Imām Muḥammad ʿAbduh

Imām Muḥammad ʿAbduh (1265–1323 AH / 1849–1905 CE)

Early Life and Background

Muḥammad ʿAbduh [محمد عبده] was born in 1849 CE / 1265 AH in the village of Maḥallat Naṣr, near Tanta, in the Nile Delta region of Egypt.^1
His family belonged to the Turkī tribe, originally of Arab descent, and were small landholders known for religious devotion.

From a young age, he memorized the Qurʾān and began traditional studies at al-Azhar University in Cairo.
However, unlike earlier traditionalists, ʿAbduh struggled with the rote scholastic methods of his day — later confessing that he “learned nothing in the first two years except how to repeat without understanding.”^2

That frustration planted the seed of his life’s mission: to reform Islamic education and restore reason (ʿaql – عقل) as the servant of revelation (naql – نقل).

Teachers and Intellectual Formation

The turning point in his life came when he met Jamal al-Dīn al-Afghānī (جمال الدين الأفغاني) — the pan-Islamic reformer and philosopher — in Cairo in 1877.^3
Under al-Afghānī’s mentorship, ʿAbduh’s worldview expanded beyond theology to politics, philosophy, and social reform.

He combined:

the rationalism of classical thinkers like Ibn Rushd,
the moral vision of al-Ghazālī,
and the textual fidelity of Ibn Ḥajar and al-Zabīdī,
creating a synthesis of reasoned faith — Islam as both spiritual truth and civilizational force.

Career and Reform Efforts

After graduating, ʿAbduh taught logic, philosophy, and Qurʾānic commentary at Dār al-ʿUlūm and later at al-Azhar.
He became known for his eloquence and independence, often challenging rigid scholastic habits and outdated fatwās.

In 1882, after supporting the ʿUrābī Revolt against British occupation, ʿAbduh was exiled to Beirut and later to Paris, where he co-founded the famous journal al-ʿUrwah al-Wuthqā with al-Afghānī — advocating for unity of the Muslim world and resistance to colonialism.^4

Upon returning to Egypt in 1889, he was appointed Muftī of Egypt (مفتي الديار المصرية) — the highest religious post in the country — and began implementing reforms:

Simplifying al-Azhar curriculum, emphasizing Qurʾān and rational theology;
Modernizing fatwā methods to address new social realities;
Encouraging women’s education and moral reform without Western imitation;
Combating superstition and blind imitation (taqlīd تقليد) through public teaching and writing.

Major Works

Work	Arabic Title	Subject	Notes
Tafsīr al-Manār (with Rashīd Riḍā)	تفسير المنار	Qurʾānic commentary	Reformist tafsīr emphasizing moral and social application; continued posthumously by Riḍā.^5
Risālat al-Tawḥīd	رسالة التوحيد	Theology & philosophy	His most famous treatise — integrates rational philosophy with Qurʾānic monotheism; translated widely into English and French.^6
al-Islām wa al-Naṣrāniyyah maʿa al-ʿIlm wa al-Madanīyah	الإسلام والنصرانية مع العلم والمدنية	Comparative religion	A defense of Islam’s compatibility with science and civilization.
Fatāwā al-Imām Muḥammad ʿAbduh	فتاوى الإمام محمد عبده	Legal opinions	Compiled posthumously, demonstrating his application of independent reasoning to modern issues.

Philosophy and Legacy

ʿAbduh believed that the revival of Islam required the revival of thought.
He argued that revelation and reason cannot contradict, since both are gifts from God.
His famous principle:

“Where the text is silent, reason is the guide — but where God has spoken, reason must understand, not overrule.”^7

He envisioned Islam as a moral civilization rooted in justice (ʿadl عدل), consultation (shūrā شورى), and knowledge (ʿilm علم).

Death and Legacy

He passed away in Alexandria in 1905 CE, mourned as the “Muftī of Reform.”
His ideas inspired a global wave of Muslim intellectuals — from Syria and India to Indonesia and Africa — laying the foundation for modern Islamic revival.

His student Rashīd Riḍā became his most devoted disciple and biographer, continuing his teacher’s mission through the Manār school of thought.

