“I went to the West and saw Islam, but no Muslims; I got back to the East and saw Muslims, but not Islam.” ― Muhammad Abduh
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Muhammad Abduh 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, man was given intelligence so that he could be guided by knowledge. According to Abduh, 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.[15]
His
Muslim opponents refer to him as an infidel; however, his followers called him
a sage, a reviver of religion and a reforming leader. He is conventionally
graced with the 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. Abduh does not advocate returning to
the early stages of Islam. He was against polygamy and
thought that it was an archaic custom. He believed in a form of Islam that
would liberate men from enslavement, provide equal rights for all human beings,
abolish the religious scholar’s monopoly on exegesis and
abolish racial discrimination and religious
compulsion.
Abduh regularly called for better friendship between
religious communities. He made great efforts to preach harmony between Sunnis and Shias. Broadly
speaking, he preached brotherhood between all schools of thought in Islam.
However, he criticized what he perceived as errors such as superstitions coming
from popular Sufism. As
Christianity was the second biggest religion in Egypt, he devoted
special efforts towards friendship between Muslims and Christians. He had many
Christian friends and many a time he stood up to defend Copts. During
the Urabi revolt, some Muslim mobs had misguidedly
attacked a number of Copts resulting from their anger against European
colonialism. Abduh also had meetings in Baghdad with the son of Baha'ism's
founder and then spiritual leader, Abdu'l
Baha, who he had a generally positive view of - although it was asserted by
his students that he was unaware of the extra-Quranic religious scripture or
status of Baha'ullah as a prophet in the faith and viewed it
as a reformation of Shi'ism.[17]
Abduh's collected works have been compiled and published in
five volumes by Muhammad Imarah.
Original post by Ladies Who Do Lunch In Kuwait Blog: https://ladieswhodolunchinkuwait.blogspot.com/2017/11/i-went-to-west-and-saw-islam-but-no.html?spref=fb
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