Paper short abstract:

Biographic narrations of Muslims in Tajikistan show that experiences of uncertainty promote Islam as powerful resource for individuals in their everyday struggles to find guidance in life, restore self-esteem, create a moral Muslim self and develop alternative paths to failed secular careers.

Paper long abstract:

During my fieldwork on Islam in Tajikistan I was confronted with emotional and insistent references on what is called "true Islam" and interpreted as result of an intensive quest for meaning and guidance in life. Biographic narratives of Muslims in Tajikistan show that processes of religious awakening are intertwined with personal crisis, biographical disruptions or disillusions caused by traumatic experiences of civil war in 1992-97, socio-economic deprivation, lacking future options and a general loss of trust in state institutions and religious authorities.

Such experiences of uncertainty promote Islam as powerful resource for the individual in its everyday struggles to find guidance in life, restore self-esteem and create a moral Muslim self. In the context of urban migration, alienation from urban life or frustrations about lacking integration is often channeled in religious terms, i.e. the lack of Muslim morality. Here, the imagination of a "true Islam" links family traditions and local religious practices (veneration of shrines or local saints) with a strong claim for moral superiority. Biographies of graduates of the Islamic university in Dushanbe and returnees from studying Islam abroad show that Islamic education offers an alternative or 'last option' for those who failed in their secular careers. The decision for an Islamic career is often explained retrospectively by evocations of a "true Islam". This image combines a scriptural interpretation of Islam with a rejection of local Islamic practices and offers an alternative road to gain social status and respect through strict Islamic lifestyle and performances of public piety.