In relation to the purely traditionalist Islamic piety the movement of Islamic resurgence of the Jamat brand is progressive in many respects. The forward-looking emphasis of the Jamat is welcome. But, on a deeper analysis, their language of progress and their pleas for reconstructing and modernizing the shariah turns insipid. This happens because they virtually reject the method of free enquiry and the time-tested methodology of the natural and the social sciences, in favour of a newfangled 'Islamic methodology' which is never spelt out, but is merely dangled before charmed Islamic audiences as the panacea for solving all the ills which beset humanity. They fail to explain how can there be Islamic Physics/Geology/Astronomy/Zoology, or for that matter, Islamic Anthropology/Geography/ Agriculture etc; in contradistinction from these subjects, as they are understood by the world scientific or academic community. The one and only way of the pursuit of truth is the method of free enquiry in a spirit of humility and the readiness to surrender before truth, as ascertained by methods appropriate for the subject matter of the enquiry. The talk of Islamic science or knowledge, or the ‘Islamization of knowledge’ appears to be a rallying slogan rather than a serious tool of fee enquiry. After all, the power of modern technology flows, ultimately, from the pragmatic truth of the scientific method. Technology will cease to grow the moment the scientific method is discarded. And the womb of the scientific method is free enquiry and the stress on verification. If this spirit weakens or withers away technology will begin to stagnate and eventually collapse.

The Jamat forcefully affirms that true religion is not merely praying, fasting and performing other rituals but working to build an equitable social, political and economic order that promotes universal welfare. But the Jamat hardly realizes that all good religious people, no matter what their theological creed might be, assert this basic truth.   It is, indeed, very true that individual piety is not enough in the-absence of a just social order—a surrounding political, economic, and cultural space in which the individual lives and functions. Consequently, if religion aims at true human welfare, it must prescribe not merely individual piety and goodness through spiritual discipline, but also ensure the proper ordering of society as a whole- The mischief, however, begins when the thesis of the social role or relevance of Islam is made into an argument for Islamic separatism or supremacy of the shariah in every sphere of life—politics, economics and even knowledge, as such.

       The present protagonists of Islamic Resurgence hold that Sir Syed and other Muslim liberal thinkers adopt a ‘cosmetic’ and soft approach to religion since de-linking it from political activity reduces the power and scope of religion to innocuous rituals. The fact is, precisely, the other way round. Religion loses its power and depth, not through the proper delimitation of its functions, but through an indiscriminate expansion of its jurisdiction. The existential depth and inwardness of religion, thereby, turns into the spatial thinness of fixed rules of conduct at every point of life. Spirituality, the life breath of religion, then gets strangulated either in the weeds of regimentation or the pitfalls of power politics.

The religious liberals who wish to keep religion and politics apart do not ignore the importance of a just, social order. The thesis of the separation of religion and politics does not at all imply the separation of moral considerations and concerns from politics and economics. Since basic moral values are common to all religions the politics of democratic liberal secularism can not be deemed to be, essentially, ‘satanic’ or ‘Godless’.