Muhammad Abduh

Muhammad Abduh
Grand Mufti of Egypt[1][2]
In office
1899 – 1905[3]
Personal
Born1849 (1849)[4]
Shubra Khit, Egypt
Died11 July 1905 (aged 56)
Alexandria, Egypt
Cause of deathRenal cell carcinoma
ReligionIslam
NationalityEgyptian
RegionMiddle East
MovementIslamic Modernism[5][6][7][8][9]
Pan-Islamism[5][10][11]
Neo-Sufism[12][13][14]
Islamism[15][16]
Anti-imperialism[5][17]
Notable idea(s)Islamic revival
Islamic Modernism
pan-Islamism
Educational reforms
Notable work(s)Risālat al-Tawḥīd (Arabic: رسالة التوحيد; "The Theology of Unity")[19]
Alma materAl-Azhar University[19]
TariqaShadhiliyya[18]
OccupationIslamic scholar, jurist, and theologian[19]
Muslim leader
Influenced by
Influenced

Muḥammad ʿAbduh (also spelled Mohammed Abduh; Arabic: محمد عبده; 1849 – 11 July 1905) was an Egyptian Islamic scholar,[19] judge,[19] and Grand Mufti of Egypt.[1][2][29][30] He was a central figure of the Arab Nahḍa and Islamic Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[5][29]

He began teaching advanced students esoteric Islamic texts at Al-Azhar University while he was still studying there.[29] From 1877, with the status of ʿālim, he taught logic, theology, ethics, and politics.[29] He was also made a professor of history at Dar al-ʿUlūm the following year, and of Arabic language and literature at Madrasat al-Alsun.[29] ʿAbduh was a champion of the press and wrote prolifically in Al-Manār and Al-Ahram. He was made editor of Al-Waqa'i' al-Misriyya in 1880.[29] He also authored Risālat at-Tawḥīd (Arabic: رسالة التوحيد; "The Theology of Unity")[19] and a commentary on the Quran.[4] He briefly published the pan-Islamist anti-colonial newspaper al-ʿUrwa al-Wuthqā alongside his Jamāl ad-Dīn al-Afghānī.[31]

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  [ar] in 1899.[29]

