The Egyptian religious scholar, jurist, and liberal reformer, Muhammad `Abduh led a late 19th-century movement in Egypt and other Muslim countries to “modernize” Muslim institutions. He was born 1849 in the Nile Delta area and died near Alexandria on July 11, 1905.
Muhammad `Abduh was greatly influenced by Jamal ud-Din al-Afghani, the founder of the modern pan-Islamic movement which sought to unite the Muslim world under the banner of the faith. When they met in al-Azhar in 1872 `Abduh was roused from his asceticism to activism and sought to bring about a renaissance of Islam and a liberation of Muslims from colonialism. Unlike his mentor, Jamal ud-Din al-Afghani, `Abduh tried to separate politics from religious reform. `Abduh advocated the reform of Islam by bringing it back to its pristine state and casting off what he viewed as its contemporary decadence and division. His views were opposed by the established political and religious order, but were later embraced by Arab nationalism after World War I.
`Abduh spent some years in exile in Paris, where he helped al-Afghani issue the anti-British Muslim periodical al-`Urwah al- Wuthqa (The Firmest Bond). `Abduh eventually broke with al-Afghani. He taught in Beirut. Rejecting the radicalism he had embraced in the 1870’s and 1880’s, he returned to Cairo, after the favorable intervention of the British with the Khedive, to pursue educational and language reforms. This conversion to liberalism paralleled a decline in revolutionary fervor among the rural notables in the late 1880s.
`Abduh considered that the Persian and Greek elements which were dominant in Islamic tradition were not congruous with modernity, and he worked to substitute Greek philosophy with modern ideas. Because of his own limitations and insufficient knowledge of science, modern philosophy and the West, he often went beyond his simple formula of “modernity is based on reason, Islam must therefore be shown not to contradict reason, thus we may prove that Islam is compatible with modernity” to show agreement between detailed scientific theories or discoveries with the Qur’an. `Abduh interpreted certain things mentioned in the Qur’an, such as the world of jinn or the angels to agree with modern discoveries. The jinns became microbes and stories of astronomy were explained to be addressing simple people at their level of understanding.
He tried to make the theory of evolution compatible to the story of Genesis in the Qur’an and he used evolution to prove that Muhammad was the seal of the Prophets. He wanted to show that Islam does not reject the principle of causality and was determined to limit the region of the miraculous. Ash’arite Sunnis appeared to deny an automatic relationship between cause and effect, and he preferred the Mu’tazalites’ view of the world. For this reason, `Abduh was skeptical of the miracles performed by saints (Karamats). He simply strove to rely on the texts of the Qur’an and the Sunnah, without getting into their implications. `Abduh wrote, “There are two books: one created which is the universe, and one revealed which is the Qur’an and only through reason are we guided by this book to understand that one.” [Al Manar, vol. vii, p.292] The impact of Western ideas, however, as he saw them, forced him to make accommodations. Regarding prophecy, `Abduh not only considered it evolutionary in nature, but also emphasized that it is not in the jurisdiction of prophets to teach arts or industries or sciences. This idea was further developed by his students and Egyptian secularists in their search to legitimately limit the authority of religion in the social sphere.
`Abduh proposed an educational programme whose objective was for students to internalize religion to the extent that it directed every action, thus to unit them materially and spiritually in the service of Islam. In a speech he gave at Al Madrassah Al Sultaniyyah in Beirut, he said, “The sciences which we feel in need of is thought of by some people to be technology and other means of mastering agriculture and trade. This is false, for if we look at what we complain of, we find something deeper than the mere lack of technology and similar disciplines...The science which will revive the souls is the science of disciplining the soul. Such a discipline exists only in religion, therefore what we lack is extensive knowledge of the ethics of religion and what we need in accordance with our feelings is to have a true understanding of religion.”
'Abduh's ideas were met with great enthusiasm, but also by tenacious opposition. They are still a subject of contention today, nearly 80 years after his death, as questions of modernism and tradition re-emerge in conflict in the Muslim world. Although he did not achieve his goals, Muhammad 'Abduh remains a continuing influence, and his work, Risalat al-Tauhid (The Theology of Unity), is the most important statement of his thought.
Works by Muhammad `Abduh
(1903), Tafsir Surat al-`Asr, Cairo.
(1904) Tafsir juz’ `Amma, al-Matb. al-Amiriyya, Cairo.
(1927) Tafsir Manar, 12 volumes
(1954-1961), Tafsir al-Qur’an al-Hakim al-Mustahir bi Tafsir al-Manar, 12 vols. with indices, Cairo.
(1382), Fatihat al-Kitab, Tafsir al-Ustadh al-Imam…, Kitab al-Tahrir, Cairo.
(no date), Durus min al-Qur’an al-Karim, ed. by Tahir al-Tanakhi, Dar al-Hilal, Cairo.
(1966), The Theology of Unity, trans. by Ishaq Musa'ad and Kenneth Cragg. London.
Bibliography
Badawi, M. A. Zaki (1976, 1978), The Reformers of Egypt, Croom Helm, London. [Chapter 2, pp. 35-95 is devoted to `Abduh and his work.]
Baljon, J. M. S. (1961), Modern Muslim Koran Interpretation, E. J. Brill, Leiden.
Kedourie, Elie (1966), Afghani and `Abduh: An Essay on Religious Unbelief and Political Activism in Modern Islam, Frank Cass & Co. Ltd. London.