Shaykh Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā (1282–1354 AH / 1865–1935 CE)

The Torchbearer of ʿAbduh and the Voice of the Modern Salafiyyah

Early Life and Education

Rashīd Riḍā [محمد رشيد رضا] was born in Qalamūn, near Tripoli (Lebanon), in 1865 CE to a respected scholarly family of Sunni ʿulamāʾ.^8
He received his early education in Qurʾān, Arabic, and fiqh before studying under Husayn al-Jisr, a prominent Syrian reformist scholar.

Influenced by al-Afghānī’s writings, Riḍā grew disillusioned with political stagnation and taqlīd.
In 1897, he traveled to Cairo to study under Muḥammad ʿAbduh — the encounter that would define his life.^9

Collaboration with Muḥammad ʿAbduh

Riḍā became ʿAbduh’s closest student, assistant, and later the editor of the journal al-Manār (المنار).
He transcribed and published ʿAbduh’s lectures, continued his tafsīr, and propagated his vision of intellectual reform and revival of ijtihād.

He transformed al-Manār into one of the most influential journals in the Muslim world, reaching scholars from Morocco to India.

Scholarly Method and Thought

Riḍā’s worldview combined:

ʿAbduh’s rational modernism,
Ibn Taymiyyah’s salafī textualism, and
al-Suyūṭī’s and al-Zabīdī’s philological depth.

He coined the term “al-Salafiyyah al-Manāriyyah” — not as a sect, but as a call to return to the early Muslim ethos of reasoning, ethics, and simplicity.
He wrote:

“True Salafiyyah is not rigidity, but sincerity in following the first community in their openness to reason and reform.”^10

Major Works

Work	Arabic Title	Subject	Notes
Tafsīr al-Manār	تفسير المنار	Qurʾānic commentary	Continuation of ʿAbduh’s tafsīr; integrates hadith, rationalism, and modern ethics. Completed up to Sūrat Yūsuf.^11
al-Manār Journal	مجلة المنار	Reformist periodical	Published for over 30 years, featuring global Muslim intellectual debates.
al-Khilāfah aw al-Imāmah al-ʿUẓmā	الخلافة أو الإمامة العظمى	Political theology	Advocates restoration of the caliphate based on justice, consultation, and moral authority rather than dynastic power.^12
al-Waḥy al-Muḥammadī	الوحي المحمدي	Prophetic revelation	Rational defense of prophethood and Qurʾānic revelation against secular critics.

Political Activism and Later Life

Riḍā became one of the first Muslim thinkers to advocate constitutional government, arguing that shūrā is the Islamic equivalent of democracy.
He supported the Arab Revolt against Ottoman centralism but opposed Western colonial rule.

He also mentored early reformists who would later influence movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafiyyah circles of Damascus, and Pan-Islamic reformists in India and Southeast Asia.

He died in 1935 CE in Cairo and was buried near his teacher Muḥammad ʿAbduh.

Legacy

Through the Manār school, ʿAbduh and Riḍā transformed the intellectual inheritance of Ibn Ḥajar and al-Zabīdī into a modern voice of revival.

They:

Reunited reason and revelation,
Reopened the gates of ijtihād,
Reoriented Islamic reform from blind imitation toward moral renewal,
and laid the groundwork for 20th-century Islamic intellectualism — from Cairo to Damascus, Lucknow, and Jakarta.

Their influence persists in contemporary Qurʾānic exegesis, modern fiqh councils, and Islamic educational reform worldwide.

References (for footnote conversion)

Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., s.v. “ʿAbduh.”
Muḥammad ʿAbduh, al-Aʿmāl al-Kāmilah, ed. Muḥammad ʿImārah (Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq, 1993), 14.
Nikki R. Keddie, Sayyid Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani: A Political Biography (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), 98.
Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–1939 (Cambridge: CUP, 1983), 131.
Rashīd Riḍā, Tafsīr al-Manār, vol. 1 (Cairo: al-Manār Press, 1904).
ʿAbduh, Risālat al-Tawḥīd, Introduction.
Ibid., 37.
Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., s.v. “Rashīd Riḍā.”
Hourani, Arabic Thought, 220.
Riḍā, al-Manār, issue 3, vol. 9 (1906), 15.
Riḍā, Tafsīr al-Manār, vol. 12.
Riḍā, al-Khilāfah aw al-Imāmah al-ʿUẓmā (Cairo: al-Manār Press, 1922), Preface.