Muhammad Abduh… Reason as a Foundation of Faith
At a historical moment when Islamic societies were burdened by stagnation and besieged by the authority of imitation, Muhammad Abduh emerged not as a repetitive jurist but as the bearer of a project:
to reopen the gate of reason and restore the dignity of free thought—not as a luxury, but as a condition for the soundness of faith itself.
Muhammad Abduh did not begin from a rupture with the text, nor from rebellion against religion. Rather, he proceeded from a deep conviction that Islam does not fear reason, and that the defect has never been in revelation, but in the ways it has been understood and employed.
Muhammad Abduh established a principle that was striking in its historical context:
Rational inquiry is the first foundation among the foundations of Islam.
In his view, faith is not built on blind submission but on conscious conviction and intellectual awareness that make a person responsible for his choice rather than a mere follower of others.
When a conflict appears between reason and the apparent meaning of the text, he did not hesitate to favor reason—not in order to discard the text, but to protect its purposes. For the text, in its essence, cannot contradict a sound mind.
No to Excommunication
At a time when the accusation of unbelief was commonly used as a weapon to silence opponents, Muhammad Abduh emphasized a decisive ethical and intellectual rule:
If a statement can bear faith from one perspective and unbelief from a hundred perspectives, it must be interpreted in favor of faith.
In this sense, disagreement was not a threat to religion but a sign of its vitality. Intellectual pluralism was not a danger but a safeguard against despotism in the name of the sacred.
Dismantling “Religious Authority”
The most formidable challenge confronting Muhammad Abduh’s project was not ignorance but religious authority when it transforms into guardianship over consciences.
He was clear and decisive:
No one has authority over another’s belief after God and His Messenger.
Even the Prophet, in his view, is a conveyor and a reminder—not a controller or a dominator.
Through this argument, the idea of an obligatory intermediary between the human being and his Lord collapsed, and with it the religious monopoly over truth.
The Right to Question
Muhammad Abduh did not make religious understanding the monopoly of a class or institution.
Every Muslim has the right to understand from God through His Book and from the Prophet through his Sunnah—provided that he possesses the tools of understanding.
If he does not possess them, he has the right to ask—and the right to demand evidence.
At this point, the relationship between scholar and learner shifts from one of submission to one of dialogue, and from a logic of indoctrination to a logic of persuasion.
No Conflict Between Religion and the Age
Muhammad Abduh rejected the notion of hostility between religion and science, or between Islam and modern civilization.
He did not see progress as a threat, nor civilization as an adversary. Rather, he believed that a religion incapable of keeping pace with its age is a religion that has been misunderstood.
For this reason, his project was not merely exhortative but comprehensively reformist:
reforming religious thought, liberating the mind, and building a human being capable of choice rather than driven by fear.
Why Was Muhammad Abduh a Pivotal Figure?
Because he moved freedom of opinion and expression from the category of the exception to the category of the principle.
From a position of defense to a position of foundation.
And because he redefined faith as a free choice rather than the result of social pressure or religious authority.
In this sense, Muhammad Abduh was not merely a reformer but a path-opener—a path that students and thinkers would continue to walk, some developing it further, others confronting it, but none able to ignore its impact.
In the next episode (21):
we turn to a voice no less bold and clear than Muhammad Abduh:
Sheikh Abd al-Mut‘al al-Sa‘idi,
when freedom of thought moves from a general slogan to a new reading of difficult texts—most notably the verses of fighting.
To be continued.
Cairo: five in the evening, according to the time of Al-Mahrousa.
