[4] In the late 20th century, Islamic revival brought "re-Islamization", ranging from increased number of sharia-based legal statutes,[5] of attendance at Hajj,[6][3][7] use of hijab, influence of fundamentalist preachers,[5] and terrorist attacks by radical Islamist groups.
Explanations for the revival include the perceived failure of secularism, in the form of Westernized ruling elites that were increasingly seen as authoritarian, ineffective and lacking cultural authenticity;[4] the secular Arab nationalist movement whose governments were humiliatingly defeated in the Six-Day War with Israel; the fall of previously prosperous multi-confessional Lebanon into a destructive sectarian civil war; perceived successes of Islam included the surprising victory of Islamist forces against a well-armed and financed secular monarch in the 1979 Iranian Revolution; and hundreds of billions of dollars spent by Saudi Arabia and other gulf states around the Muslim world to encourage the following of stricter, more conservative strains of Islam.
[9][10] Contemporary revivalist currents include Jihadism; neo-Sufism, which cultivates Muslim spirituality; and classical fundamentalism, which stresses obedience to Sharia (Islamic law) and ritual observance.
[4] Some of the more prominent examples include Saudi Arabia after the 1979 Grand Mosque attack, Iran after the 1979 revolution, Pakistan after Zia's Islamization in 1979, and Afghanistan after the rise of the Mujahideen from the Soviet Afghan war.
The concept of Islamic revival is based on a sahih hadith (a saying attributed to Muhammad),[11] recorded by Abu Dawood, narrated by Abu Hurairah, who reported that Muhammad said: Allah will raise for this community at the end of every 100 years the one who will renovate its religion for it.Within the Islamic tradition, tajdid (lit., regeneration, renewal) has been an important religious concept.
[3] These efforts frequently drew inspiration from the hadith in which Muhammad states: "God will send to His community at the head of each century those who will renew its faith for it".
[3] The modern movement of Islamic revival has been compared with earlier efforts of a similar nature: The "oscillat[ion] between periods of strict religious observance and others of devotional laxity" in Islamic history was striking enough for "the Muslim historian, Ibn Khaldun to ponder its causes 600 years ago, and speculate that it could be "attributed ... to features of ecology and social organization peculiar to the Middle East", namely the tension between the easy living in the towns and the austere life in the desert.
Despite him being influenced by Rida and his drawing of ideas primarily from Islamic sources, Al-Banna nevertheless was willing to engage with modern European concepts like nationalism, constitutionalism, etc.
[18] After the late 1970s, when the Iranian Revolution erupted, a worldwide Islamic revival emerged in response to the success of the revolution, owing in large part to the failure of secular Arab nationalist movement in the aftermath of the Six-Day War and popular disappointment with secular nation states in the Middle East and Westernized ruling elites, which had dominated the Muslim world during the preceding decades, and which were increasingly seen as authoritarian, ineffective and lacking cultural authenticity.
[4] Further motivation for the revival included the Lebanese Civil War, which began in 1975 and resulted in a level of sectarianism between Muslims and Christians previously unseen in many Middle Eastern countries.
Another motivation was the newfound wealth and discovered political leverage brought to much of the Muslim world in the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and also the Grand Mosque seizure which occurred in late 1979 amidst the revival; both of these events encouraged the rise of the phenomenon of "Petro-Islam" and the International propagation of conservative revivalist strains of Islam favored by Saudi Arabia and other petroleum exporting Gulf states during the mid-to-late 1970s.
As such, it has been argued that with both of the Islamic superpowers in the Middle East (Iran and Saudi Arabia) espousing Islamist ideologies by the end of the 1970s, and the isolation of the traditionally secularist Egypt during the period from being the most influential Arab country as a result of the Camp David Accords- resulting in Saudi Arabia's newfound dominance over Arab countries – the Islamic revival became especially potent amongst Muslims worldwide.
[20]A global wave of Islamic revivalism emerged starting from the end of 1970s owing in large part to popular disappointment with the secular nation states and Westernized ruling elites, which had dominated the Muslim world during the preceding decades, and which were increasingly seen as authoritarian, ineffective and lacking cultural authenticity.
[27] In Pakistan, a bill to make sharia the exclusive source of law of the state was introduced after General Zia's coup in 1977, and finally passed in 1993 under Nawaz Sharif's government.
[5] The family law of 1984 "re-introduced some sharia elements"[27] such as Quranic dissymmetry between men and women,[5] and the official policy of Arabisation led to a de facto Islamisation of education.
Religious graduates of İmam Hatip secondary schools were given right of access to the universities and allowed to apply for civil service positions, introducing it to religious-minded people.
"Graduates holding a degree in religious science are now entering the labour market and tend, of course, to advocate the Islamization of education and law in order to improve their job prospects.
"[27] In Iraq, Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr criticized Marxism and presented early ideas of an Islamic alternative to socialism and capitalism.
[29][30] One observation made of Islamization is that increased piety and adoption of Sharia has "in no way changed the rules of the political or economic game", by leading to greater virtue.