Editor's Choice -- NanoWisdoms - Extend. Quotes -- Hazar Imam's profound perspectives on modernity and tradition

As Muslims, in the modern world, the words "modernity" and "tradition" unleash an uneasy cascade of conflicting emotions as we try, often unsuccessfully, to reconcile the two. Fortunately, Mawlana Hazar Imam, has provided his profound insights and perspectives on how to look at and reconcile the two, not just for today but for all time.

At the heart of his approach is his unwavering conviction that "Islam is for all places and all time" and that he "would never accept that the concept of Islam, the practice of Islam, cannot be fulfilled in the modern world or in the world of tomorrow."

Hazar Imam's perspective on modernity and tradition is more subtle than just bringing traditions and ethics from our faith from the past to the present, as though the they are different times.

For him, the past, present and future aren't separate times but an unbroken continuity, as he explained in 1998, in Mwanza, Tanzania: "Of course, when you use the word 'modern,' you apply it actually improperly, because any person who lives in his time will refer to his time as a modern world. But the concept of modernity does not stop."

To capture some key aspects of his vision, we created a four part Extended Quote series on modernity and tradition:

In part 1, "Islam is for all places and all time" Hazar Imam affirms his conviction that Islam doesn't need to be "modernized" because Islam is timeless.

In part 2, "Towards 'new understandings of essential principles'", Hazar Imam explains reconciling tradition and modernity means separating principles from traditions.

In part 3, "Progress does not mean occidentalisation", Hazar Imam underscores, time and time again, industrial world values and ideas are not the benchmarks or standards by which we should assess our progress.

In part 4, "Innovate; 'Discover new knowledge'", we highlight the most unexpected, but perhaps most important aspect of Hazar Imam's perspective on tradition and modernity: innovation and discovering new knowledge.

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