Muhammad Abduh
Muhammad Abduh | |
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Grand Mufti of Egypt[1][2] | |
In office 1899 – 1905[3] | |
Personal | |
Born | 1849 theologian[19] |
Muslim leader | |
Influenced by
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Influenced |
Muḥammad ʿAbduh (1849 – 11 July 1905) (also spelled Mohammed Abduh,
He began teaching advanced students esoteric Islamic texts at
ʿAbduh joined Freemasonry and subscribed to various Masonic lodges alongside his mentor al-Afghānī and his other pupils,[19][32] but eventually left the secret society in his later years.[33][34] He was appointed as a judge in the Courts of First Instance of the Native Tribunals in 1888, a consultative member of the Court of Appeal in 1899, and he was appointed muftī l-diyār al-miṣriyya in 1899.[29]
Biography
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Muḥammad ʿAbduh was born in 1849 to a father with
ʿAbduh suffered from acute spiritual crises in his youth, similar to those experienced by the medieval Muslim scholar and Sufi mystic al-Ghazali. He was heavily dissatisfied with the traditional education and representatives of mainstream ulama of his time. Under the influence of Shaykh Dārwīsh al-Khadīr, Tasawwuf provided an alternative form of religiosity which would profoundly shape ʿAbduh's spiritual and intellectual formation. As ʿAbduh would subsequently emerge as a towering scholarly intellectual in Egypt, he concurrently assumed his role as a traditional Sufi Muslim. Tasawwuf as taught to ʿAbduh by Shaykh Dārwīsh transcended the perceived limitations and superficialities of traditional Islamic learning, and was based on an Islamic religiosity led by an intellectual, charismatic authority. For ʿAbduh, Shaykh Dārwīsh and his teachings represented orthodox Sufism, which was different from the Sufi folklore and the charlatans prevalent in rural Egypt during the early modern era.[40] Explaining his conversion to Sufism under the training of Shaykh Dārwīsh, 'Abduh wrote:
"On the seventh day, I asked the shaykh: ‘‘What is your tarîqâh?’’ He replied: ‘‘Islam is my tarıqa.’’ I asked: ‘‘But are not all these people Muslims?’’ He said: ‘‘If they were Muslims, you would not see them contending over trivial matters and would not hear them swearing by God while they are lying with or without a reason.’’ These words were like fire which burned away all that I held dear of the baggage from the past."[41]
In 1866,
In 1877, ʿAbduh was granted the degree of
In 1879, due to his
When he returned to Egypt in 1888, ʿAbduh began his legal career. He was appointed judge (qāḍī) in the Courts of First Instance of the Native Tribunals and in 1891, he became a consultative member of the Court of Appeal.[4] In 1899, he was appointed Grand Mufti of Egypt, the highest Islamic title, and he held this position until he died. As a qāḍī, he was involved in many decisions, some of which were considered liberal, such as the ability to utilize meat butchered by Non-Muslims and the acceptance of loan interest. His liberal views endeared him to the British, in particular Lord Cromer; however they also caused a rift between him and the khedive Abbas Hilmi and the nationalist leader Mustafa Kamil Pasha.[4] While he was in Egypt, ʿAbduh founded a religious society, became president of a society for the revival of Arab sciences, and worked towards reforming the educational system of al-Azhar University by putting forth proposals to improve examinations, the curriculum, and the working conditions for both professors and students.[42] In 1900, he founded The Society for the Revival of Arabic Literature.[48]
He travelled a great deal and met with European scholars in
Thought
I went to the West and saw Islam, but no Muslims; I got back to the East and saw Muslims, but not Islam.
