In the decades following the momentous changes which had taken place in the Middle East during the First World War, many of the themes which had so preoccupied an earlier generation of writers remained of concern to those who saw themselves as developing a distinctively Islamic response to the ‘problems of the age’ or the ‘problem of society’. However, they now acquired a sharper focus, as well as a sense of urgency which can be partly explained by the fact that the scope of local political and economic activity was widening as the process of decolonisation began. It was possible not only to imagine alternative futures, but also to plan for the power that would put them into practice. Nevertheless, political independence did not necessarily imply independence from a world economic order founded on capitalist principles. For an emerging bourgeoisie across the Islamic lands, this was something to be welcomed, if only the domination of European enterprises could be removed from the national economies of the Middle East. At the same time, capitalism itself was being moderated from within through Keynesian welfare economics, and challenged from without by the model championed by the USSR and its allies. Thus, the period opened up possibilities for various forms of action, stimulating the imagination of many in the region.

This raised the fear for those who were determined to reshape public life, society and economy along distinctively Islamic lines that others, inimical to Islam, were also preparing to seize this moment of historical possibility.