AL-WASAṬIYYAH (MODERATION): THE ALTERNATIVE EPISTEMOLOGY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY MUSLIM CRISES

Abstract

The 21st century Muslim world faces the crises of reciprocal extremism and radicalisation entertained by minorities in our midst and rooted in the Middle Eastern mindset of Zionism and Arab nationalism. Its outward manifestations are: (a) continuous bloodshed in the Muslim lands, and (b) deepening Muslim disunity. This article examines the Qurānic concept of wasać as an inward alternative of the mindset of extremism and a means of deradicalisation. Al-wasaṭiyyah is discussed within the framework of the Islamic epistemology of gradual sustenance as a method of its implementation. The article critically examines the term “al-wasaṭiyyah,” traces the Qurānic injunctions that make up its framework and applies its values to the 21st century “crises.”