A Theology of Modernity: Hasan al-Turabi and Islamic Renewal in Sudan

Biographers of Hasan al-Turabi, the leader of the Islamic revival in Sudan, are inclined to see his "fundamentalism" as an expression of the religious traditions of the al-Turabis, a lineage of sufis, Mahdis, jurists, and clerics that came into existence in the seventeenth century. This view obscures the politics of a shrewd thinker with a great ability to respond to and effect change. This article examines al-Turabi's religious ideas as a "theology of modernity" which includes a lucid interrogation of tradition and modernity. Al-Turabi focuses on the concept of ibtila, the challenges posed by God to test Muslims' faith, in constructing a mode of worship worthy of a time of dramatic technological innovations, human mobility, and interconnectedness. In fashioning a theology which applies long-standing religious traditions to the challenges of the modern world, al-Turabi disputes claims of the incompatibility of these two realms.