1 What is Enlightenment? An Islamic Perspective M. A Muqtedar Khan, University of Delaware Abstract This essay draws on Immanuel Kant’s concept of enlightenment as an escape from self- imposed ignorance and argues that a similar concept of enlightenment can be understood within the Muslim context as escape from self-imposed jahiliyyah, which is understood as fear to exercise reason publicly. The article advocates for ijtihad, is critical of Taqlid, and invokes Islamic sources to invest confidence in contemporary use of reason for interpreting Islam. Return of Jahiliyyah ْ ﻢ ُ ﺭﱠﺑﱢﻜ ﻦ ِ ﻣُ ﺮ ِ ﺋ ٓ ﺎَ ﺼَ ﺑ ﻢ ُ ﻛ َ ء ٓ ﺎَ ﺟْ ﺪَ ﻗ An Enlightenment has come to you from your Lord (Quran 6:104). For nearly a millennium and a half, Muslims have understood Islam as a human condition that is antithetical to jahiliyyah (ignorance). Most historical and religious accounts of Islam begin with a discussion of the state of ignorance in Arabia and often use it as a benchmark to underscore the civilizing influence of Islam on the barbaric Arabs of pre- Islamic Arabia. The great Islamic civilization that was produced with the explosion of knowledge in the fields of philosophy, science, sociology, medicine, and mathematics still remains a central influence on Islamic identity and an example of the indubitable truth of Islam and its transformative potential. In the same vein, the rationality of Islamic beliefs and Islamic socio-political order remains a major theme in the discourses of Islamic intellectuals, scholars, and preachers. The point I seek to make is simple: Muslims have always understood Islam as enlightenment, the path that rescued humanity from ignorance,