Modern Muslim Political Thoughts Notes

Wajid Nawaz

Muhammad Rashid Rida (Arabic: ; transliteration, Muammad Rashd

Ri; Ottoman Syria, 23 September 1865[1] or 18 October 1865[2] Egypt, 22 August 1935)[2] was an early
Islamic reformer, whose ideas would later influence 20th-century Islamistthinkers in developing
a political philosophy of an "Islamic state". Rida is said to have been one of the most influential and
controversial scholars of his generation[5] and was deeply influenced by the early Salafi Movement and
the movement for Islamic Modernism founded in Cairo by Muhammad Abduh.[6][7]
Rida was born near Tripoli in Al-Qalamoun, (now in Lebanon but then part of Ottoman Syria within
the Ottoman Empire). His early education consisted of training in "traditional Islamic subjects". In 1884-5
he was first exposed to al-`Urwa al-wuthqa, the journal of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Muhammad
Abduh. In 1897 he left Syria for Cairo to collaborate with Abduh. The following year Rida launched al-
Manar, a weekly and then monthly journal comprising Quranic commentary[8] at which he worked until
his death in 1935, gradually distancing himself from the teachings of Abduh and adopting a Salafism
closer to Saudi Wahhabism.[9]
Ideas
Rashid Rida, was a leading exponent of Salafism [10] and was especially critical of what he termed "blind
following" of traditional Islam. He encouraged both laymen and scholars to interpret the primary sources
of Islam themselves.[11] Applying this principle enabled Rida to tackle a number of subjects in a modern
way and sometimes led to him holding unorthodox ideas that were considered controversial by some and
progressive by others.
One of his controversial views was his support of Darwin's theory of evolution.[12] To justify Darwinism,
Rida considered it permissible to "interpret certain stories of the Qur'an in an allegorical manner, as, for
example, the story of Adam.".[13] He also believed that the origin of the human race from Adam is a
history derived from the Hebrews and that Muslims are not obliged to believe in this account.[14]
Rida focused on the relative weakness of Muslim societies vis--vis Western colonialism, blaming Sufi
excesses, the blind imitation of the past (taqlid), the stagnation of the ulama, and the resulting failure to
achieve progress in science and technology. He held that these flaws could be alleviated by a return to
what he saw as the true principles of Islam albeit interpreted (ijtihad) to suit modern realities.[19] This
alone could, he believed, save Muslims from subordination to the colonial powers.[20]
Rida had a close relationship with Freemasonry,[21] though his feelings toward the Bah' Faith were quite
negative.[22]
Despite some controversial ideas held by Rida, his works and in particular his magazine al-Manar spread
throughout the Muslim world influencing many individuals including the popular Salafi
writer Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani.[23]
Muhammad Rashid Rida was one of the earliest critics of Zionism and wrote an article on the Movement
as early as 1898.[24]
Rida died on his way back to Cairo from Suez, where he had gone to see off his patron, King of Saudi
Arabia Abdulaziz Ibn Saud.[25]
Contributions to Islamist political thought
The corruption and tyranny of Muslim rulers ("caliphs") throughout history was a central theme in Rida's
criticisms. Rida, however, celebrated the rule of the Prophet Mohammad and the Rightly Guided Caliphs,
and leveled his attacks at subsequent rulers who could not maintain Prophet Mohammad's example. He
also criticized the clergy ("ulama") for compromising their integrity - and the integrity of the Islamic law
("sharia") they were meant to uphold - by associating with worldly corrupt powers.[26]
Rida's ideas were foundational to the development of the modern "Islamic state". He "was an important
link between classical theories of the caliphate, such as al-Mawardi's, and 20th-century notions of the
Islamic state".[27]
Rida promoted a restoration or rejuvenation of the Caliphate for Islamic unity, and
"democratic consultation on the part of the government, which he called "shura"."[19] In theology, his
reformist ideas, like those of Abduh, were "based on the argument that:
shari'a consists of `ibadat (worship) and mu'amalat (social relations). Human reason has little scope in the
former and Muslims should adhere to the dictates of the Qur'an and hadith. The laws
governing mu'amalat should conform to Islamic ethics but on specific points may be continually
reassessed according to changing conditions of different generations and societies.[8]
Although he did not call for the revolutionary establishment of an Islamic state, rather advocating only
gradual reform of the existing Ottoman government, Rida preceded Abul Ala Maududi, Sayyid Qutb, and
later Islamists in declaring adherence to Sharia law as essential for Islam and Muslims, saying
`those Muslim [rulers] who introduce novel laws today and forsake the Shari'a enjoined upon them by
God ... They thus abolish supposed distasteful penalties such as cutting off the hands of thieves
or stoning adulterers and prostitutes. They replace them with man-made laws and penalties. He who does
that has undeniably become an infidel.