— Muḥammad ʿAbduh[49]
Muḥammad ʿAbduh argued that Muslims could not simply rely on the interpretations of texts provided by medieval clerics; they needed to use reason to keep up with changing times. He said that in Islam, man was not created to be led by a bridle, but that man was given intelligence so that he could be guided by knowledge. According to ʿAbduh, a teacher's role was to direct men towards study. He believed that Islam encouraged men to detach from the world of their ancestors and that Islam reproved the slavish imitation of tradition. He said that the two greatest possessions relating to religion that man was graced with were independence of will and independence of thought and opinion. It was with the help of these tools that he could attain happiness. He believed that the growth of western civilization in Europe was based on these two principles. He thought that Europeans were roused to act after a large number of them were able to exercise their choice and to seek out facts with their minds.[50] His Muslim opponents accused him to be an infidel, whereas his students and followers regarded him as a sage, a reviver of Islam, and a reforming leader. He is conventionally graced with the honorary epithets al-Ustādh al-Imām and al-Shaykh al-Muftī. In his works, he portrays God as educating humanity from its childhood through its youth and then on to adulthood. According to him, Islam is the only religion whose dogmas can be proven by reasoning. ʿAbduh didn't advocate for returning to the early stages of Islam. He was against polygamy if it resulted in injustice between wives, and believed in a form of Islam that would liberate men from enslavement and abolish the ulama monopoly on the exegesis of the Quran and abolish racial discrimination.[42] He described a fundamental re-interpretation of Islam as a genuine base of empowered Arab societies in the face of secular Western imperialism, and believed Islam to be the solution to political and social problems.[51]
ʿAbduh regularly called for better
According to ʿAbduh:Shirk is of various types including that which has come to affect the Muslim masses (‘āmat al-muslimīn) in their worship of other than God by way of bowing and prostration. And the greatest of these kinds of shirk is that by way of supplicating and seeking intercession (with God) by placing intermediaries between themselves and Him… And we certainly see this shirk among Muslims today. And you will not see any god added to this religion… except that (expressed by) the word “intercession” (shafā‘a), which its practitioners reckon is a means of veneration the prophets and saints, but which is, in reality, a means of turning its them into idols, that disgrace the greatness of the Lord of the Worlds. The only explanation for this is in the whispers of Satan.[54]
Despite his strong condemnation of excessive saint veneration, ʿAbduh was sympathetic to ... we believe: there is no existence apart from His existence and no attribute (wasf) apart from His attribute. He is existent and anything else is non-existent. The first commanders of the faithful (al-umarā’ al-awwalun), may God be pleased with them, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali said: ‘‘You do not perceive anything without seeing God before it, behind it, in it or with it’’. … Do not fall into the delusion that this is the belief in incarnationism (hulul). Incarnationism rather occurs between two beings when one of the two becomes the other. But we believe: there is no existence apart from His existence.[55]
As
Relationship with Freemasonry
Entry into Freemasonry
Since the 19th century,[58] Freemasonry and its semi-secret organizational structure provided an open forum for the discussion and exchange of ideas between Egyptians from various social-economic backgrounds in Egypt, as well as among populations of various other countries in the Muslim world, predominantly those living in the Ottoman Empire and its provinces (Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus, and Macedonia).[58] They played an important role in early Egyptian national politics. Recognizing its potential political platform, al-Afghānī joined the Freemasons and also encouraged his disciples to join it, including ʿAbduh.[32][59]
At the age of 28, ʿAbduh became a Freemason and joined a Masonic lodge, the Kawkab Al-Sharq ("Planet of the East"). Its members included Prince Tawfiq, the Khedive's son and heir, leading personalities such as Muhammad Sharif Pasha, who had been a minister, Sulayman Abaza Pasha, and Saad Zaghlul.[60] A. M. Broadbent declared that "Sheikh Abdu was no dangerous fanatic or religious enthusiast, for he belonged to the broadest school of Moslem thought, held a political creed akin to pure republicanism, and was a zealous Master of a Masonic Lodge."[61]
