Abstract:
Muslim intellectuals consider Islam to be a complete and consummate
religion. Some representatives of the Muslim intelligentsia began actively advocating
reform in religious and other practices and structures (educational, political, cultural and
social) to make Islam more relevant to the demands of contemporary society. Reformist
Islamic teaching presents a new understanding and interpretation of the entire complex
of religious, ethical, political and economic problems. New interpretations are offered
regarding the onto logical and epistemological aspects of the problem of relations
between God and man, which sanction the freedom of the will.
The Hindus and Buddhists possessed within themselves a considerable
reservoir of inner resources which they could draw upon in meeting the challenges they
faced in the nineteenth century. The Muslims lacked such means. A cultural revivalist
movement had already set in by now among the Buddhist and Hindu communities of
the Island, as; it was into these two communities that Christianity had made deep
inroads through primarily, missionary schools. It would thus be observed that the basis
of both communities revivalism had been the preservation of the respective religions
and cultures. But when these encouraged the birth of Islam revivalism, the latter had its
focus on education.
The Muslim community of contemporary Sri Lanka had various thinking and
understanding of religious revivalism. The present paper, however, has a much more
limited purpose. It seeks to identify the contemporary Islamic revivalism in Sri Lanka.
The main focus of this study was to find out contemporary institutions and individual
based Islamic revivalism in Ampara District.