Muhammad Abduh
Muammad 'Abduh (1849 11 July 1905) (also spelled Mohammed Abduh, Arabic: ) was
an Egyptian Islamic jurist, religious scholar and liberal reformer, regarded as one of the key founding
figures of Islamic Modernism, sometimes called Neo-Mutazilism after the medieval Islamic school of
theology based on rationalism, Mutazila.[7] He broke the rigidity of the Muslim ritual, dogma, and family
ties. He also wrote, among other things, "Treatise on the Oneness of God", and a commentary on
the Qur'an.[1] Abduh was a Freemason[8] and had a close relationship with the Bah' Faith.[9]
Muhammad Abduh was born in 1849 to a Turkish father and Arab mother[10] in Lower Egypt (i.e. the Nile
Delta).[1] His family was of the Egyptian elite. His father was part of the Umad, or the local ruling elite.
His mother was part of the Ashraf. He was educated in Tanta at a private school.[1] When he turned
thirteen, he was sent to the Amad mosque, which was one of the largest educational institutions in
Egypt. A while later Abduh ran away from school and got married. He enrolled at al-Azhar
University [11] in 1866.[12] Abduh studied logic, philosophy and Islamic mysticism at the Al-Azhar
University in Cairo. He was a student of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani,[13] a philosopher and Muslim religious
reformer who advocated Pan-Islamism to resist European colonialism. Under al-Afghani's influence,
Abduh combined journalism, politics, and his own fascination in Islamic mystical spirituality. Al-Afghani
taught Abduh about the problems of Egypt and the Islamic world and about the technological
achievements of the West.
In 1877, Abduh was granted the degree of 'Alim ("teacher") and he started to teach logic, theology and
ethics at al-Azhar. In 1878, he was appointed professor of history at Cairo's teachers' training college Dar
al-Ulum, later incorporated into Cairo University. He was also appointed to teach Arabic at the Khedivial
School of Languages.[12]
Abduh was appointed editor and chief of al-Waqi al-Miriyya, the official state newspaper. He was
dedicated to reforming all aspects of Egyptian society and believed that education was the best way to
achieve this goal. He was in favor of a good religious education, which would strengthen a childs morals,
and a scientific education, which would nurture a childs ability to reason. In his articles he criticized
corruption, superstition, and the luxurious lives of the rich.[12]
In 1879, due to his political activity, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani was exiled and Abduh was exiled to his
home village. The following year he was granted control of the national gazette and used this as a means
to spread his anti-colonial ideas, and the need for social and religious reforms.[1] He was exiled from
Egypt by the British in 1882 for six years, for supporting the Egyptian nationalist revolt led by Ahmed
Orabi in 1879. He had stated that every society should be allowed to choose a suitable form of
government based on its history and its present circumstances.[12] Abduh spent several years in
Ottoman Lebanon, where he helped establish an Islamic educational system. In 1884 he moved to Paris,
France where he joined al-Afghani in publishing The Firmest Bond (al-Urwah al-Wuthqa), an Islamic
revolutionary journal that promoted anti-British views. Abduh also visited Britain and discussed the state
of Egypt and Sudanwith high-ranking officials. In 1885, after brief stays in England and Tunisia, he
returned to Beirut, as a teacher,[1] and was surrounded by scholars from different religious backgrounds.
During his stay there he dedicated his efforts toward furthering respect and friendship
between Islam, Christianity and Judaism.[12]
When he returned to Egypt in 1888, Abduh began his legal career. He was appointed judge in the Courts
of First Instance of the Native Tribunals and in 1891, he became a consultative member of the Court of
Appeal.[1] In 1899, he was appointed Grand Mufti of Egypt, the highest Islamic title, and he held this
position until he died. As a judge, he was involved in many decisions, some of which were considered
liberal such as the ability to utilize meat butchered by non-Muslims and the acceptance of loan interest.
