Islamic Utopianism: Key Concepts from the Quranic Story of Adam's Creation

Abstract

abstract:This article argues that the story of Adam's creation in the Quran establishes some early terminology on Islamic utopianism that later influenced the utopian drive in the Muslim world. It also argues that proper understanding of Islamic utopianism calls for Bloch's redefinition of the term and his differentiation between utopian function, content, and form and between abstract and concrete utopias. Throughout the article, the writer tracks the formation of abstract and concrete utopias in the Quranic story of Adam and his mission on Earth. The writer then explains and illustrates how the Quranic story established three terms crucial to the formation of many secular and religious utopian articulations in Islamic history: Ḵilāfa, istiʿmār, and ṣirāṭ mustaqīm. This article is useful to researchers interested in utopianism beyond the Western context because it provides preliminary research on Islamic utopianism that has been scarcely studied so far