25 Facts About Muhammad Abduh

Muhammad Abduh was a central figure of the Arab Nahda and Islamic Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Muhammad Abduh began teaching advanced students esoteric Islamic texts at Al-Azhar University while he was still studying there.

Muhammad Abduh was made editor of Al-Waqa'i' al-Misriyya in 1880.

Muhammad Abduh authored Risalat at-Tawhid and a commentary on the Quran.

Muhammad Abduh's family was part of the Ottoman Egyptian elite: his father was part of the Umad, or the local ruling elite, while his mother was part of the Ashraf.

Muhammad Abduh was educated in Tanta at a private school.

Muhammad Abduh was heavily dissatisfied with the traditional education and representatives of mainstream ulama of his time.

Muhammad Abduh was a student of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, a Muslim philosopher and religious reformer who advocated Pan-Islamism to resist European colonialism.

Muhammad Abduh was appointed to teach Arabic at the Khedivial School of Languages.

Muhammad Abduh was dedicated to reforming all aspects of Egyptian society and believed that education was the best way to achieve this goal.

Muhammad Abduh was in favor of a good religious education, which would strengthen a child's morals, and a scientific education, which would nurture a child's ability to reason.

Muhammad Abduh had stated that every society should be allowed to choose a suitable form of government based on its history and its present circumstances.

Muhammad Abduh 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.

Muhammad Abduh travelled a great deal and met with European scholars in Cambridge and Oxford.

Muhammad Abduh studied the French law and read many great European and Arabic literary works in the libraries of Vienna and Berlin.

Muhammad Abduh said that in Islam, man was not created to be led by a bridle, but that man was given intelligence so that he could be guided by knowledge.

Muhammad Abduh believed that Islam encouraged men to detach from the world of their ancestors and that Islam reproved the slavish imitation of tradition.

Muhammad Abduh said that the two greatest possessions relating to religion that man was graced with were independence of will and independence of thought and opinion.

Muhammad Abduh believed that the growth of western civilization in Europe was based on these two principles.

Muhammad Abduh 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.

Muhammad Abduh is conventionally graced with the honorary epithets al-Ustadh al-Imam and al-Shaykh al-Mufti.

Muhammad Abduh was against polygamy if it resulted in injustice between wives, and believed in a form of Islam that would liberate men from enslavement and abolish the ulama monopoly on the exegesis of the Quran and abolish racial discrimination.

Muhammad Abduh described a fundamental re-interpretation of Islam as a genuine base of empowered Arab societies in the face of secular Western imperialism, and believed Islam to be the solution to political and social problems.

Muhammad Abduh would explain the philosophical and esoteric Sufi traditions of Islam in his treatise Risalat al-Waridat fi Sirr al-Tajalliyyat which articulated the philosophical and mystical teachings of his master, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, incorporating the spiritual ideas of medieval Sufi saints and philosophers such as Ibn Arabi and Ibn Sina.

Muhammad Abduh replied that they participated in the organisation to accomplish a "political and social purpose".