GRANTA £16.99 (342pp) £15.99 (free p&p per order) from 0870 079 8897

Desperately Seeking Paradise by Ziauddin Sardar

When we lived in modern times

One of the curiosities of contemporary intellectual life is the notion that modernity and secularism go together. Thinkers such as John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx believed that, as science advances, religion will wither away or retreat into private life. Today, the idea that the role of religion in society declines with modernisation shapes policies in a wide variety of contexts - including, absurdly, the war in Iraq.

One of the curiosities of contemporary intellectual life is the notion that modernity and secularism go together. Thinkers such as John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx believed that, as science advances, religion will wither away or retreat into private life. Today, the idea that the role of religion in society declines with modernisation shapes policies in a wide variety of contexts - including, absurdly, the war in Iraq.

In reality, secularisation as a clearly defined process is confined to a handful of European countries; in a global perspective, religion has never ceased to be a potent factor in politics and war. This is notably true in the United States. In America, which sees itself, and is seen by others, as the paradigm of a modern country, the Christian right has a paralysing grip on government and dictates policies on abortion and gay marriage.

There is actually very little to support the idea that religion tends to decline as society becomes more reliant on scientific knowledge. Yet it remains an article of faith among progressive thinkers.

The brittle certainties of secular humanism are an obstacle in understanding the world today. In order to find genuine enlightenment, one needs to go beyond the prevailing secular world-view, and there can be few better guides in this journey than Ziauddin Sardar. Far from being an enemy of modernity, Sardar is one of its most passionate contemporary exponents; but he is clear that apeing the countries that boast most stridently of their modernity is no recipe for a sustainable culture. The modern problem is how to reconcile the enduring human need for meaning with the pervasive power of science. No one - least of all the armed missionaries presently incumbent in 10 Downing Street and the White House - has solved it.

Desperately Seeking Paradise is the record of Sardar's life-long inquiry into what becoming modern means for a Muslim. At once earnest and humorous, light-hearted and profound, this is a book that displays a sustained capacity for self-questioning of a kind that has few parallels in the liberal West. Western liberals tend to think secular doubt is the prerogative of secular minds. They forget Christian thinkers such as Augustine, Pascal and Kierkegaard, and know nothing of Al Ghazali. Sardar describes this great Muslim thinker as an " equal opportunity doubter", who "ends up doubting instrumental reason itself, a leap of doubt and willingness to interrogate one's beliefs secular-minded modern-day adherents schooled in scientific method are loath even to contemplate".

Sardar writes that Al Ghazali's Book of Knowledge was at his bedside for many years, and the spirit of creative doubt by which it is animated was his constant companion as he travelled the length and breadth of the Muslim world. From the uncompromising secularism of Attaturkist Turkey through the puritanical revivalism of the Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia, to the fanatical intensity of the Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran, Sardar has observed at first hand the attempts that have been made in Islamic countries to replicate Western modernity, and to reject it altogether. His aim throughout has been to find a modern model for the peaceful coexistence of faiths. Ironically, the closest he comes to it is not modern at all: the Islamic kingdoms of medieval Spain, where Christians, Jews and Muslims lived in harmony for centuries.

This is not just a book about what modernity means for Muslims. It is also an account of a spiritual quest. At one point, Sardar turned to mysticism, and this took him to Konya, a long-standing centre of mystical practice. Despite being repelled by the authoritarian Sufi brotherhoods he observed there, he had a genuine mystical experience, which he recounts without any attempt at explanation.

A rationalist who is not afraid to doubt reason, Sardar exemplifies a kind of scepticism unknown to the anxious, certainty-seeking secular mind. This is the negative capability that Keats described, when he wrote of "being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact or reason".

John Gray's latest book is 'Al Qaeda and What It Means to be Modern' (Faber & Faber)

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
Career Services

Day In a Page

Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?

Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?

As scientists at Rothamsted's GM trials plead with activists not to sabotage their work, Michael McCarthy visits the battle field
Monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV

Monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV

Deep in Cameroon's rainforests, poachers are killing primates for food. Evan Williams reports from Yokadouma on a practice that could create a pandemic
Catcalls, whistles, groping: just another day for a young woman

Catcalls, whistles, groping: just another day for a young woman

Government urged to take abuse more seriously as London study shows 41 per cent are harassed
Jailing of Maori separatists stirs colonial-era resentment

Jailing of Maori separatists stirs colonial-era resentment

Militant Tuhoe tribe members defiant amid claims race relations had been set back 100 years
Fatal crashes are cyclists' fault, says Boris

Fatal crashes are cyclists' fault, says Boris

Mayor condemned for saying that two-thirds of riders killed on the road were at fault in accidents
Move over Brangelina, this night belongs to Kingston Bagpuize

Move over Brangelina, this night belongs to Kingston Bagpuize

Unlikely community movie beats the stars to get prized Leicester Square premiere
Solved after 33 years? Case of first missing boy shown on milk carton

Solved after 33 years?

Case of first missing boy shown on milk carton
Like mamma used to make: Pizza Pilgrims is proving a word-of mouth sensation

Pizza Pilgrims: Like mamma used to make

A van dispensing purist pizzas is proving a word-of mouth sensation
The supper on its uppers: Why we need to learn to entertain lavishly for less

Supper on its uppers: Entertain lavishly for less

Dinner parties are buckling under the pressures of food snobbery and belt-tightening...
The 10 best summer cookbooks

The 10 best summer cookbooks

From Claudia Roden's The Food of Spain to The Art of Cooking with Vegetables by Alain Passard...
Gorgeous Georgian: Now we can enjoy the cuisine of Russia's fiery neighbour nearer home

Gorgeous Georgian cuisine

The food of Russia's fiery neighbour is among the world's most inventive and original
Fury at Obama over filmmakers' access to Bin Laden kill team

Fury at Obama over filmmakers' access to Bin Laden kill team

White House denies putting politics before national security
Novak Djokovic: Patriot's game

Novak Djokovic: Patriot's game

The world No 1 is fiercely proud to be from Serbia and to be improving his country's profile. And he knows that winning the French Open – and therefore holding all four Slams – will do his cause no harm at all
Rugby league's great drugs cover-up

Rugby league's great drugs cover-up

After Hull's Martin Gleeson failed a drug test last year it sparked an avalanche of lies, complacency and confusion which Robin Scott-Elliot reveals for the first time
Ian Bell: Forget good-looking shots, I want to be known as a tough operator

Ian Bell: View From the Middle

It was nice to play a pressure innings at Lord's on Monday and be recognised for it