Over the years, ʿAbduh obtained membership in several other Masonic lodges based in Cairo and Beirut.[19] In line with Masonic principles, ʿAbduh sought to encourage unity with all religious traditions. He stated:
"I hope to see the two great religions, Islam and Christianity hand-in-hand, embracing each other. Then the Torah and the Bible and the Qur'an will become books supporting one another being read everywhere, and respected by every nation." He added that he was "looking forward to seeing Muslims read the Torah and the Bible."[62]
Withdrawal from Freemasonry
ʿAbduh was asked by his associate
In his later years, ʿAbduh additionally began promoting
In 1903, the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II would restate and disseminate the anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic accusations formulated by ʿAbduh and Rida against the Jews and Freemasons as part of the Ottoman propaganda campaign against the nascent Zionist movement led by the Austro-Hungarian Jewish lawyer and journalist Theodor Herzl[71][72][73] (see also: Conspiracy theories in Turkey). In an article published in the al-Manār magazine in 1903, ʿAbduh and Rida further accused Freemasons of conspiring with the Jews and French colonialists of weakening the pan-Islamic spirit:[72]
"There is no people in the world like the
political society that was formed in Europe - contrary to what they claim from their predecessors - to resist the tyranny of the heads of the world from kings, princes and heads of religion from the popes and priests who joined forces to enslave the masses and deprive them of the light of knowledge and freedom. The Jews and Christians agreed on its composition. Therefore, they made its symbols and signs extracted from the common book of Bible and attributed it to the builders of the Holy Temple, the Temple of Solomon (peace be upon him), which is the Al-Aqsa Mosque... Since the organisation's founders and the leaders were non-Muslims, there were various matters in it that contradict Islam, and the one who joined it was vulnerable to violating his religion!.. When the French began occupying the East and saw the mood of Islamic sovereignty that fervently rejected participiating in their rule... They sought the assistance of Freemasons to weaken this mood... Freemasonry is one of the forms of kufr or a means to it. However, the Egyptians are quick to succumb to blind emulation; and that is why many of them joined this organisation."
ʿAbduh and the Baháʼí Faith
Like his teacher, ʿAbduh was associated with the Baháʼí Faith, which had made deliberate efforts to spread the faith to Egypt, establishing themselves in Alexandria and Cairo beginning in the late 1860s. In particular, he was in close contact with ʻAbdu'l-Bahá,[19] the eldest son of Baháʼu'lláh and spiritual leader of the Baháʼí Faith from 1892 until 1921.[56] Rashid Rida asserts that during his visits to Beirut, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá would attend ʿAbduh's study sessions.[74] The two men met at a time when they had similar goals of religious reform and were in opposition to the Ottoman ulama.[75][76] Regarding the meetings of `Abdu'l-Bahá and Muhammad ʿAbduh, Shoghi Effendi asserts that "His several interviews with the well-known Shaykh Muhammad ‘Abdu served to enhance immensely the growing prestige of the community and spread abroad the fame of its most distinguished member."[77] Remarking on `Abdu'l-Bahá’s excellence in religious science and diplomacy, ʿAbduh said of him that "[he] is more than that. Indeed, he is a great man; he is the man who deserves to have the epithet applied to him."[78]
Works
- Comments on Peak of Eloquence
- Al-Urwah al-Wuthqa
Other works by Muhammad `Abduh
- (1897) Risālat al-tawḥīd ("Treatise on the oneness of God;" first edition)[4]
- (1903) Tafsir Surat al-`Asr, Cairo.
- (1904) Tafsir juz’ `Amma, al-Matb. al-Amiriyya, Cairo.
- (1927) Tafsir Manar, 12 volumes
- (1944) Muhammad Abduh. "Essai sur ses idées philosophiques et religieuses", Cairo
- (1954–1961), Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Hakim al-Mustahir bi Tafsir al-Manar, 12 vols. with indices, Cairo.
- (1962 or 1963) (Islamic year 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.
See also
- List of Islamic scholars
- Muhammad Asad
- Rashid Rida
- Muhammad Bakhit al-Muti'i
- Mustafa Sabri
- Translation: Islamic world
Notes
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7007-1588-6.
