Muhammad ʿAbduh and the Reform Movement at al-Azhar

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ID: 314498
2026
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Abstract
Abstract Although Islamic modernism is commonly associated with the trinity of Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī (1838–1897), Muḥammad ʿAbduh (1849–1905), and Rashīd Riḍā (1865–1935), it was ʿAbduh who became a more systematic thinker with a more lasting influence on the Muslim mind than the former, and who was more intellectually consistent than the latter. ʿAbduh’s impact on modern Islam cannot be overstated. It is not then surprising that the studies that have been done on his idea of reform and modernity are numerous. Despite the multiplicity of such studies, distinguishing ʿAbduh’s idea of reform and modernity from his interlocutors has been a moot question. How he related not only to his opponents but also his proponents remains areas of contention. Consequently, ʿAbduh’s ideas have largely been torn between dichotomization and misappropriation. In the light of this, there are four primary aims to this chapter: first, to provide an informed biography of ʿAbduh that demonstrates his intellectual making; second, to delineate and distinguish his idea of reform and modernity; third, to examine how his ideas were either misappropriated or dichotomized by traditionalists, secularists, and Western academics; and finally, to suggest that reading ʿAbduh through the lens of Talal Asad’s theory of the “discursive tradition” provides a more accurate picturization of ʿAbduh’s program and also to suggest that the intellectual continuation of ʿAbduh’s train of thought can significantly be located in the thought of the contemporary Moroccan philosopher ʿAbdurraḥmān Ṭāhā. This chapter consists of three sections. The first section offers an informative narrative of ʿAbduh’s biography. The second provides an analytical sketch of the leitmotiv ideas in ʿAbduh’s project of reform. The third section offers a critical discussion of the reception and perception of ʿAbduh’s thought in Islamic scholarship as well as in the Western academy. Although the chapter draws on multiple sources, it primarily consults ʿAbduh’s own works, as compiled by Rashīd Riḍā in his Tārīkh al-imām Muḥammad ʿAbduh and Muḥammad ʿImāra (d. 2020) in his al-Aʿmāl al-kāmila li’l-imām Muḥammad ʿAbduh.
Reference Key
openalex_W7162017296 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Mohammed Gamal Abdelnour
Journal Oxford University Press eBooks
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197532805.013.84
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197532805.013.84
Keywords Keywords not found

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