Reading Robinson crusoe from the lens of Islamic utopianism

Abstract

The need for perfection is an innate feeling in all human beings and a broader sense of it would be people’s craving to make a utopian society. Utopianism is rooted in religions like Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism. It is also discussed in many Western works trying to depict an ideal society like Plato’s The Republic and More’s Utopia. The utopian features raised by them are illustrated in many literary works and utopian fictions as is the case with Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. This paper attempts to analyze some common Western utopian features presented in Robinson Crusoe and compare them with Islamic traditions which describe the golden era of the Messiah of Islam. By referring to two utopian features of economic prosperity and spirituality, the essay concludes that the discipline of comparative literature provides an opportunity to compare literary works with discussions on Islamic studies and although Robinson Crusoe is set in a Christian context, it has some features in common with the Islamic Utopia.