosque to mosque, staying in the mosque, giving short talks on the six principles (sifat, the qualities the movement emphasizes), and urging local Muslims to attend prayers, learn the basics of the faith, and go out in the same way.

The six qualities emphasized by the Tablighi Jamaat: Kalima (the declaration of faith and its proper understanding), Salah (prayer), Ilm and Dhikr (knowledge and remembrance of God), Ikram al-Muslimin (respect for fellow Muslims), Ikhlas al-Niyyah (sincerity of intention), and Da'wah and Tabligh (preaching and propagation).

The Tablighi Jamaat is deliberately apolitical — it avoids all political controversy, focuses exclusively on personal religious practice, and accepts people across theological divisions. Theologically, it is rooted in the Deobandi tradition but has transcended its origins to encompass Muslims across madhabs and national backgrounds.

Scholarly assessment of the Tablighi Jamaat from Ahl us-Sunnah scholars has been varied: strong appreciation for its emphasis on personal religious practice and community building; some criticism of its sometimes uncritical acceptance of weak hadith and folk practices; and debate about whether its de-emphasis of Islamic knowledge acquisition beyond the basics limits participants' understanding.

The Gülen Movement

The Gülen movement — known in Turkey as Hizmet (Service) — is a Turkish Islamic movement inspired by the teachings of the Turkish scholar Fethullah Gülen (born 1941 CE). Rooted in the Nurcu tradition derived from Said Nursi's writings, the movement emphasizes interfaith dialogue, education as a vehicle for Islamic renewal, and integration into modern democratic and civic life.

The movement built an enormous global network of schools, media outlets, and institutions. Within Turkey, it became highly influential in state institutions before its falling out with the Erdogan government in 2013 and the subsequent designation of the movement as a terrorist organization by the Turkish state — a designation rejected by most Western governments and Muslim scholars who noted the lack of credible evidence of the violent activities required to justify it.

The Hadith on the Mujaddid and the Principle of Renewal

The diversity of revival movements reflects the diversity of the challenges Islam has faced in different contexts — colonialism, secularism, political oppression, theological confusion, social disintegration. No single movement has the comprehensive answer; no single scholar or organization speaks for the entire global Muslim community.

The Prophet's ﷺ hadith on the mujaddid does not specify a single model of renewal — it indicates that renewal will come in each century in forms appropriate to that century's challenges. The Deobandis preserved institutional Islamic education under colonial conditions; the Brotherhood organized political engagement in the modern state context; the Tablighi Jamaat renewed personal religious practice at the grassroots; the Salafi-Wahhabi movement emphasized theological purification. Each addresses a real dimension of the challenge.

The danger in each movement is the tendency to absolutize its own approach — to treat the method of renewal as the entirety of Islam itself, and to view other approaches with suspicion rather than as complementary forms of addressing different aspects of a common challenge. The Islamic scholarly tradition's breadth — its acceptance of multiple madhabs, its tradition of respectful disagreement (ikhtilaf), its recognition that valid scholarly opinion can take multiple forms — provides resources for navigating this pluralism with wisdom rather than sectarian rivalry.

Sources:

• Metcalf, Barbara. Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, 1860-1900. Princeton University Press, 1982.
• Sanyal, Usha. Ahmad Riza Khan Barelwi: In the Path of the Prophet. Oneworld, 1996.
• Mitchell, Richard P. The Society of the Muslim Brothers. Oxford University Press, 1969.
• Masud, Muhammad Khalid (ed.). Travellers in Faith: Studies of the Tablighi Jamaat as a Transnational Islamic Movement. Brill, 2000.
• Commins, David. The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia. I.B. Tauris, 2006.
• Voll, John O. Islam: Continuity and Change in the Modern World. Westview Press, 1982.
• Kepel, Gilles. Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam. Harvard University Press, 2002.