Muhammad Abduh
Islam rightly understood is a religion of reason, and believers should think for themselves instead of blindly imitating tradition.
Placement
Egyptian reformer and Grand Mufti, student of al-Afghani: Islam rightly understood is a religion of reason; blind imitation (taqlid) must give way to independent reasoning.
Key ideas
- Theology of unity
- Reason and revelation
- Against taqlid
Teachers: Jamal al-Din al-Afghani
Influence
Influenced by 5
Ibn Khaldun
influenced by
Appointed to teach history at Dar al-Ulum in Cairo in 1879, Abduh is reported to have based his lectures on Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddima. C. C. Adams, Islam and Modernism in Egypt (1933); A. Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798–1939 (1962)
Evidence: AI draft
Ibn Khaldun › 1332–1406
Jalal al-Din al-Dawani
influenced by
As a student in 1876, under al-Afghani, Muhammad Abduh wrote an extended supercommentary on al-Dawani’s commentary on al-Iji’s ʿAdudi Creed, printed in 1905. M. Abduh, Ḥāshiya ʿalā Sharḥ al-Dawānī li-l-ʿAqāʾid al-ʿAḍudiyya (Cairo 1905); R. Wisnovsky, research project on Abduh’s supercommentary
Evidence: AI draft
Jalal al-Din al-Dawani › c. 1426–1502
Muhammad al-Sanusi
influenced by
According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Muhammad Abduh drew on al-Sanusi in his Theology of Unity (Risālat al-tawḥīd); the passage has not been checked here. TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, “Senûsî”, citing Abduh, Risālat al-tawḥīd, ed. R. Rida (Cairo 1960), 25–33
Evidence: AI draft
Muhammad al-Sanusi › c. 1428–1490
Herbert Spencer
influenced by
Abduh admired Spencer, whom he visited in Brighton in 1903, and is reported to have translated his book on education into Arabic from French; the exact passage has not been checked. A. Kateman, “Tellings of an Encounter: A Meeting between Muḥammad ʿAbduh, Herbert Spencer and Wilfrid Blunt (1903)”, Philological Encounters 3 (2018); A. Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age (1962)
Evidence: AI draft
Herbert Spencer › 1820–1903
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani studied with
studied with ✓
Abduh joined al-Afghani’s circle in Cairo around 1871–72 and studied philosophy, theology and mysticism with him outside al-Azhar; in exile they published the journal al-Urwa al-Wuthqa together in Paris (1884). N. R. Keddie, Sayyid Jamal ad-Din “al-Afghani”: A Political Biography (1972); EI² “Muḥammad ʿAbduh”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani › 1838–1897
Works
Lectures on Islamic doctrine that present Islam as a religion in harmony with reason and science.
Position
Abduh held that Islam, rightly understood, is the religion of reason: revelation and reason cannot truly conflict, and where they seem to, Scripture must be interpreted. Muslims had to abandon blind imitation (taqlid) of later authorities and return through independent reasoning (ijtihad) to the principles of the Qur’an and the early community, adapting law and education to modern needs. His Theology of Unity presents Islamic doctrine in this spirit. As Mufti he issued pragmatic rulings and pressed for reforming al-Azhar. His pupil Rashid Rida continued his Qur’an commentary in the journal al-Manar; Qasim Amin drew on him for women’s rights. Modernists and later Salafis alike have claimed his legacy.
Life & context
Muhammad Abduh was born in 1849 into a rural family in the Nile Delta. He studied at al-Azhar in Cairo and from 1871 with al-Afghani. Exiled for supporting the Urabi revolt of 1882, he edited a journal with al-Afghani in Paris and then taught in Beirut. Back in Egypt from 1888, he became a judge and in 1899 Grand Mufti. He died in 1905.
Further main works
- The Firmest Bond (al-ʿUrwa al-wuthqa, journal, with al-Afghani, 1884)
- Islam and Christianity between Science and Civilization (al-Islam wa-l-nasraniyya, c. 1902)
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