Muhammad Abduh

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Lore & Background

Muhammad Abduh began teaching advanced students esoteric Islamic texts at Al-Azhar University while he was still studying there. From 1877, with the status of ʿālim, he taught logic, theology, ethics, and politics. The following year he was made a professor of history at Dar al-ʿUlūm and of Arabic language and literature at Madrasat al-Alsun. He was made editor of Al-Waqa'i' al-Misriyya in 1880 and wrote prolifically in Al-Manār and Al-Ahram. He briefly published the pan-Islamist anti-colonial newspaper al-ʿUrwa al-Wuthqā alongside his teacher and mentor Jamāl ad-Dīn al-Afghānī. Abduh joined Freemasonry and subscribed to various Masonic lodges alongside al-Afghānī and his other pupils, but eventually left the secret society in his later years. In 1879, due to his political activism, al-Afghānī was exiled and Abduh was exiled to his home village. He was exiled from Egypt by British forces in 1882 for six years for supporting the ʻUrabi revolt. He spent years in Ottoman Lebanon, then moved to Paris in 1884 where he joined al-Afghānī in publishing al-ʿUrwa al-Wuthqā. After brief stays in England and Tunisia, he returned to Beirut as a teacher in 1885, surrounded by scholars from different religious backgrounds, dedicating his efforts toward furthering respect between Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. When he returned to Egypt in 1888, he was appointed a judge in the Courts of First Instance of the Native Tribunals, a consultative member of the Court of Appeal in 1899, and was appointed Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah in 1899. He died due to renal cell carcinoma in Alexandria on 11 July 1905.

Reader's Guide

Muhammad Abduh's significance lies in his role as a leading reformer within Islamic thought and Egyptian society. He championed Islamic Modernism, sometimes called 'Neo-Muʿtazilism,' advocating for a synthesis of religious education and scientific reasoning. He argued that Muslims could not simply rely on medieval clerics' interpretations but needed to use reason to keep up with changing times. He believed that in Islam, man was given intelligence to be guided by knowledge, and that a teacher's role was to direct men toward study. He criticized corruption, superstition, and the luxurious lives of the rich in his articles. As Grand Mufti of Egypt from 1899, he issued decisions considered liberal, such as permitting meat butchered by non-Muslims and accepting loan interest, which endeared him to British officials like Lord Cromer but caused rifts with the khedive Abbas Hilmi and nationalist leader Mustafa Kamil Pasha. He worked toward reforming the educational system of Al-Azhar University by putting forth proposals to improve examinations, the curriculum, and working conditions for professors and students. In 1900, he founded The Society for the Revival of Arabic Literature. He authored Risālat at-Tawḥīd ('The Theology of Unity') and a commentary on the Quran. He traveled extensively, meeting European scholars in Cambridge and Oxford, studying French law, and reading European and Arabic literary works in the libraries of Vienna and Berlin. He concluded that Muslims suffer from ignorance about their own religion and the despotism of unjust rulers.

Did You Know?

• Abduh began teaching advanced esoteric Islamic texts at Al-Azhar University while he was still a student there.
• He briefly co-published the pan-Islamist anti-colonial newspaper al-ʿUrwa al-Wuthqā alongside his teacher Jamāl ad-Dīn al-Afghānī.
• Abduh joined Freemasonry and subscribed to various Masonic lodges alongside al-Afghānī and his other pupils, but eventually left the secret society in his later years.
• He suffered from acute spiritual crises in his youth, similar to those experienced by the medieval Muslim scholar and Sufi mystic al-Ghazali.
• Abduh died due to renal cell carcinoma in Alexandria on 11 July 1905.