We spoke last week about Sheikh Muhammad Rasheed Redha and his life, highlighting his work with Muhammad Abdou, whom we spoke about in the previous two articles. It is important to speak about Redha’s writings, as they were voluminous and highly important.
Sheikh Rasheed Redha was the author of more than 20 books on numerous topics. He wrote the most comprehensive biography of his mentor, Muhammad Abdou in three volumes. One of his books speaks about Al-Azhar as seen from the viewpoint of Al-Manar, the magazine he was publishing.
He devoted a book to the subject of Islam being an easy religion to implement. Moreover, in his writings Redha was keen to highlight the important role Islam assigns to women. Hence, in his books we find such titles as “An Address to the Gentle Sex”, and “The Equality between Man and Woman”. For someone writing in the early years of the 20th century, this was a daring step forward. Some of his books deal with Christianity and show the clear and uncomplicated beliefs of Islam. He also edited and published the Gospel of Barnabas, which retains references to Prophet Muhammad as the one to be God’s last Messenger to mankind.
We spoke last week about the magazine he published, Al-Manar, which he started during his first year in Egypt, in 1898, and continued to publish until his death in 1935. It is difficult to provide a list of his articles in Al-Manar and other periodicals. These were numerous indeed.
The most important work of Sheikh Rasheed Redha is the one he started with Muhammad Abdou and known as Tafseer Al-Manar, which is a commentary on the Qur’an. The book started when Redha used to take notes on the most important ideas Abdou mentions in his lectures explaining the Qur’an that were held in the mosques and in Al-Azhar. When he went home, Redha would edit these notes and add what he remembered of details. He then responded to the suggestion of publishing these notes as articles in his magazine Al-Manar. He always gave these articles to Abdou for comment before publication, and the latter approved them with only very minor additions. Redha might add something of his own comments, but he indicated these clearly. Moreover, he might add some ideas from earlier commentaries on the Qur’an, but as Abdou reviewed these, or approved them after publication, there was no problem with attributing it all to him.
This method continued for six years during which five volumes of this commentary were completed. However, Muhammad Abdou died at this stage, with only the first three Surahs and 125 verses of the fourth Surah, “Women”, completed. This represents about one-sixth of the Qur’an.
Rasheed Redha continued the work on this commentary, hoping that he would finish the Qur’an in full. However, he was also to die before the work could be completed. At his death, he had completed about 40 percent of the Qur’an, ending at verse 101 of Surah 12, “Yussuf.” Subsequently, Sheikh Muhammad Bahjat Al-Baitar of Damascus completed the commentary on Surah “Yussuf” and published it under Rasheed Redha’s authorship in a separate volume. The book thus takes up 12 large volumes in clear and succinct style.
Abdou defines the purpose of this commentary as “the understanding of God’s book as it embodies a religion guiding mankind to what ensures their happiness in the life of this world and in the life to come.” In their method of explaining the Qur’an, both scholars are keen to “steer away from alien stories, fabricated Hadiths, superstition, linguistic and semantic details, philosophical argument, legal footnotes, Sufi metaphysical interpretation, sectist views, etc.”
Abdou had it very clear in his mind that in his approach to explaining the Qur’an, he must discard all these influences. He was not to toe the line indicated by others. His approach was to look at God’s book with a clear mind, taking into consideration only what is necessary for a clear understanding of the text. Of all past commentaries on the Qur’an he relied most on Tafseer Al-Jalalain, which is very brief, indicating the meaning of unfamiliar words and phrases. Sheikh Redha followed his mentor’s line.
He adds: “When I started working alone, I moved away from his method, relying more on authentic Hadiths — providing some linguistic explanation of certain words and phrases, speaking about controversial matters — tackling certain issues which are particularly needed by Muslims today to strengthen their belief in Islam and support their argument against its enemies or help them in finding solutions to some intricate problems.”
The two scholars gave more weight to the text of the Qur’an than the immediate reason for the revelation of any particular verse. If the verse concerned issues of faith or God’s oneness, they did not look at the cause of its revelation. Only with verses outlining rulings on practical matters were immediate reasons considered, because these gave a deeper insight into the ruling.
Thus the commentary provided a wealth of ideas and views derived directly from God’s book, the Qur’an, as well as a rich variety of explanatory views. Some of these were of great reformative influence and some contributed a great deal to the understanding of the Qur’an and its subsequent explanation by scholars. Some were subject to criticism by other scholars.
Abdou and Redha are the stalwarts of the modern rationalist approach to the understanding of Qur’anic revelations. Their approach represents a complete break with the traditionalist view that prevailed for so long in the Muslim world, limiting religious thought to what was documented by the scholars of old times. In their rationalist approach, both scholars consider reason the major tool to acquire knowledge, but it must remain within the constraints of God’s law, breaching none of these. In commenting on the Qur’anic statement, “He (i.e. God) gives wisdom to whomever He will,” (2: 269) Abdou says: “This means that God gives man the tool for the acquisition of wisdom, which is reason. He gives it intact and complete and provides him with guidance to use it properly to acquire true and accurate knowledge.” He also says: “Anyone who is given to always imitate others is deprived of the fruits of reason, which is wisdom.” Redha says: “The tool of wisdom is a sound mind dealing independently with scholarly matters, making judgments only on the basis of accurate evidence.”
However, where the question is beyond the reach of human intellect, recourse must be made to what is revealed. Abdou says: “On matters that lie beyond the reach of human perception, we do not rely on anything other than what God has revealed to the Prophet (peace be upon him). We neither add nor overlook any part of it.” He also explains: “What is impossible to understand or define by our senses or intellect, though it may be generally perceived, is the area where we need a guide conveying to us knowledge he receives from God Almighty. We accept that fully from him without argument. Hence we say that God’s Messenger is the mind of the whole Muslim community, providing guidance that goes beyond that indicated by senses, conscience and reason.”
This approach gave a totally new concept of understanding Divine revelations. It represented a valuable contribution to Islamic knowledge. Moreover, it was instrumental in stemming the tide of foreign influence brought by the colonial powers to lure people in Muslim countries away from Islam. May God reward Sheikh Muhammad Abdou and Sheikh Rasheed Redha for their work and forgive them their human errors which were undoubtedly well-intentioned.