A History of Islamic Societies

The consolidation of a post-imperial Islamic society was accompanied by the consolidation of Islamic religious literatures, beliefs, and values and by the canonization of an Islamic orthodoxy. Although the basic literatures of exegesis, hadith, law, theology, and mysticism had originated in an earlier era, during the tenth to the thirteenth centuries these literatures were merged into the forms that we now identify as “classical Islam.” A Sunni-scripturalist-Sufi orientation became the most commonly accepted version of Islam. Shiʿism, philosophy, theosophy, and popular religion were the alternatives to the Sunni consensus. The post-imperial era constructed both the normative forms of Islamic religious belief and practice and the alternatives, thus defining the issues that would ever after constitute the problématique of Muslim religious discourse.

Normative Islam: Scripture, Sufism, and Theology

Sunni consensus became grounded in scripture during the medieval period. In the post-imperial era, the Quran was understood to require each person to do the good deeds commanded by God; to be moderate, humble, kind, and just; and to be steadfast and tranquil in the face of his own passions. The true Muslim is the slave of God. He accepts his humble place in the world and takes no pride or consolation in human prowess but recognizes the limited worth of all worldly things and the greater importance of pleasing God.