Muḥammad ÿAbduh (also spelled Mohammed Abduh; ; 1849 â 11 July 1905) was an Egyptian Islamic scholar, judge, and Grand Mufti of Egypt. He was a central figure of the Arab Nahá¸Âa and Islamic Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
He began teaching advanced students esoteric Islamic texts at Al-Azhar University while he was still studying there. From 1877, with the status of ÿÃÂlim, he taught logic, theology, ethics, and politics. He was also made a professor of history at Dar al-ÿUlà «m the following year, and of Arabic language and literature at Madrasat al-Alsun. ÿAbduh was a champion of the press and wrote prolifically in Al-ManÃÂr and Al-Ahram. He was made editor of Al-Waqa'i' al-Misriyya in 1880. He also authored RisÃÂlat at-Tawḥëd (; "The Theology of Unity") and a commentary on the Quran. He briefly published the pan-Islamist anti-colonial newspaper al-ÿUrwa al-Wuthqàalongside his teacher and mentor JamÃÂl ad-Dën al-AfghÃÂnë.
ÿAbduh joined Freemasonry and subscribed to various Masonic lodges alongside his mentor al-AfghÃÂnë and his other pupils, but eventually left the secret society in his later years. 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 Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah in 1899.
Muḥammad ÿAbduh was born in 1849 to a father with Turkish ancestry and an Egyptian mother in the Nile Delta. His family was part of the Ottoman Egyptian elite: his father was part of the Umad, or the local ruling elite, while his mother was part of the Ashraf. He was educated in Tanta at a private school. When he turned thirteen, he was sent to the Aḥmadë mosque, which was one of the largest educational institutions in Egypt. A while later, ÿAbduh ran away from school and got married. After a brief period following his marriage, ÿAbduh returned to his school in Tanta. During this period, ÿAbduh studied under the tutelage of his Sufi Muslim uncle DÃÂrwësh, who was a member of the revivalist and reformist Madaniyya Tarîqâh, a popular branch of the Shadhiliyya order, spread across Egypt, Libya, Algeria, and Tunisia. Apart from spiritual exercises, the order also emphasised proper practice of Islam, shunning taqlid and stressing adherence to foundational teachings. Under the tutelage of his uncle, ÿAbduh began to practice the litany of the Madaniyya. Like many of his fellow students in Tanta, the experience would transform ÿAbduh towards Sufi asceticism with mystical orientations. Abduh would inherit many of his subsequent public views, such as firm opposition to taqlid from his Sufi uncle.
ÿAbduh 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 DÃÂrwësh al-Khadër, Tasawwuf provided an alternative form of religiosity which would profoundly shape ÿAbduh's spiritual and intellectual formation. As ÿAbduh would subsequently emerge as a towering scholarly intellectual in Egypt, he concurrently assumed his role as a traditional Sufi Muslim. Tasawwuf as taught to ÿAbduh by Shaykh DÃÂrwësh transcended the perceived limitations and superficialities of traditional Islamic learning, and was based on an Islamic religiosity led by an intellectual, charismatic authority. For ÿAbduh, Shaykh DÃÂrwësh 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. Explaining his conversion to Sufism under the training of Shaykh DÃÂrwësh, 'Abduh wrote: <blockquote>"On the seventh day, I asked the shaykh: What is your tarîqâh? He replied: Islam is my tarñqa. 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."</blockquote>
In 1866, ÿAbduh enrolled at al-Azhar University in Cairo, where he studied logic, Islamic philosophy, theology, and Sufism. He was a student of JamÃÂl al-Dën al-AfghÃÂnë, a Muslim philosopher and religious reformer who advocated Pan-Islamism to resist European colonialism. During his studies in al-Azhar, ÿAbduh had continued to express his critiques of the traditional curriculum and traditional modes of repetition. For him, al-AfghÃÂnë combined personal charisma with a fresh intellectual approach which the ulama of al-Azhar couldn't provide. As a young 22 year-old Sufi mystic seeking a charismatic guide and alternative modes of learning and religiosity, ÿAbduh chose al-AfghÃÂnë as his murshid. Their muridâÂÂmurshid relationship would last for eight years and al-AfghÃÂnë was able to meet the expectations of his young disciple. Under al-Afghani's influence, ÿAbduh combined journalism, politics, and his own fascination with Islamic mystical spirituality. Al-AfghÃÂnë enriched ÿAbduh's mysticism with a philosophical underpinning and thereby drew him to a rationalist interpretations of Islam. Al-AfghÃÂnë's lessons merged his Sufi mysticism with the esoteric and theosophic tradition of Persian Shëÿësm. He also taught ÿAbduh about the problems of Egypt and the Islamic world, and about the technological achievements of the Western civilization.