His liberal views, endeared him to the British, in particular Lord Cromer; however it also caused a rift
between him and the khedive Abbas Hilmi and the nationalist leader Mustafa Kamil.[1] While he was in
Egypt, Abduh founded a religious society, became president of a society for the revival of Arab sciences
and worked towards reforming al-Azhar University by putting forth proposals to improve examinations,
the curriculum and the working conditions for both professors and students. He travelled a great deal and
met with European scholars in Cambridge and Oxford University. He studied French law and read a great
many European and Arab works in the libraries of Viennaand Berlin. The conclusions he drew from his
travels were that Muslims suffer from ignorance about their own religion and the despotism of unjust
rulers.[12]
Muhammad Abduh died in Alexandria on 11 July 1905. People from all around the world sent their
condolences.[citation needed]
Thought[edit]
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 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 teachers 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-Ustdh al-Imm and al-Shaykh al-Muft. 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 scholars monopoly on exegesis and abolish racial
discrimination and religious compulsion.[12]
Mohammad Abduh 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.[16]
Abduh regularly called for better friendship between religious communities. 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.[16] During
the Urabi revolt, some Muslim mobs had misguidedly attacked a number of Copts resulting from their
anger against European colonialism.

Jaml al-Dn al-Afghn, in full Jaml al-Dn al-Afghn al-Sayyid Muammad ibn afdar al-
usayn(born 1838, Asadbd, Persia [now Iran]died March 9, 1897, Istanbul), Muslim politician,
political agitator, and journalist whose belief in the potency of a revived Islamic civilization in the face of
European domination significantly influenced the development of Muslim thought in the 19th and early
20th centuries.

Very little is known about Afghns family or upbringing. Despite the appellation Afghn, which he
adopted and by which he is known, some scholars believe that he was not an Afghan but
a PersianShite (i.e., a member of one of the two major divisions of Islam), born in Asadbd
near Hamadan in Persia. An appreciable part of Afghns activities took place in areas
where Sunnism (the other major division of Islam) was predominant, and it was probably to hide his
Persian and Shite origin, which would have aroused suspicion among Sunnis, that he adopted the name
Afghn. As a young man he seems to have visited, perhaps in order to extend and perfect his theological
and philosophical education, Karbal and Al-Najaf, the Shite centres in southern Mesopotamia, as well
as India and perhaps Istanbul. The intellectual currents with which he came in contact remain obscure, but
whatever they were, they made him early into a religious skeptic.
Only from about November 1866, when Afghn appeared in Kandahar, Afghanistan, can evidence be
pieced together to form a consecutive and coherent picture of his life and activities. From the death in
1863 of the famous Dst Moammad Khn, who had ruled for more than 20 years, Afghanistan had been
the scene of civil wars occasioned by the quarrels of his sons over the succession. In 1866 one of these
sons, Shr Al Khn, was established in the capital, Kabul, but two of his brothers, Moammad Afal
Khn and Moammad Aam Khn, were threatening his tenure. In January 1867 Shr Al was defeated
and expelled from Kabul, where Afal and, upon his death shortly afterward, Aam reigned successively
in 186768. At the end of 1866 Aam captured Kandahar, and Afghn immediately became
Aams confidential counselor, following him to Kabul. He remained in this position until Aam was in
turn deposed by Shr Al, who succeeded in regaining his throne in September 1868.
That a foreigner should have attained so quickly such a position was remarked upon in the contemporary
accounts; some scholars speculate that Afghn (who then called himself Istanbul) was, or represented
himself to be, a Russian emissary able to obtain for Aam Russian money and political support against
the British, with whom Aam was on bad terms. When Shr Al succeeded in regaining the throne, he
was naturally suspicious of Afghn and expelled him from his territory in November 1868.
Afghn next appeared in Istanbul in 1870, where he gave a lecture in which he likened the prophetic
office to a human craft or skill. This view gave offense to the religious authorities, who denounced it as
heretical. Afghn had to leave Istanbul and in 1871 went to Cairo, where for the next few years he
attracted a following of young writers and divines, among them Muammad Abduh, who was to become
the leader of the modernist movement in Islam, and Sad Pasha Zaghll, founder of the Egyptian
nationalist party, the Wafd. Again, a reputation of heresy and unbelief clung to Afghn. The ruler of
Egypt then was the khedive Isml, who was both ambitious and spendthrift. By the mid-1870s his
financial mismanagement led to pressure by his European creditors and great discontent among all his
subjects. Isml tried to divert their wrath from himself to the creditors, but his maneuvers were clumsy,
and, in response to French and British pressure, his suzerain, the Ottoman sultan, deposed him in June
1879. During this period of political effervescence, Afghn attempted to gain and manipulate power by
organizing his followers in a Masonic lodge, of which he became the leader, and by delivering fiery
speeches against Isml. He seems to have hoped to attract thereby the favour and confidence
of Muammad Tawfq Pasha, Ismls son and successor, but the latter, reputedly fearing that Afghn
was propagating republicanism in Egypt, ordered his deportation in August 1879
Afghn then went to Hyderabad, India, and later, via Calcutta (now Kolkata), to Paris, where he arrived
in January 1883. His stay there contributed greatly to his legend and posthumous influence as an Islamic
reformer and a fighter against European domination. In Paris, Afghn, together with his former student
Abduh, published an anti-British newspaper, al-Urwat al-wuthq (The Indissoluble Link), which
claimed (falsely) to be in touch with and have influence over the Sudanese Mahd, a messianic bearer
of justice and equality expected by some Muslims in the last days. He also engaged Ernest Renan, the
French historian and philosopher, in a famous debate concerning the position of Islam regarding science.
