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Islam's Modern Day Ibn Battutas: Gülen teachers journeying towards the divine

journal contribution
posted on 2015-01-01, 00:00 authored by David TittensorDavid Tittensor
There is a longstanding debate on whether Muslims can be modern. Some argue that they can only be so if they forsake their traditions and embrace rationalism. In this article I argue that the Gülen Movement, a transnational Turkish Muslim educational activist network has found a middle ground by blending religious traditions with modern day realities. Drawing on interviews from the movement's teachers and graduates of its schools, from Turkey, Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, I explore, through the prism of al-riḥla fī ṭalab al-ʿilm (travel in search of knowledge), their maintenance of the longstanding Islamic ritual of travel as a means of excelling both professionally and religiously. In turn, I demonstrate how the movement, on a number of levels, effectively reconciles the spiritual and the everyday through updating Islamic practices to better integrate themselves and other Muslims into a globalised world.

History

Journal

British journal of Middle Eastern studies

Volume

42

Issue

2

Article number

163-178

Pagination

163 - 178

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Location

London, Eng.

ISSN

1469-3542

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2015, Taylor & Francis (Routledge)

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