Muslim Becoming : Aspiration and Skepticism in Pakistan by Naveeda Khan

This thoughtful ethnography of Islam in Pakistan moves from the smallest scale–a single worshiper striving to be a better Muslim who is seeking guidance at a neighborhood mosque–to the largest, examining the thought of poet and philosopher Muhammad Iqbal, considered to be the spiritual visionary of the country. While some have thought that Pakistan failed to become a true Muslim state, or that the state’s relation to Islam is insincere and political, Khan argues that the basis of Pakistan’s Islam is in argument and aspiration, the possibility of becoming rather than tied to a particular outcome. She traces these signs of aspiration and striving in readings of texts and everyday life.