before us." 6 ; thus, he agreed with Khan's call for a new theology.

7 In the intellectual
and
political realms, modern scientism, atheism and secularism were significant factors
that
impacted Muslim society. Muslim intellectual, social and political activists contended
that
Islam must be able to civilizationally and culturally respond to Western modernity.
In the twentieth century, Fazlur Rahman is considered to be amongst the most
influential and
significant Muslim modernists in both the Western and Muslim worlds. He took on the
challenges faced by the Muslim world both in thought and in practice and contributed
significantly to the discussion on jadid 'ilm ul-kalam. As we have discussed above
jadid 'ilm ulkalam does include theological topics in its gambit, however it is not limited to it as is
the case
with traditional kalam. For the purposes of this study Fazlur Rahman's contribution in
the
area of traditional kalam viz., theology proper {IllahTyai) and Prophecy (Nabuwwat) is
scrutinized. In order to do so it is necessary to construct and evaluate Fazlur
Rahman's
theological thought and its implications upon the modernization and reformation of
'ilm ulkalam to which this thesis is committed to ascertaining.
Problem Statement

Our hypothesis is that Fazlur Rahman exemplifies a modern theologian who reformed
traditional (mutaqaddim) and medieval (muta'akhii) and addressed the challenge of
Western
modernity by formulating an Islamic theology of modernity (Jadid 'ilm ul-kalam). The
research questions that have guided this research are as follows:

1. What are the influences that have shaped Fazlur Rahman's thought: Western and
Islamic?

2. What is the nature of Fazlur Rahman modernist thought?

6 Ibid

7 Khalid Masud, p. 12

3. What is the methodology of Fazlur Rahman's theological thought? How does he

derive
his theological stance?

4. Why does Fazlur Rahman reach the conclusions that he does?

5. How does Fazlur Rahman deal with the primary sources of the Qur'an, Sunnah,
Hadlth, I'jma', Qiyas and the theological schools?

Methodology

We have attempted to use the constructivist method to analyze Fazlur Rahman's

treatment of
kalam. In this thesis, constructivism has been understood as a methodology that
considers
theological views as 'constructed' by particular intellectual trends and influences.
Identifying
these ideological and theological influences will determine, to a large extent, the
characteristics of the subject's thought. Also, Fazlur Rahman's life has been
reconstructed and
linked to his writings to assess the role of his psychological temperament. Our
analysis follows
the methodology of Albert Hourani's intellectual history Arabic Thought in the Liberal
Age
1798-1939, wherein an emphasis is placed on the importance of locating ideas within
their
unique intellectual context. When analyzing an intellectual, it is important to "explain
as fully
as possible the influences, circumstances, and the traits of personality which may
have led him
to think about certain matters in a certain way. 8 " This way, a boundary can be
demarcated
between those elements of Fazlur Rahman's theology that are external to his thought
and
ultimately appropriated, and those aspects that he himself has introduced to the
debate. Doing
so allows us to determine the extent to which Fazlur Rahman is a derivative thinker,
merely
describing or repeating the arguments of his antecedents, and the extent that his
contributions represent a dramatic break from tradition. Christian Troll, in his
intellectual

biography of the Indian Muslim modernist Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-1898), explains
the
necessity of viewing thought in a process of interaction and engagement between the
individual thinker and his intellectual context: "It therefore seemed imperative to try
to
specify in which form and at what time in Sir Sayyid's life the challenges to his
theological

8 Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798-1939 (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1983),
p. v.