The later developments followed the lines envisaged by these three basic movements. There has been a more or less continuous upsurge in the world of Islam and the new movements derived their inspiration from these mainsprings.
After a survey of this background Professor Smith discusses in detail the four contemporary trends viz:
(a) Liberalism, the hall-mark of which is rationalistic approach towards religion, West-orientation and a liberal interpretation of Islam;
(b) Nationalism, which, in the Muslim world, is being used to revitalize Islam and “has become more and more religious the more the movement has penetrated the masses”;
(c) Apologetics, which consists in the endeavour to prove, to oneself and to others, “that Islam is sound”; and
(d) Dynamism, which he regards as “the appreciation of activity for its own sake and at the level of feeling a stirring of intense, even violent emotionalism”.
