The size of the Muslim population, social pervasiveness of Islam in the modern world, and the socio-political and religious trajectories of Muslim countries warrant a carefully grounded understanding of Islam and Muslim societies. But in the “public square,” discussion of Islam and Muslims is often conducted using a “civilization approach” in which Islam, and Muslim society and culture, are portrayed as a kind of undifferentiated universe everywhere, the same in content and outlook. Naveeda Khan's book Muslim Becoming: Aspirations and Scepticism in Pakistan is a laudable departure from this approach. It is a carefully crafted and executed study of Pakistan's history, possible futures, and expressions of Muslim piety in everyday life in Pakistan's historic second largest city of Lahore.

The aim of the book is to provide “an account of Pakistan that demonstrates its inheritance of an Islam with an open future and a tendency toward experimentation, alongside its much criticised historical record” (7). The study is grounded in ethnographic fieldwork on Muslim piety among lower-middle and middle-class families, disputations over mosques, Pakistan's legal history, Mohammad' Iqbal's philosophy, literature, and local media. The analysis is informed by four key concepts: becoming, aspiration, striving, and skepticism. Chapter One explores conflicts and tensions surrounding mosque construction, maintenance, and occupation in four city neighbourhoods. These tensions are framed as expressions of aspirations of Muslim striving for better piety and neighbourhood cohesion. The following two chapters examine sectarian religious disputations among Khan's respondents and Pakistani society mainly through the lenses of Pakistan's philosopher-poet Muhammad Iqbal and his writings. These chapters trace the influence of Iqbal and other religious scholars on the state's efforts to define who is a Muslim through the workings of constitutional law. Another focus of these chapters is that ideas have consequences. Chapter Three gives an in-depth assessment of Iqbal's ideas on the state policies and constitutional amendments in relation to the Ahmadi sect and its resulting marginalization. Chapter Four provides an excellent ethnography of a Muslim family in Lahore, providing a vivid account of religiosity of its members and their striving to be good Muslims; as well as the compromises and strategies adopted by them to address existential issues and problems. Though followers of the puritanical Deobandi sect, which disproves divination and intercession, its members resort to invoking the help of a jinn (a nonhuman life form mentioned in the Quran) through the medium of a young daughter. The chapter is a lively and insightful portrait of religious life of a lower-middle-class Pakistani family, and it captures many features of the religious life of the majority of Muslim Pakistanis. The last two chapters deal with skepticism that permeates public life in Pakistan focusing on “Mullahism” and spiritual diagnostics that serves the aspirations of striving to be Muslim. The evaluative judgements by the ulama and literati are framed as instances of striving, dissent, and political commentary.

Muslim Becoming offers a novel perspective on Pakistan by arguing successfully and in good measure, that the creation of Pakistan inaugurated the aspiration to strive to be Muslim with continuing experimentation on ways to self-perfectibility and on the relationship between religion and the state. While acknowledging forces that threaten to derail this mission it diverts attention away from seeing Pakistan as a failing state mired in political instability, sectarian conflicts and economic malaise.

Notwithstanding its considerable meritorious achievements, the book has significant limitations as well. Its six chapters do not read as part of a coherent narrative. The concepts of religiosity and the state germane to the analysis lack adequate conceptualization. What does it mean to be a Muslim? Not all Muslims in Pakistan and elsewhere ground their claim to be Muslim on religious piety. Studies of Muslim identity show that heritage factors (ethnic and family affiliations) trump religiosity as the basis of Muslim identity for the majority of Muslims in Pakistan (see, e.g., Hassan et al. (2008). “The Reality of Religious Labels: A Study of Muslim Religiosity.” Australian Religion Studies Review 21:188–199). So what does striving or aspiration to be a Muslim mean in their case? Furthermore religiosity is a dependent variable. It is profoundly influenced by gender, class, life cycle, cultural capital as well as social and political contexts. Explorations of these factors would have added analytical depth to the study.

Chapter Four offers original insights into how religiosity is enmeshed with rhythms of social life and existential conditions of the family, but this topic is not fully explored. It can be argued that religious beliefs, experiences, and practices of the Farooq family were ways of making sense of the society and their relations with it. The ways in which social reality constructs consciousness are as important as the ways in which reality itself is socially constructed. As Mary Douglas and Emile Durkheim have argued people believe what makes sense to them and what makes sense to them depends on their social environment.

The state is used prominently in the analysis and in some of the key arguments of the book but it is inadequately conceptualized. This is especially important because of the book's emphasis on the relationship between the state and religion and public skepticism. In both, institutional configurations of the state play a critical role. In states in which religion and political institutions are integrated, religious institutions suffer from a trust deficit, and this dynamic can explain the perception and skepticism of the Mullahs. Some reflections on the role of literacy in the production of skepticism and cynicism that permeates public life in Pakistan would have been useful. These limitations, however, do not diminish the overall merits of Muslim Becoming. It is a welcome addition to social scientific studies of Pakistani society. The readers will profit from its innovative approach and its findings are likely to provoke critical reflections and debate.