He tried unsuccessfully to persuade the British government to use him as intermediary in negotiation with
the Ottoman sultan, Abdlhamid II, and then went to Russia, where his presence is recorded in 1887,
1888, and 1889 and where the authorities seem to have employed him in anti-British agitation directed to
India. Afghn next appeared in Iran, where he again attempted to play a political role as the shahs
counselor and was yet again suspected of heresy. The shah, Ner al-Dn Shh, became very suspicious of
him, and Afghn began a campaign of overt and violent opposition to the Iranian ruler. Again, in 1892,
his fate was deportation. For this, Afghn revenged himself by instigating the shahs murder in 1896. It
was his only successful political act.
BRITANNICA LISTS & QUIZZES
From Iran, Afghn went to London, where he stayed briefly, editing a newspaper attacking the shah and
urging resistance to him and particularly to the tobacco concession that had been granted to a British
subject. He then went to Istanbul, in response to an invitation made by an agent of the sultan. The sultan
may have hoped to use him in pan-Islamic propaganda, but Afghn soon aroused suspicion and was kept
inactive, at arms length and under observation. He died in Istanbul. His burial place was kept secret, but
in 1944 what was claimed to be his body, owing to the mistaken impression that he was an Afghan, was
transferred to Kabul, where a mausoleum was erected for it.

Iranian Revolution of 197879, also called Islamic Revolution, Persian Enqelb-e Eslm,
popular uprising in Iran in 197879 that resulted in the toppling of the monarchy on April 1, 1979,
and led to the establishment of an Islamic republic.
Mounting social discontent in the 1970s in Iran, which culminated in revolution at the end of the
decade, had several crucial dimensions. Although petroleum revenues continued to be a major source
of income for Iran in the 1970s, world monetary instability and fluctuations in Western
oil consumption seriously threatened the countrys economy, which had been rapidly expanding
since the early 1950s and was still directed in large part toward high-cost projects and programs. A
decade of extraordinary economic growth, heavy government spending, and a boom in oil prices led
to high rates of inflation and the stagnation of Iranians buying power and standard of living.
In addition to mounting economic difficulties, sociopolitical repression by the regime of Mohammad
Reza Shah Pahlavi likewise increased in the 1970s. Outlets for political participation were minimal,
and opposition parties such as the National Front (a loose coalition of nationalists, clerics, and
noncommunist left-wing parties) and the pro-Soviet Tdeh (Masses) Party were marginalized or
outlawed. Social and political protest was often met with censorship, surveillance, or harassment, and
illegal detention and torture were common.

Many argued that since Irans brief experiment with parliamentary democracy and communist
politics had failed, the country had to go back to its indigenousculture. The 1953 coup, backed by the
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), against Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, an
outspoken advocate of nationalism who almost succeeded in deposing the shah, particularly incensed
Irans intellectuals. For the first time in more than half a century, the secularintellectualsmany of
whom were fascinated by the populist appeal of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a former professor of
philosophy in Qom who had been exiled in 1964 after speaking out harshly against the shahs recent
reform programabandoned their aim of reducing the authority and power of
the Shite ulama(religious scholars) and argued that, with the help of the ulama, the shah could be
overthrown.
In this environment, members of the National Front, the Tdeh Party, and their various splinter
groups now joined the ulama in a broad opposition to the shahs regime. Khomeini continued to
preach in exile about the evils of the Pahlavi regime, accusing the shah of irreligion and subservience
to foreign powers. Thousands of tapes and print copies of Khomeinis speeches were smuggled back
into Iran during the 1970s as an increasing number of unemployed and working-poor Iranians
mostly new immigrants from the countryside, who were disenchanted by the cultural vacuum of
modern urban Iranturned to the ulama for guidance. The shahs dependence on the United States,
his close ties with Israelthen engaged in extended hostilities with the overwhelmingly Muslim
Arab statesand his regimes ill-considered economic policies served to fuel the potency of
dissident rhetoric with the masses.
