This paper is conceived to achieve two major objectives. First, it aims at providing a critique of the materialist conception of history. Second, it aims at explaining the underlying factor behind Islamic revivalism and social change in Muslim societies. Given this, it offers a comparative analysis of the Madinan and Marxist societies based on their evolution, characteristics and transformation. It also offers a systematic analysis of the phases of Islamic revivalism across the Muslim world in old and recent times. It therefore forwards the central argument that Marxism lacks the capability to explain the evolution and character of the Islamic society on the following grounds. The history of the Muslim society is not a product of materialism, but a belief system. Its belief system represents its foundational structure, while it also directly conditions all other aspects of the society including its politics, economy, laws and foreign relations. Furthermore, a Muslim man’s social consciousness is not centered on his socio-economic condition, but his socio-religious condition. He therefore conceives societal problems as a reflection of the degeneration of the core values of the societal belief system. This therefore accounts for a social movement that aims at reviving the belief system representing the base structure of the society and evolving a completely new social order that conforms to its established standards.
Source: World Journal of Islamic History and Civilization
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