An "engineer of social transformation"?

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Is Islam compatible with modernity? Can religion empower marginalized communities? What are the advantages that a secular state offers religious people? And must an Islamic society be based on ?ar??a laws?0Asghar Ali Engineer (1939?2013) was one of the most prolific commentators on Islam related issues in post-independence India and dealt with these questions that are also in the core of contemporary Western encounters with Islam. Thereby, he moved within a field of several other Muslim intellectuals that can be framed by the task of balancing fundamentalism and emancipation.0This study focuses on the aspect of liberation theology in Engineer?s work and examines 15 selected essays written from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. It emphasises Engineer?s biographical background, his struggle within the reform movement of his own, the Shiite Daudi Bohra community, as well as his sources and examples. Finally, it deals with the utopian societal idea that appears in Engineer?s writings and critically examines his approaches towards the above mentioned questions