  1. ^ a b Richard Netton, Ian (2008). "'Abduh, Muhammad (1849–1905)". Encyclopedia of Islamic Civilisation and Religion. London and New York: Routledge. pp. 5–6. 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.
  2. ^ a b Zimney, Michelle (2009). "Abduh, Muhammad (1849–1905)". In Campo, Juan E. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Islam. Encyclopedia of World Religions. New York: Facts On File. pp. 5–6. ISBN 978-0-8160-5454-1. LCCN 2008005621.
  3. ^ Bosworth, C.E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W.P.; Pellat, CH. (1993). "Muhammad 'Abduh". The Encyclopedia of Islam: New Edition Vol. VII. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. pp. 418–419. 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.
  4. ^ a b Kerr, Malcolm H. (2010). "'Abduh Muhammad". In Hoiberg, Dale H. (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. I: A-ak Bayes (15th ed.). Chicago, IL: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. pp. 20–21. ISBN 978-1-59339-837-8.
  5. ^ a b c d Roshwald, Aviel (2013). "Part II. The Emergence of Nationalism: Politics and Power – Nationalism in the Middle East, 1876–1945". In Breuilly, John (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 220–241. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199209194.013.0011. ISBN 9780191750304.
  6. ^ "On Salafi Islam Dr. Yasir Qadhi". Muslim Matters. 22 April 2014. Archived from the original on 20 December 2014. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  7. ^ Kurzman, Charles, ed. Modernist Islam, 1840-1940: a sourcebook. Oxford University Press, USA, 2002.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ Sedgwick, Mark. Muhammad Abduh. Simon and Schuster, 2014.
  10. ^ Bentlage, Eggert, Martin Krämer, Reichmuth, Björn, Marion, Hans, Stefan (2017). Religious Dynamics under the Impact of Imperialism and Colonialism. Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill Publishers. p. 253. 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)
  11. ^ Aydin, Cemil (2017). The idea of the Muslim world: A Global Intellectual History. United States of America: Harvard University Press. pp. 62, 231. 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.
  12. ^ Scharbrodt, Oliver (2007). "The Salafiyya and Sufsm: Muhammad 'Abduh and his Risalat al-Waridat (Treatise on Mystical Inspirations)". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 70 (1). Cambridge University Press: 89–115. doi:10.1017/S0041977X07000031. JSTOR 40378895. S2CID 170641656. 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.
  13. ^ Sedgwick, Mark (2013). "Chapter 1: The Student". Makers of the Muslim World: Muhammad Abduh. One World Publications. pp. 6–7. 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...
  14. ^ 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
  15. ^ Sedgwick, Mark (2013). Muhammad Abduh: Makers of the Muslim World. One World. p. 56. ISBN 978-1851684328. ..in 1884, Afghani and Abduh invented what would now be called radical Islamist journalism...
  16. ^ A. Dudoignon, Hisao, Yasushi, Stéphane, Komatsu, Kosugi; Gen, Kasuya (2017). "Chapter 3: The Manarists and Modernism". The Influence of Al-Manar on Islamism in Turkey. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group. p. 56. 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)
  17. ^ Aydin, Cemil (2017). The idea of the Muslim world: A Global Intellectual History. United States of America: Harvard University Press. p. 63. ISBN 9780674050372. In spite of his anti-imperialism, Abduh returned to Egypt...
  18. ^ Scharbrodt, Oliver (2007). "The Salafiyya and Sufsm: Muhammad 'Abduh and his Risalat al-Waridat (Treatise on Mystical Inspirations)". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 70 (1). Cambridge University Press: 89–115. doi:10.1017/S0041977X07000031. JSTOR 40378895. S2CID 170641656. He was a member of the Shadhiliyya Order, the same Sufi brotherhood to which his great-uncle Shaykh Darwı¯sh had belonged
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h i Büssow, Johann (2016). "Muḥammad ʿAbduh: The Theology of Unity (Egypt, 1898)". In Bentlage, Björn; Eggert, Marion; Krämer, Hans-Martin; Reichmuth, Stefan (eds.). Religious Dynamics under the Impact of Imperialism and Colonialism. Numen Book Series. Vol. 154. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. pp. 141–159. doi:10.1163/9789004329003_013. ISBN 978-90-04-32511-1. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
  20. ^ Sedgwick, Mark (2013). "Chapter 1: The Student". Makers of the Muslim World: Muhammad Abduh. One World Publications. p. 11. ISBN 978-1851684328.
  21. ^ Scharbrodt, Oliver (2007). "The Salafiyya and Sufsm: Muhammad 'Abduh and his Risalat al-Waridat (Treatise on Mystical Inspirations)". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 70 (1). Cambridge University Press: 90, 98–100. doi:10.1017/S0041977X07000031. JSTOR 40378895. S2CID 170641656.
  22. ^ L. Esposito, John (2003). The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 196. ISBN 0195125584. Modern thinkers such as Muhammad Abduh used al-Maturidi's methods to reinterpret traditions.
  23. ^ Syeda Saiyidain Hameed (2014), Maulana Azad, Islam and the Indian National Movement, Oxford, pp. 17, 36, ISBN 9780199450466
  24. ^ 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.
  25. ^ Hussein Abdul-Raof (2012), Theological Approaches to Qur'anic Exegesis: A Practical Comparative-contrastive Analysis, Routledge, p. 3, ISBN 9780415449588
  26. ^ Yakubovych, Mykhaylo. "A Cultural Significance of the Modern Islamic Exegetics for the Theory of Religious Tolerance." Int'l Stud. J. 9 (2012): 79.
  27. ^ 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.
  28. ^ 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.
  29. ^ a b c d e f g von Kügelgen, Anke (2007). "ʿAbduh, Muḥammad". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett K. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE. Vol. 3. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_0103. ISBN 9789004161641. ISSN 1873-9830.
  30. ^ E. Campo, Juan (2009). Encyclopedia of Islam. New York: Facts On File, Inc. pp. 5–6. ISBN 978-0-8160-5454-1.
  31. ^ "Urwat al-Wuthqa, al- - Oxford Islamic Studies Online". www.oxfordislamicstudies.com. Archived from the original on 26 April 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  32. ^ Kudsi-Zadeh, A. Albert (January–March 1972). "Afghānī and Freemasonry in Egypt". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 92 (1). American Oriental Society: 25–35. doi:10.2307/599645. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 599645. LCCN 12032032. 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.
  33. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kudsi-Zadeh 2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  34. ^ Ryad, Umar (2022). "From the Dreyfus Affair to Zionism in Palestine: Rashid Riḍā's Views of Jews in Relation to the 'Christian' Colonial West". Entangled Religions. 13 (2): 8. doi:10.46586/er.11.2022.9762 – 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.