Muhammad Abduh

Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905) was an Egyptian jurist, theologian, and one of the leading figures of the Islamic modernist movement, which sought to show that Islam and modern reason were compatible. He was born in a village in the Nile Delta and studied first at Tanta, then at al-Azhar, the great mosque-university in Cairo, where he was drawn to the activist teacher Jamal al-Din al-Afghani. Abduh argued that Muslims should not rely uncritically on inherited medieval interpretations but should exercise ijtihad — independent legal reasoning — to meet changing times.

After involvement in the nationalist movement surrounding the Urabi revolt against growing European control, he was exiled from Egypt in 1882. He spent time in Beirut, then joined al-Afghani in Paris, where in 1884 they published the influential anti-colonial journal al-Urwa al-Wuthqa ("The Firmest Bond"). He later taught again in Beirut before being allowed home to Egypt in 1888.

Back in Egypt he served as a judge, then on the Court of Appeal (1891), and in 1899 was appointed Grand Mufti (the state's senior issuer of legal opinions), a post he held until his death. He worked on a reformist Qur'an commentary later completed by his student Rashid Rida. His reformism is admired by some and criticized by others; it is presented here as a documented position, not a verdict. He died in Alexandria on 11 July 1905.