Outwardly, with a swiftly expanding economy and a rapidly modernizing infrastructure, everything
was going well in Iran. But in little more than a generation, Iran had changed from a
traditional, conservative, and rural society to one that was industrial, modern, and urban. The sense
that in both agriculture and industry too much had been attempted too soon and that the government,
either through corruption or incompetence, had failed to deliver all that was promised
was manifested in demonstrations against the regime in 1978.
In January 1978, incensed by what they considered to be slanderous remarks made against Khomeini
in Eelt, a Tehrn newspaper, thousands of young madrassa (religious school) students took to
the streets. They were followed by thousands more Iranian youthmostly unemployed recent
immigrants from the countrysidewho began protesting the regimes excesses. The shah, weakened
by cancer and stunned by the sudden outpouring of hostility against him, vacillated
between concession and repression, assuming the protests to be part of an
international conspiracy against him. Many people were killed by government forces in anti-regime
protests, serving only to fuel the violence in a Shite country where martyrdom played a
fundamental role in religious expression. Fatalities were followed by demonstrations
to commemorate the customary 40-day milestone of mourning in Shite tradition, and further
casualties occurred at those protests, mortality and protest propelling one another forward. Thus, in
spite of all government efforts, a cycle of violence began in which each death fueled further protest,
and all protestfrom the secular left and religious rightwas subsumed under the cloak of
Shite Islam and crowned by the revolutionary rallying cry Allhu akbar (God is great), which
could be heard at protests and which issued from the rooftops in the evenings.
During his exile, Khomeini coordinated this upsurge of oppositionfirst from Iraqand after 1978
from Francedemanding the shahs abdication. In January 1979, in what was officially described as
a vacation, the shah and his family fled Iran. The Regency Council established to run the country
during the shahs absence proved unable to function, and Prime Minister Shahpur Bakhtiar, hastily
appointed by the shah before his departure, was incapable of effecting compromise with either his
former National Front colleagues or Khomeini. Crowds in excess of one million demonstrated in
Tehrn, proving the wide appeal of Khomeini, who arrived in Iran amid wild rejoicing on February 1.
Ten days later Bakhtiar went into hiding, eventually to find exile in France.
On April 1, following overwhelming support in a national referendum, Khomeini declared Iran an
Islamic republic. Elements within the clergy promptly moved to exclude their former left-wing,
nationalist, and intellectual allies from any positions of power in the new regime, and a return to
conservative social values was enforced. The Family Protection Act (1967; significantly amended in
1975), which provided further guarantees and rights to women in marriage, was declared void, and
mosque-based revolutionary bands known as komtehs (Persian: committees) patrolled the streets
enforcing Islamic codes of dress and behaviour and dispatching impromptu justice to perceived
enemies of the revolution. Throughout most of 1979 the Revolutionary Guardsthen an informal
religious militia formed by Khomeini to forestall another CIA-backed coup as in the days of
Mosaddeqengaged in similar activity, aimed at intimidating and repressing political groups not
under control of the ruling Revolutionary Council and its sister Islamic Republican Party, both
clerical organizations loyal to Khomeini. The violence and brutality often exceeded that which had
taken place under the shah.
The militias and the clerics they supported made every effort to suppress Western cultural influence,
and, facing persecution and violence, many of the Western-educated elite fled the country. This anti-
Western sentiment eventually manifested itself in the November 1979 seizure of 66 hostages at the
U.S. embassy by a group of Iranian protesters demanding the extradition of the shah, who at that time
was undergoing medical treatment in the United States (see Iran hostage crisis). Through the
embassy takeover, Khomeinis supporters could claim to be as anti-imperialist as the political left.
This ultimately gave them the ability to suppress most of the regimes left-wing and moderate
opponents. The Assembly of Experts (Majles-e Khobregn), overwhelmingly dominated by clergy,
ratified a new constitution the following month. The new constitution created a religious government
based on Khomeinis vision of velyat-e faqh (Persian: governance of the jurist) and gave
sweeping powers to the rahbar, or leader; the first rahbar was Khomeini himself. Moderates, such as
provisional Prime Minister Mehdi Bazarganand the republics first president, Abolhasan Bani-Sadr,
who opposed holding the hostages, were steadily forced from power by conservatives within the
government who questioned their revolutionary zeal.