In 1877, ÿAbduh was granted the degree of ÿÃÂlim ("teacher") and he started to teach logic, Islamic theology, and ethics at al-Azhar University. In 1878, he was appointed professor of history at Cairo's teachers' training college Dar al-ÿUlà «m, later incorporated into Cairo University. He was also appointed to teach Arabic at the Khedivial School of Languages. He is regarded as one of the key founding figures of Islamic Modernism, sometimes called "Neo-Muÿtazilism" after the homonymous medieval school of Islamic theology based on rationalism. ÿAbduh was also appointed editor-in-chief of al-WaqÃÂþiÿ al-Miá¹£riyya, the official newspaper of Egypt. He was dedicated to reforming all aspects of Egyptian society and believed that education was the best way to achieve this goal. He was in favor of a good religious education, which would strengthen a child's morals, and a scientific education, which would nurture a child's ability to reason. In his articles he criticized corruption, superstition, and the luxurious lives of the rich.
In 1879, due to his political activism, al-AfghÃÂnë was exiled and ÿAbduh was exiled to his home village. The following year he was granted control of the national gazette and used this as a means to spread his anti-colonial ideas, and the need for social and religious reforms. He was exiled from Egypt by the British forces in 1882 for six years, for supporting the Egyptian nationalist ûUrabi revolt led by Ahmed ûUrabi in 1879. He had stated that every society should be allowed to choose a suitable form of government based on its history and its present circumstances. ÿAbduh spent several years in Ottoman Lebanon, where he helped establish an Islamic educational system. In 1884 he moved to Paris in France, where he joined al-AfghÃÂnë in publishing al-ÿUrwa al-WuthqÃÂ, an Islamic revolutionary journal that promoted anti-British views. ÿAbduh also visited Britain and discussed the state of Egypt and Sudan with high-ranking officials. In 1885, after brief stays in England and Tunisia, he returned to Beirut as a teacher, and was surrounded by scholars from different religious backgrounds. During his stay, he dedicated his efforts toward furthering respect and friendship between Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.
When he returned to Egypt in 1888, ÿAbduh began his legal career. He was appointed judge (qÃÂá¸Âë) in the Courts of First Instance of the Native Tribunals and in 1891, he became a consultative member of the Court of Appeal. In 1899, he was appointed Grand Mufti of Egypt, the highest Islamic title, and he held this position until he died. As a qÃÂá¸Âë, 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. While he was in Egypt, ÿAbduh 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. In 1900, he founded The Society for the Revival of Arabic Literature.
He travelled a great deal and met with European scholars in Cambridge and Oxford. He studied the French law and read many great European and Arabic literary works in the libraries of Vienna and Berlin. The conclusions he drew from his travels were that Muslims suffer from ignorance about their own religion and the despotism of unjust rulers. ÿAbduh died due to renal cell carcinoma in Alexandria on 11 July 1905.
Muḥammad ÿAbduh 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 ÿAbduh, 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. His Muslim opponents accused him of being an infidel (kafir), whereas his students and followers regarded him as a sage, a reviver of Islam (Mujaddid), and a reforming leader. He is conventionally graced with the honorary epithets al-UstÃÂdh al-ImÃÂm and al-Shaykh al-Muftë. 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. ÿAbduh 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. 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.
ÿAbduh regularly called for better friendship between religious communities. He made great efforts to preach harmony between Sunnë and Shëÿa Muslims. Broadly speaking, he preached brotherhood between all schools of thought within Islam. However, he criticized what he perceived as errors such as superstitions coming from popular Sufism. His critiques to the popular cult of Muslim saints, customs of tabarruk (seeking blessings) from relics, shrine venerations, etc. were central themes in ÿAbduh's works. He believed that practices such as supplicating and seeking intercession by placing intermediaries between God and human beings were all acts of "manifest shirk" (polytheism) and bidûah (heretical innovations) unknown to the Salaf. According to ÿAbduh:
Despite his strong condemnation of excessive saint veneration, ÿAbduh was sympathetic to Tasawwuf and Ghazzalian cosmology. He would explain the philosophical and esoteric Sufi traditions of Islam in his treatise RisÃÂlat al-WÃÂridÃÂt fë Sirr al-Tajalliyyat ("Treatise on Mystical Inspirations from the Secrets of Revelations") which articulated the philosophical and mystical teachings of his master, JamÃÂl al-Dën al-AfghÃÂnë, incorporating the spiritual ideas of medieval Sufi saints and philosophers such as Ibn Arabi and Ibn Sina. The language ÿAbduh employs to describe al-AfghÃÂnë's instructions was based on a distinctly Sufi framework that symbolised IshrÃÂqi philosophy. The treatise dealt with substantiating the philosophical proofs of God's existence and his nature, elaborating a Sufi cosmology and developed a rationalistic understanding of prophecy. ÿAbduh adhered to the cosmological doctrine of Wahdat ul-Wujud developed by mystical Islamic philosophers, which held that God and his creation are co-existent and co-eternal. Defending the doctrine of Wahdat ul-Wujud of the Sufi philosophers and saints Ibn Arabi, Suhrawardi, etc., ÿAbduh wrote:
As Christianity was the second largest religion in Egypt, ÿAbduh would devote special efforts towards friendship between Muslims and Christians. He had many Christian friends and many times he stood up to defend Copts, especially during the Egyptian nationalist ûUrabi revolt led by Ahmed ûUrabi in 1879, when some Muslim mobs had misguidedly attacked a number of Copts resulting from their anger towards European colonialism. ÿAbduh also had meetings in Baghdad with ûAbdu'l-Bahá, son of the founder and spiritual leader of the BaháüàFaith, whom he had a generally positive view ofâÂÂalthough it was asserted by his students that he was unaware of the extra-Quranic Baháüàsacred scriptures or status of Baháüu'lláh as a Manifestation of God in the BaháüàFaith, and mistakenly viewed it as a reformation of Shëÿësm. ÿAbduh's collected works have been compiled and published in five volumes by Muhammad Imarah.
