"Jihad or Ijtihad" is a study in which Habib tries to trace the trajectory of mainstream Islam's questioning of modern science.
"What prompted me to get into this subject was some essentialist formulations of scholars, who were attempting to articulate for 'Islamic science' as a valid science for the believers. For them it was a critique of Eurocentrism, which I found problematic and decided to question it through my 19th century Muslim modernists, who thought differently. This book is an attempt to question some of these fundamentalist notions being peddled in Islam today," Habib told PTI.
Through the lives of famous men like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, he shows the reader that the modern-day promulgation of Islam and its followers as "anti- modern" and "anti-science" is a myth that leads, quite literally, to explosive consequences.
Habib, who holds the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Chair at the National University of Educational Planning and Administration here, feels Islam today is more self-righteous and closed in comparison to his own childhood days.
"Why is it so, though Quran and prophetic traditions have not changed? I feel it is Islamism more than Islam which needs to be blamed. Sadly, this change has come about in all religions," he argues.
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