Abduh, Muhammad (1849-1905) The
Egyptian reformer and Muslim apologist Muhammad ‘Abduh was a pupil and friend of
al-Afghani. Although deeply influenced by him, ‘Abduh was less inclined to
political activism and concentrated on religious, legal and educational reform.
His best-known writings are a theological treatise, Risalat al-tawhid
(translated into English as The Theology of Unity), and an unfinished Qur’anic
commentary, Tafsir al-manar (The Manar) Commentary), on which he collaborated
with Rashid Rida. One of the key themes of these works is that since modernity
is based on reason, Islam must be compatible with it. But ‘Abduh’s ‘modernism’
went hand in hand with returning to an idealized past, and his ‘rationalism’ was
tempered by a belief in divine transcendence which limits the scope of
intellectual inquiry. In ethics as in theology, he regarded the classical
debates as arid and divisive, although on the issues of free will and moral law
his position was in fact similar to that of the Mu‘tazila.1 Faith and reason
‘Abduh trained as an ‘alim (religious scholar) at al-Azhar where, under
al-Afghani’s influence, he developed an interest in Islamic philosophy and a
revulsion for traditional teaching methods which encouraged taqlid, the
unquestioning acceptance of received opinion. The rational liberalism which he
imbibed from al-Afghani was, however, only one facet of his thought. In his
youth he was drawn to Sufism and, despite his subsequent attacks on popular
superstition, he seems never to have lost his respect for those who in some
conditions ‘have access in part to the ultimate mysteries and true insights
into the visionary world’ (Risalat al-tawhid, in Musa‘ad and Cragg 1966: 97)
(see Mystical philosophy in Islam). A third influence - the one which is
dominant in the Risalat al-tawhid (The Theology of Unity) and the Tafsir al-manar
(The Manar) Commentary) - is that of the fourteenth-century Hanbalite jurist Ibn
Taymiyya, who fuelled his desire to purify Islam of later accretions and return
to the essentials of the faith as practised by the first generations of Muslims.
‘Abduh believed that Islam was the one true religion based on reason and
revelation, but that in the course of time it had become distorted by various
extrinsic factors. For instance, whereas the Qur’an fosters the scientific
spirit by directing man to inquire rationally into the workings of the universe,
the Islamic philosophers had uncritically accepted the theories of matter and
physics propounded by Plato and Aristotle, with the result that the Islamic
world had come to lag behind Europe in science and technology. His rejection of
Greek philosophy in favour of modern science was, however, only partial. He
accepted the distinction between necessary being, possible things and impossible
things, using it to prove the existence of God.
He also accepted the distinction
between essences and accidents, arguing that reason gives us knowledge of the
latter but not of the former. A corollary of this is that it is pointless for
theologians to argue about the divine attributes because we cannot know their
nature (see Islamic theology). 2 Ethics On the issue of free will versus
predestination, ‘Abduh’s starting point is the recognition that the man of sound
mind is conscious of acts which stem from his volition: He weighs them and their
consequences in his mind and evaluates them in his will, and then effectuates
them by an inward power. To deny any of this would be tantamount to a denial of
his existence itself, so opposed would it be to rational evidence. (Risalat
al-tawhid, in Musa‘ad and Cragg 1966: 62) However, ‘Abduh is equally insistent
that all events in the world are ordered by God in accordance with his knowledge
and will. He rejects further inquiry into how human freedom and divine
prescience can be reconciled, on the grounds that such speculation is
forbidden.In discussing the moral law, ‘Abduh again begins with an appeal to
common sense, arguing that we have no difficulty in recognizing our voluntary
actions as good or bad in themselves or by reference to their particular or
general consequences.
If actions are self-evidently good
or bad in the absolute way in which ‘Abduh alleges, however, it might be thought
that religion is unnecessary. On the contrary, in matters of right and wrong,
rational proof will not obviate conflict because people differ in intelligence,
the vast majority being unable to understand Platonic philosophy or Aristotelian
logic. Moreover, because of its stress on God’s pleasure and wrath, religion has
a greater impact on ordinary folk than the moralist’s claim that some acts are
beneficial and others harmful. In any case there are some elements of the
Qur’anic revelation which could not be known by unaided reason. These include
the certainty of the afterlife, and the various ritual prescriptions. All this
is far-removed from the traditional Ash‘arite position. It is possible that here
‘Abduh was influenced by Mu‘tazilism as mediated by al-Afghani’s Shi‘ism, or
less probably that we should detect the influence of Kantian philosophy. There
seems little doubt, however, that his ethical thinking was moulded by the needs
of apologetics. This is particularly clear in his essay on Islam and
Christianity, in which he replied to Hanotaux, a French cabinet minister who had
ontrasted the Semitic mentality of Islam - with its transcendentalism,
predestinarianism and contempt for individuals - with the Aryan humanism of
Christianity, which through the Trinity raised human dignity to that of God.See
also: al-Afghani; Islamic philosophy, modern NEAL ROBINSON Routledge
Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Version 1.0, London: Routledge
List of works
‘Abduh, M. (1874) Risalat
al-waridat (Treatise of Mystical Inspirations), Cairo.‘Abduh, M. (1876) Hashiyya
‘ala sharh al-Dawwani li ’l-‘aqa’id al-adudiyya (Gloss on Dawwani’s Commentary
on the Sentences of Adud al-Din al-Iji), Cairo. ‘Abduh, M. (1897) Risalat
al-tawhid (The Theology of Unity), Cairo; trans. I. Musa‘ad and K. Cragg, The
Theology of Unity, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1966. (One of ‘Abduh’s major
works on philosophical theology.) ‘Abduh, M. (1902) al-Islam wa-’l-nasraniyya
ma‘a al-‘ilm wa ’l-madaniyya (Islam and Christianity in Relation to Science and
Civilization), Cairo. ‘Abduh, M. and Rida, M.R. (1927-36) Tafsir al-Qur’an
al-hakim (Commentary on the Wise Qur’an), Cairo. (Commentary on the Wise Qur’an
usually referred to as Tafsir al-manar because it originally appeared in
instalments in the journal al-Manar). References and further reading Abu Rabi,
I. (1996) ‘The Arab World’, in S.H. Nasr and O. Leaman (eds) History of Islamic
Philosophy, London: Routledge, ch. 64, 1082-1114.(Detailed description of the
various ways in which modern Arabic philosophy has responded to the issues of
modernity and Westernization.) Adams, C.C. (1933) Islam and Modernism in Egypt,
London: Oxford University Press.(Classic work, unsurpassed despite its early
date.) Amin, O. (1944) Muhammad Abduh essai sur les idées philosophiques et
religieuses (Muhammad ‘Abduh, Essay on his Philosophical and Religious Ideas),
Washington, DC. (English translation of the standard Arabic biography.) Badawi,
M.A.Z. (1978) The Reformers of Egypt, London: Croom Helm.(Critical analysis by
an Egyptian scholar of the views of al-Afghani, ‘Abduh and Rida.) Hourani, A.
(1983) Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798-1939, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.(Devotes only thirty pages specifically to ‘Abduh, but strongly
recommended for anyone who wishes to situate his work in its historical
context.) Jomier, J. (1954) Le commentaire coranique du Manar: tendances
modernes de l’exégèse coranique en ةgypte
(The Manar Commentary on the Qur’an: Modern Trends in Qur’anic Exegesis in
Egypt), Paris: Maisonneuve.(Painstaking thematic analysis of the Qur’anic
commentary by a French Dominican; particularly valuable because of the way in
wwhich it distinguishes between the views of ‘Abduh and Rida.) Routledge
Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Version 1.0, London: Routledge