Since the 19th century, 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). They played an important role in early Egyptian national politics. Recognizing its potential political platform, al-AfghÃÂnë joined the Freemasons and also encouraged his disciples to join it, including ÿAbduh.
At the age of 28, ÿAbduh 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. 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."
Over the years, ÿAbduh obtained membership in several other Masonic lodges based in Cairo and Beirut. In line with Masonic principles, ÿAbduh sought to encourage unity with all religious traditions. He stated:
He added that he was "looking forward to seeing Muslims read the Torah and the Bible."
ÿAbduh was asked by his associate Rashid Rida, a vehement anti-Mason, regarding the reason for him and his teacher Jamal al-Din al-AfghÃÂnë joining Freemasonry. He replied that they participated in the organisation to accomplish a "political and social purpose". AfghÃÂnë and his disciples, including ÿAbduh, initially viewed Masonic lodges as a vehicle for anti-colonial campaign and co-ordinate activities to depose Egyptian Khedive Ismail Pasha; enabled by the secretive nature of the lodges. But eventually, they came to the conclusion that Freemasonry itself was subordinate to European imperial powers in undermining the sovereignty of the Muslim world. Along with his mentor al-AfghÃÂnë, ÿAbduh would later withdraw from Freemasonry due to political disputes. An incident where a group of Freemasons lauded the visiting British Crown Prince sparked a serious dispute between al-AfghÃÂnë and the Freemasons; eventually causing al-AfghÃÂnë, ÿAbduh, and his disciples to quit Freemasonry. In his later years, ÿAbduh disassociated himself from Freemasonry and would deny that he ever was an active Freemason. Rashid Rida reported in the magazine al-ManÃÂr that although ÿAbduh once was a Freemason, he later "cleaned himself internally from Masonry".
In his later years, ÿAbduh additionally began promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories associated with Freemasonry through the early issues of Tafsir al-Manar that were co-authored with Rashid Rida. In their commentary of the Quranic verse 4:44, ÿAbduh and Rida asserted that world Jewry were enemies of the Muslim Ummah as well as Christendom. They accused a Jewish clique of conspiring alongside Freemasons to destroy the religious culture of Europe and Islamic world by fomenting secularist revolutions and inciting Christian nations against Muslims. In response to the above publication, Egyptian nationalists and Jewish Freemasons initiated a protest movement against ÿAbduh, who was the Grand Mufti at that time. They sent numerous appeals to the Egyptian Khedive Abbas Hilmi, Consul-General Lord Cromer, and Egyptian dailies to censor ÿAbduh from publishing such tracts.
In 1903, the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II would restate and disseminate the anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic accusations formulated by ÿAbduh 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. In an article published in the al-ManÃÂr magazine in 1903, ÿAbduh and Rida further accused Freemasons of conspiring with the Jews and French colonialists of weakening the pan-Islamic spirit:
Like his teacher, ÿAbduh was associated with the BaháüàFaith, 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 ûAbdu'l-Bahá, the eldest son of Baháüu'lláh and spiritual leader of the BaháüàFaith from 1892 until 1921. Rashid Rida asserts that during his visits to Beirut, ûAbdu'l-Bahá would attend ÿAbduh's study sessions. The two men met at a time when they had similar goals of religious reform and were in opposition to the Ottoman ulama. Regarding the meetings of `Abdu'l-Bahá and Muhammad ÿAbduh, 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." Remarking on `Abdu'l-Bahá's excellence in religious science and diplomacy, ÿAbduh 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."
Other works by Muhammad `Abduh