Books by Matthew J Kuiper
Edingburgh University Press, 2021
Included here: Table of Contents, first few pages, and launch discount. See https://edinburghuniv... more Included here: Table of Contents, first few pages, and launch discount. See https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-da-wa.html
In this engaging study, Matthew J. Kuiper tells the fascinating story of how Islam became a world religion and cultural phenomenon of immense scale, astonishing diversity and global impact. His starting point is the dramatic upsurge in Islamic missionary activism and widespread Muslim recovery of the classical concept of da‘wa (‘inviting’ to Islam, or Islamic mission) in recent times.
Going back to Islam’s origins, Kuiper then carefully chronicles 14 centuries of history, from the 7th-century da‘was of the Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad to diverse da‘wa initiatives in today’s global religious marketplaces. Paying attention to changing contexts, and to themes like the interplay between the religious and the political, Islamic relations with other religions, and the transformations of modernity, he develops a nuanced and original portrait of the past, present and future of Islamic missionary thought and practice.
Routledge, 2018
Paperback now available! See https://www.routledge.com/Dawa-and-Other-Religions-Indian-Muslims-an... more Paperback now available! See https://www.routledge.com/Dawa-and-Other-Religions-Indian-Muslims-and-the-Modern-Resurgence-of/Kuiper/p/book/9780367265564. Opening pages and Introduction provided on my academia page.
Da‘wa, a concept rooted in the scriptural and classical tradition of Islam, has been dramatically re-appropriated in modern times across the Muslim world. Championed by a variety of actors in diverse contexts, da‘wa –"inviting" to Islam, or Islamic missionary activity – has become central to the vocabulary of contemporary Islamic activism.
Da‘wa and Other Religions explores the modern resurgence of da‘wa through the lens of inter-religious relations and within the two horizons of Islamic history and modernity. Part I provides an account of da‘wa from the Qur’an to the present. It demonstrates the close relationship that has existed between da‘wa and inter-religious relations throughout Islamic history and sheds light on the diversity of da‘wa over time. The book also argues that Muslim communities in colonial and post-colonial India shed light on these themes with particular clarity. Part II, therefore, analyzes and juxtaposes two prominent da‘wa organizations to emerge from the Indian subcontinent in the past century: the Tablīghī Jamā‘at and the Islamic Research Foundation of Zakir Naik. By investigating the formative histories and inter-religious discourses of these movements, Part II elucidates the influential roles Indian Muslims have played in modern da‘wa.
This book makes important contributions to the study of da‘wa in general and to the study of the Tablīghī Jamā‘at, one of the world’s largest da‘wa movements. It also provides the first major scholarly study of Zakir Naik and the Islamic Research Foundation.Further, it challenges common assumptions and enriches our understanding of modern Islam. It will have a broad appeal for students and scholars of Islamic Studies, Indian religious history and anyone interested in da‘wa and inter-religious relations throughout Islamic history.
Articles and Papers by Matthew J Kuiper
Oxford Bibliographies in Islamic Studies, 2018
Oxford Bibliographies in Islamic Studies, 2018
Read Here: http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/comment/zakir-naik-a-different-kind-of-jihadist, 2017
Commentary on Zakir Naik in India's weekly Open Magazine (July 7, 2017).
Lord the Air Smells Good: Felicitation Volume in Honour of Paul Jackson, 2018
Since the TJ began as a local north Indian movement in the 1920s and burst onto the international... more Since the TJ began as a local north Indian movement in the 1920s and burst onto the international scene after the death of its founder, Maulana Muhammad Ilyas (1885-1944), its present status as a transnational phenomenon is often credited to Ilyas’s son, Maulana Muhammad Yusuf – who served as the TJ’s amir (supreme leader) from 1944 until his death in 1965. While Yusuf and subsequent amirs certainly played key roles in the internationalization of the TJ, this view of things does not tell the whole story. In fact, this article argues that to understand the transnationalism of the TJ today, one must first re-visit the development of north Indian Sunni reformism from roughly 1700-1900. Then, one must consider the TJ’s birth and early development under Maulana Ilyas, from roughly 1900 to 1944. It will be argued here that during these periods a transnational trajectory for the movement was set in motion through (1) the development of the Waliullite-Deobandi message of Sunni reform; and (2) the novel methods of spreading the Deobandi message which were pioneered by Ilyas. In short, the TJ’s unique blend of pan-Islamic piety on one hand, and pragmatism regarding politics, Sufism, and Islamization (or da‘wa/tabligh) on the other gave the movement a latent transnationalism from the start.
