Muhammad Abduh Quotes
Modernity is based on reason, Islam must therefore be shown not to contradict reason, thus we may prove that Islam is compatible with modernity
Traditionally Islam was a religion of faith and since it was spread to illiterate and uneducated people, it was dogmatic and literal. Reason and logic was not a part of the theology originally. As Islamic societies developed intellectually, the theology matured and reason and logic was overlaid from the science and the technology to the religion. There were many very sophisticated philosophers and theologians until Islam closed intellectually and went into its decline. Just as there were few Islamic scientists and philosophers during the Enlightenment there were few theologians who appreciated the role of logic. Those few, like Abduh, had to become reformers and modernists and return to the era when Islam was as more modern than Christianity and most other religions.
Muhammad Abduh, 1849-1905, Egyptian jurist, historian, political scientist, religious scholar and liberal reformer, Mufti of the Egyptian Realm, Editor and Chief of al-Waqāʾiʿ al-Miṣriyya (The Egyptian State Newspaper), Known as “The founder of Islamic Modernism”, Quoted in Views from Muslim Scholars, http://scholar-views.blogspot.com/2007/05/muhammad-abduh-1849-1905.html
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This is a very Jeffersonian type statement.
the love of reason and intellectual pursuits carried Islam scholarship to the highest levels until “reason” was limited by the fundamentalist religious leadership, both in scope and methodology, to that which was consistent with a narrow view of Islam and the world. Then decline and stagnation took over and drove most of the Islamic world to its present state.
Ironically, while Radical Fundamentalist Muslims abroad claim that Western materialism and dem0cracy is not only anti-Islamic but a danger to Islam, in America there has been a growing and thriving Islamic community which has had far less difficulty reconciling their religion and American democracy and values than have other religions such as the Amish and orthodox Jews. This ease of the transition and Islamic compatibility with modern America is perhaps the central reason for the hatred of America. Aslan argues that the Muslim reformation is succeeding very smoothly in America and is the model for Muslims throughout the world.
The anti-intellectualism of many Protestant sects has its roots in this view of Martin Luther’s. The notion of reason as practiced by scientists as a hindrance to religion is not a new notion. Religious leaders have been trying to silence and discredit philosophers and scientists as long as there has been religion. Socrates was killed long before Christianity.
This was one of the sagest pieces advice regarding Islam given in the early 20th century.
Muḥammad 'Abduh (also spelled Mohammed Abduh, Arabic: محمد عبده) was an Egyptian Islamic scholar, jurist, theologian, mujaddid, Freemason, and writer. He also wrote, among other things, "Treatise on the Oneness of God", and a commentary on the Quran. He briefly published, alongside Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī, the Pan-Islamist anti-colonial journal Al-Urwah al-Wuthqa.