.. [Abduh became] a member of the Council of al-Azhar in 1895 and Chief Mufti (Legal Official) in 1899.
- ^ LCCN 2008005621.
- ISBN 90-04-09419-9.
.. in 1899 he attained the highest clerical post in Egypt, that of state mufti, an office he held till his death.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-59339-837-8.
- ^ ISBN 9780191750304.
- ^ "On Salafi Islam Dr. Yasir Qadhi". Muslim Matters. 22 April 2014. Archived from the original on 20 December 2014. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
- ^ Kurzman, Charles, ed. Modernist Islam, 1840-1940: a sourcebook. Oxford University Press, USA, 2002.
- ^ Amir, Ahmad N., Abdi O. Shuriye, and Ahmad F. Ismail. "Muhammad Abduh's contributions to modernity." Asian Journal of Management Sciences and Education 1.1 (2012): 163-175.
- ^ Sedgwick, Mark. Muhammad Abduh. Simon and Schuster, 2014.
- ISBN 978-90-04-32511-1.)
..the spirit of Pan-Islamism, i.e. the thoughts of Muḥammad ʿAbduh (1849–1905) and Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghāni (1838–1897), can be felt in Islam
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ISBN 9780674050372.
In 1884 the first pan-Islamic magazine, al-Urwat al-Wuthqa, was published in Paris by Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh.
- S2CID 170641656– via JSTOR.
The Sufism one encounters in figures such as Afghanı and Abduh is not anti-modern, backwards and obscurantist but was, on the contrary, the driving force in facilitating their intellectual engagement with the values of Western modernity.
- ISBN 978-1851684328.
According to his autobiography, Muhammad Abduh continued on the Sufi path as a student at the Azhar, though he makes no mention of any other Sufis, save for his uncle. Unlike most other Sufis, Muhammad Abduh was evidently following an individual path...
- ^ Adams, Charles (1968). Islam and Modernism in Egypt: A Study of the Modern Reform Movement Inaugurated by Muhammad 'Abduh. Russell & Russell. pp. 25, 32.
..with this experience there began a new period in the life of Muhammad 'Abduh. His interest in Şūfism, aroused by Shaikh Darwish, gradually increased until it became the dominant influence in his life. During this second period, the shaikh retained his position as guide and mentor to the young student he retained his sympathy for Sufism throughout his life
- ISBN 978-1851684328.
..in 1884, Afghani and Abduh invented what would now be called radical Islamist journalism...
- ISBN 978-0-415-36835-3.)
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1838–1897), Muhammad Abduh (1849–1905), and Rashid Rida (1865–1935), were the ideological roots of Islamism (Islamcılık in Turkish) in the Ottoman Empire during this period.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ISBN 9780674050372.
In spite of his anti-imperialism, Abduh returned to Egypt...
- S2CID 170641656– via JSTOR.
He was a member of the Shadhiliyya Order, the same Sufi brotherhood to which his great-uncle Shaykh Darwı¯sh had belonged
- ^ ISBN 978-90-04-32511-1. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
- ISBN 978-1851684328.
- S2CID 170641656– via JSTOR.
- ISBN 0195125584.
Modern thinkers such as Muhammad Abduh used al-Maturidi's methods to reinterpret traditions.
- ISBN 9780199450466
- ^ Gumus, M. Siddik (2017). Islam's Reformers. Istanbul, Turkey: Hakikat Kitabevi Publications. p. 183.
Sayyid Qutb [...] announced his admiration for Ibn Taimiyya and Muhammad 'Abduh in almost all his books.
- ISBN 9780415449588
- ^ Yakubovych, Mykhaylo. "A Cultural Significance of the Modern Islamic Exegetics for the Theory of Religious Tolerance." Int'l Stud. J. 9 (2012): 79.
- ^ Yahaya, Amiratul Munirah. "REFORM THOUGHTS IN TAFSIR AL-MARAGHI BY SHAYKH AHMAD MUSTAFA AL-MARAGHI." Online Journal of Research in Islamic Studies 1.2 (2017): 63-76.