The Muslim World (vol. 104), Apr 2014
In recent years, the term “proto-Sunni” has become common in scholarship on the early centuries o... more In recent years, the term “proto-Sunni” has become common in scholarship on the early centuries of Islam. Drawing on categories developed by Peter Berger, this study seeks to move toward a more inclusive portrait of the early proto-Sunni movement and a more organic understanding of the movement’s success. It argues that owing to the erosion of several of the “plausibility structures” of earliest Islam, three tendencies emerged among the proto-Sunnis between the early 8th and mid-9th centuries C.E.: proto-Sunnis as traditionist ʿulamāʾ, proto-Sunnis as pious ascetics, and proto-Sunnis as volunteer holy warriors. The prestige acquired through their activities in these areas enabled the early proto-Sunnis to “objectify” and “legitimize” new plausibility structures which would prove decisive to an eventual Sunni consensus.
Personal guide I use when writing reviews
10 tips for writing reviews
Indian Church History Review, Dec 2013
Pentecostal churches and movements, which comprise a “fourth great wave” of Christianity in India... more Pentecostal churches and movements, which comprise a “fourth great wave” of Christianity in India, have begun to attract more scholarly attention. This article reviews three of the most recent book-length studies on Pentecostalism in India (by V.V. Thomas, Michael Bergunder, and Wessly Lukose), bringing them into conversation with one another and with wider literature on global Pentecostalism. Along with providing helpful analysis of numerous aspects of Pentecostal history in India, the studies under review here also highlight the challenges and opportunities historians and other scholars face in studying Indian Pentecostal movements. This article thus concludes by highlighting several important historiographical and methodological issues that will be pertinent to the study of Pentecostalism in India moving forward.
Book Reviews by Matthew J Kuiper
Religious Studies Review, 2022
Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 2021
Dialog, 2020
Book review of Salih Sayilgan's An Islamic Jihad of Nonviolence: Said Nursi's Model
Religious Studies Review 45.3 (2019), pgs. 390-91, 2019
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/rsr.14224
Mission Studies: Journal of the International Association for Mission Studies, 30.1 (2013)
Doon Theological Journal 8.1 (2011)
Transformation 30.2 (2013)
Doon Theological Journal 6.1 (2009)
Doon Theological Journal 7.2 (2010)
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Books by Matthew J Kuiper
In this engaging study, Matthew J. Kuiper tells the fascinating story of how Islam became a world religion and cultural phenomenon of immense scale, astonishing diversity and global impact. His starting point is the dramatic upsurge in Islamic missionary activism and widespread Muslim recovery of the classical concept of da‘wa (‘inviting’ to Islam, or Islamic mission) in recent times.
Going back to Islam’s origins, Kuiper then carefully chronicles 14 centuries of history, from the 7th-century da‘was of the Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad to diverse da‘wa initiatives in today’s global religious marketplaces. Paying attention to changing contexts, and to themes like the interplay between the religious and the political, Islamic relations with other religions, and the transformations of modernity, he develops a nuanced and original portrait of the past, present and future of Islamic missionary thought and practice.
Da‘wa, a concept rooted in the scriptural and classical tradition of Islam, has been dramatically re-appropriated in modern times across the Muslim world. Championed by a variety of actors in diverse contexts, da‘wa –"inviting" to Islam, or Islamic missionary activity – has become central to the vocabulary of contemporary Islamic activism.
Da‘wa and Other Religions explores the modern resurgence of da‘wa through the lens of inter-religious relations and within the two horizons of Islamic history and modernity. Part I provides an account of da‘wa from the Qur’an to the present. It demonstrates the close relationship that has existed between da‘wa and inter-religious relations throughout Islamic history and sheds light on the diversity of da‘wa over time. The book also argues that Muslim communities in colonial and post-colonial India shed light on these themes with particular clarity. Part II, therefore, analyzes and juxtaposes two prominent da‘wa organizations to emerge from the Indian subcontinent in the past century: the Tablīghī Jamā‘at and the Islamic Research Foundation of Zakir Naik. By investigating the formative histories and inter-religious discourses of these movements, Part II elucidates the influential roles Indian Muslims have played in modern da‘wa.
This book makes important contributions to the study of da‘wa in general and to the study of the Tablīghī Jamā‘at, one of the world’s largest da‘wa movements. It also provides the first major scholarly study of Zakir Naik and the Islamic Research Foundation.Further, it challenges common assumptions and enriches our understanding of modern Islam. It will have a broad appeal for students and scholars of Islamic Studies, Indian religious history and anyone interested in da‘wa and inter-religious relations throughout Islamic history.
