The Time of Epistemic Domination: Notes on Modernity as an Oppressive Category

Abstract

Critically engaging with many writings – some recent, some old – this essay brings to light the monumental connections between notions of time at the heart of modernity and scholarship on Islam as epistemic domination. The thesis it foregrounds is that decolonizing knowledge cannot proceed with continuing fidelity to the dominating time of secular modernity. The essay, therefore, argues that scholars should inquire into Islamic concepts of time rather than uncritically apply the notions of temporality supplied by West and modernity. To illustrate how Islamic notions of time work in practice, it ends with two examples from “modern” history.