- ^ Warren, David H. Debating the Renewal of Islamic Jurisprudence (Tajdīd al-Fiqh) Yusuf al-Qaradawi, his Interlocutors, and the Articulation, Transmission and Reconstruction of the Fiqh Tradition in the Qatar-Context. The University of Manchester (United Kingdom), 2015.
- ^ ISSN 1873-9830.
- ISBN 978-0-8160-5454-1.
- ^ "Urwat al-Wuthqa, al- - Oxford Islamic Studies Online". www.oxfordislamicstudies.com. Archived from the original on 26 April 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- ^ OCLC 47785421.
In these efforts, Afghani was aided by some of his own disciples whom he persuaded to join Freemasonry [...] It was through this association, remarks Rida, that 'Abduh was able to establish contact with Tawfiq Pasha and other leaders of Egypt.
- ^ JSTOR 599645.
Abduh was one, although later in life he attempted to obfuscate his association
- ^ – via Ruhr Universitat Bochum.
Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī (1838–1879) and his student Muḥammad ʿAbduh (1849–1905) were active freemason members for many years, but they withdrew.
- ^ Arthur Goldschmidt, Biographical Dictionary of Modern Egypt, Lynne Rienner Publishers (2000), p. 10.
- ISBN 0415209080,
True, his father 'Abduh ibn Hasan Khair Allah, came from a family of Turkish origin that had settled in the village of Mahallat Nasr in the Buhairah Province at some remote time in the past...
- ^ Hourani, Albert (1962). Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age. Great Britain: Oxford University Press. p. 130.
- ISBN 978-1851684328.
- ^ Hourani, Albert (1962). Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age. Great Britain: Oxford University Press.
- S2CID 170641656– via JSTOR.
- ^ S2CID 170641656– via JSTOR.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Kügelgen, Anke von. "ʿAbduh, Muḥammad." Encyclopaedia of Islam, v.3. Edited by: Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas and Everett Rowson. Brill, 2009. Syracuse University. 23 April 2009.
- ^ Hourani, Albert (1962). Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age. Great Britain: Oxford University Press.
- ISBN 978-9953-82-815-2.
- ISBN 0-7146-4355-6.
- S2CID 170641656– via JSTOR.
- ^ Ahmed H. Al-Rahim (January 2006). "Islam and Liberty", Journal of Democracy 17 (1), pp. 166-169.
- ^ Brockett, Adrian Alan, Studies in two transmissions of the Qur'an, p. 11.
- ^ Ahmed Hasan (2 July 201). "Democracy, Religion and Moral Values: A Road Map Toward Political Transformation in Egypt". Foreign Policy Journal. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
- ^ Gelvin, J. L. (2008). The Modern Middle East (2nd ed., pp. 161-162). New York: Oxford university Press.
- ^ "Islamic State, the Arab Spring, and the Disenchantment with Political Islam". 12 September 2014.
- ^ a b c Benzine, Rachid. Les nouveaux penseurs de l'islam, p. 43-44.
- hdl:1842/36935.
- hdl:1842/36935.
- S2CID 170641656.
- ^ from the original on 16 November 2012. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
- ^ Juan R.I. Cole. Muhammad `Abduh and Rashid Rida: A Dialogue on the Baháʼí Faith. World Order Vol. 15, nos. 3-4 (Spring/Summer 1981):7-16.
- ^ S2CID 145551813.
- ISBN 978-0-8047-7211-2.
- ^ "What did Muhammad Abduh do?". Arab News. 31 March 2010. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
- ^ Raafat, Samir. "Freemasonry in Egypt: Is it still around?" Insight Magazine, 1 March 1999.
- ^ Muhammad ʿAbduh, "Islam and Christianity", in Waqf Ikhlas, The Religion Reformers in Islam, Istanbul, 1995, page 117.