Articles and Papers by Matthew J Kuiper
Scholars of the TJ and of South Asian Islam: Please send me any citations I might have missed! Oxford Bibliographies will allow me to update this article from time to time.
Book Reviews by Matthew J Kuiper
In this engaging study, Matthew J. Kuiper tells the fascinating story of how Islam became a world religion and cultural phenomenon of immense scale, astonishing diversity and global impact. His starting point is the dramatic upsurge in Islamic missionary activism and widespread Muslim recovery of the classical concept of da‘wa (‘inviting’ to Islam, or Islamic mission) in recent times.
Going back to Islam’s origins, Kuiper then carefully chronicles 14 centuries of history, from the 7th-century da‘was of the Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad to diverse da‘wa initiatives in today’s global religious marketplaces. Paying attention to changing contexts, and to themes like the interplay between the religious and the political, Islamic relations with other religions, and the transformations of modernity, he develops a nuanced and original portrait of the past, present and future of Islamic missionary thought and practice.
Da‘wa, a concept rooted in the scriptural and classical tradition of Islam, has been dramatically re-appropriated in modern times across the Muslim world. Championed by a variety of actors in diverse contexts, da‘wa –"inviting" to Islam, or Islamic missionary activity – has become central to the vocabulary of contemporary Islamic activism.
Da‘wa and Other Religions explores the modern resurgence of da‘wa through the lens of inter-religious relations and within the two horizons of Islamic history and modernity. Part I provides an account of da‘wa from the Qur’an to the present. It demonstrates the close relationship that has existed between da‘wa and inter-religious relations throughout Islamic history and sheds light on the diversity of da‘wa over time. The book also argues that Muslim communities in colonial and post-colonial India shed light on these themes with particular clarity. Part II, therefore, analyzes and juxtaposes two prominent da‘wa organizations to emerge from the Indian subcontinent in the past century: the Tablīghī Jamā‘at and the Islamic Research Foundation of Zakir Naik. By investigating the formative histories and inter-religious discourses of these movements, Part II elucidates the influential roles Indian Muslims have played in modern da‘wa.
This book makes important contributions to the study of da‘wa in general and to the study of the Tablīghī Jamā‘at, one of the world’s largest da‘wa movements. It also provides the first major scholarly study of Zakir Naik and the Islamic Research Foundation.Further, it challenges common assumptions and enriches our understanding of modern Islam. It will have a broad appeal for students and scholars of Islamic Studies, Indian religious history and anyone interested in da‘wa and inter-religious relations throughout Islamic history.
Scholars of the TJ and of South Asian Islam: Please send me any citations I might have missed! Oxford Bibliographies will allow me to update this article from time to time.
Abstract: Da‘wa is a classical Islamic concept which has been dramatically re-appropriated in modern times across the Muslim world. This dissertation explores the modern resurgence of da‘wa – “inviting” to Islam, or Islamic missionary activity – through the lens of inter-religious relations, and within the two horizons Islamic history and modernity. It demonstrates, first, the close relationship that has existed between da‘wa and inter-religious relations both in the past and in the modern period. Second, it sheds light on the diversity of da‘wa in the midst of other religions by tracing two broad styles of da‘wa throughout Islamic history: “bottom-up” and “top-down” da‘wa. Finally, it argues that Muslim communities in colonial and post-colonial India shed light on these themes with particular clarity. Indian Muslims, this dissertation suggests, have made pioneering contributions to global da‘wa, particularly with respect to their development of bottom-up styles of da‘wa and what this dissertation calls “da‘wa modernities.”
These arguments are developed in two parts. Part I provides an examination of da‘wa in relation to other religions from the Qur’an to the modern period. Since few studies have examined Islamic history through these lenses, this represents a major contribution in its own right. Building on Part I, Part II analyzes two prominent Sunni da‘wa organizations to emerge from the Indian subcontinent in the past century: the Tablīghī Jamā‘at (TJ) and the Islamic Research Foundation of Dr. Zakir Naik (IRF). By investigating and juxtaposing the lineages, formative histories and inter-religious discourses of these movements and their founders, Part II elucidates both the unique contributions Indian Muslims have made to modern da‘wa, and the diversity of Indian da‘wa. In response to the political, social and inter-religious challenges they have faced in modern India, and through their fresh engagement with Islamic scripture and tradition, these movements have developed related, though distinct, bottom-¬up styles of da‘wa and da‘wa modernities which have proven to be globally relevant. This dissertation thus makes a significant contribution to the study of da‘wa in general and to the study of the Tablīghī Jamā‘at. It also provides the first major scholarly study of Zakir Naik.