Reform Within the Scholarly Tradition

Qursawi’s reformist project focuses on tahqiq as a means of ensuring religious correctness, against the predominance of taqlid, which he saw as perpetuating misguidance, and of questioning conventional positions on the divine attributes and the timing of the isha (night) prayer. It is not fundamentalist or scripturalist, but rather relies on established Hanafi-Maturidi forms of reasoning and methods of interpretation, tied to sound sources of religious knowledge—scripture and authoritative consensus. This chapter presents the underlying logic and approach of his reformism as a coherent whole within the postclassical scholarly tradition. It also compares Qursawi’s thought with that of the 18th-century reformers in Voll’s Hijaz network, arguing that while Qursawi has no connection with this network, the similarities show how reform can be (independently) articulated in different settings. Qursawi’s reformism is ultimately shaped by the Central Asian scholarly tradition and the circumstances under Russian imperial rule.