- ^ Rida, "Tatimmat", p. 402. Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 92, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1972), pp. 25–35.
- – via Ruhr Universitat Bochum.
Afghānī quickly saw that masonic lodges were dragging Muslim countries, especially Egypt, towards Europe with hidden political strings so that they consequently would become toys in the hands of Europeans.
- JSTOR 599645.
- JSTOR 599645.
Abduh was one, although later in life he attempted to obfuscate his association.
- ISBN 978-1851684328.
..he evidently denied this to Rashid Rida, who explained in Al-Manar that while Muhammad Abduh had once been a Freemason, he had since "cleaned himself internally from Masonry."
- – via Ruhr Universitat Bochum.
Tafsīr Al-Manār was a collaborative work by ʿAbduh and his disciple Riḍā. In their exegesis of the Qur'anic verse (Al-Nisāʾ, 4:44)... they maintained that the Jews were as hostile to Muslims as infidels in the Hijaz in the early period of Islam... In their pursuit of the demolition of the"tyranny of popes and kings" who had enslaved them in Europe in Christian regions, the Jews exerted their efforts to replace the rule of the Church in Europe with civilian governments
- – via Ruhr Universitat Bochum.
Jews were still maltreated in Russia and Spain due to the power of the Church, which the Jews had allegedly plotted to destroy in the name of freedom and civilization as well as by means of freemasonry, as they did in the case of France. The editors of Tafsīr Al-Manār maintained that although France was the "pristine daughter of church" (bint al-kanīsa al-bikr), the Jews were able to dismantle the authority of its Church, just as they enticedthe French on injustice in Algeria.. According to Tafsīr Al-Manār, the Jews resisted all forms of religious authority standing in their face for the establishment of their own religious authority.
- – via Ruhr Universitat Bochum.
The assertion of a Jewish conspiracy through freemasonry raised brows in nationalist and freemason circles in Egypt... . An anonymous young Egyptian nationalist (most probably Muṣṭafā Kāmil) and a few Jewish freemasons launched a campaign against ʿAbduh by sending petitions to the Khedive, the prime-minister, Lord Cromer, and daily news-papers to inhibit ʿAbduh from writing on that topic.
- – via Ruhr Universitat Bochum.
- ^ a b c Abduh, Muhammad; Rida, Rashid (June 1903). "اليهود والماسونية وحَدَثُ الوطنية (Al-Yahud wa-al Masooniyya Wa Hadath al-Wataniyya)" [Jews, Masons, and the Event of Patriotism]. Al-Manār. 6 (5): 196–200 – via Internet Archive.
- S2CID 162661505.
- ^ Cole, Juan R.I. (1981). "Muhammad 'Abduh and Rashid Rida: A Dialogue on the Baháʼí Faith". World Order. 15 (3): 11.
- ISBN 9780203928578.
- ^ Cole, Juan R.I. (1983). "Rashid Rida on the Bahaʼi Faith: A Utilitarian Theory of the Spread of Religions". Arab Studies Quarterly. 5 (2): 278.
- ISBN 0-87743-020-9.
- ^ Cole, Juan R.I. (1983). "Rashid Rida on the Bahaʼi Faith: A Utilitarian Theory of the Spread of Religions". Arab Studies Quarterly. 5 (2): 282.
References
- Benzine, Rachid (2008). Les nouveaux penseurs de l'Islam. ISBN 978-2-226-17858-9.
- Black, Antony (2001). The History of Islamic Political Thought. ISBN 0-415-93243-2.
- ISBN 978-1-85168-432-8.
- ISBN 0-7486-0749-8.
Further reading
- Christopher de Bellaigue, "Dreams of Islamic Liberalism" (review of Marwa Elshakry, Reading Darwin in Arabic, 1860–1950), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXII, no. 10 (4 June 2015), pp. 77–78.
- Wissa, Karim (1989). "Freemasonry in Egypt 1798-1921: A Study in Cultural and Political Encounters". JSTOR 195148.