"Islamic revivalism in contemporary Sri Lanka with special reference to Amparai disrict"

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.