Accountability and Oversight
\r\nThere is the risk that the deference ordinary people are sometimes expected to show to religious leaders and Sayyids can make it difficult to hold the latter accountable for any misbehaviour. Early modern reformers, who were keen to bureaucratize the religious sector, were particularly concerned about this. But even before modernity, there was a strain of Muslim popular and folk culture that related tales of the religious classes using their charisma and social capital to exploit the underprivileged, and to avoid accountability for their actions. A strong strain of what could be called "anti-clericism" has therefore, always existed alongside the reverence shown to "saints," Sayyids, and charismatic religious leaders. In the end, what is clear is that in the religious sector, as in the political sector, it is critical that institutions are accountable to the greater community. It is only with such accountability and oversight that any sector of Muslim society can carry and transmit the values their community ascribes to the Quran.
\r\nOrdinary people will never demand such accountability, however, if they do not have a certain level of confidence in their convictions and courage to articulate them. This is why we need not only to study the history of the dominant leaders and institutions in Muslim societies, but also to search for the voices of marginalized individuals and groups - to see how they articulated and maintained their faith when they had little power. It is for this reason that Abu Dharr's opposition to the Umayyads serves as an inspiration for those fighting the status quo. But here we need to exercise some caution. We cannot simply romanticize the voice of protest - after all, Abu Dharr was claimed as an inspiration not just by pious reformers but also by Arab communists. Further, the Khawarij were a marginalized protest movement - but they were ruthlessly violent and intolerant. Indeed, there is a lesson in that history as well: sometimes groups are marginalized for good reason, and no person, no matter how noble his stated cause, is immune from error or the temptations of arrogance and power.
\r\nCompiled From:
\r\n \"The Story of The Quran: Its History and Place in Muslim Life\" - Ingrid Mattson, p. 226