Hassan Hanafi

Works

• 1988From Dogma to Revolution

  Five volumes reconstructing classical Islamic theology (kalam) as an anthropology: the attributes of God are read as ideals of human beings, and theology becomes a theory of liberation.

• 1991Introduction to the Science of Occidentalism

  A reversal of Orientalism: the West, which studied the rest of the world, is to become an object of study for non-Western scholars, which would end its claim to be the universal measure.

Position

Hanafi’s project “Heritage and Renewal” had three fronts: a new attitude to the Islamic heritage, a new attitude to the Western heritage, and a theory of interpretation grounded in present reality. In “From Dogma to Revolution” (1988) he rebuilt classical theology (kalam) as anthropology: talk about God’s essence and attributes expresses human ideals – knowledge, power, life, freedom – and the unity of God becomes a demand for the unity of humanity and justice in society. The “Islamic Left” he proclaimed in 1981 was to turn Islam into a force for the poor and against imperialism and authoritarian rule. His “Introduction to the Science of Occidentalism” (1991) reversed the direction of Orientalism: the West, which had long studied others, should itself become an object of study, and its claim to universality should be reduced to its proper historical size. From phenomenology he took the turn to lived consciousness, and from Spinoza and modern biblical criticism a model for reading sacred texts historically. Conservative scholars accused him of undermining faith, while secular critics argued that he used religious language for political ends; his work remains a reference point of contemporary Arab philosophy.

Life & context

Hassan Hanafi was born on 13 February 1935 in Cairo and studied philosophy at Cairo University. As a young man he was close to the Muslim Brotherhood. From 1956 to 1966 he lived in Paris, where he studied at the Sorbonne, read Husserl and the hermeneutics of the New Testament, and wrote a doctoral thesis on the methods of interpretation in Islamic jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh), alongside studies of the phenomenology of exegesis. Back in Cairo he taught at Cairo University, where he became professor and later head of the philosophy department. He held visiting posts in the United States, Morocco and Japan, among other places. In 1971 he published an Arabic translation of Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise with a long introduction. In 1981 he launched the journal al-Yasar al-Islami (The Islamic Left), of which only one issue appeared. From 1980 he published the volumes of his project “Heritage and Renewal”. He remained a prominent and contested voice in Egyptian public debate until his death in Cairo on 21 October 2021.

Further main works

• The Methods of Exegesis (Les Méthodes d’exégèse, 1965)
• Translation of Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise (1971)
• Heritage and Renewal (al-Turāth wa-l-tajdīd, 1980)
• The Islamic Left (al-Yasār al-Islāmī, 1981)
• From Transmission to Reason (Min al-naql ilā al-ʿaql, 2009–10)