Lord Cromer, the strong man who represented Britain in Egypt, once said to Sheikh Muhammad Abdou: “If you would only remove your turban and wear western clothes, you could be Egypt’s prime minister.” At that time, Cromer could easily remove one prime minister and appoint another. Abdou replied: “I have been born a teacher and want to die as a teacher.”
This was Muhammad Abdou’s own sum up of his career and purpose. How true it was. On his return from exile, he prepared a report outlining a plan to reform education in Egypt. During the years he spent as a judge, he supplemented his legal education and improved his French. He was then able to translate from French into Arabic a book on education written by the British scholar H. Spencer, whom he had met on a visit to London.
Abdou was destined to resume his mission of reforming education. When Khedive Abbas II succeeded to the top seat of government in Egypt, he was keen to cooperate with all those advocating reform in the country. Thus, a close relationship was established between him and Abdou. The latter suggested to him that efforts should be concentrated on three areas where the British could not interfere. These were Al-Azhar, Religious Endowments and Islamic Courts. The Khedive approved a comprehensive report written by Abdou on reforming Al-Azhar, appointing in 1895 a new board of directors with Abdou as a member. Despite strong opposition from within, he managed to introduce reforms in the curricula, incorporating some modern disciplines.
His relations with the Khedive were not always rosy. In fact the Khedive feared that if Abdou were to be given much authority, his reforms would be too far-reaching. Hence, he did not assign to him the post of Rector of Al-Azhar, which fell vacant more than once. This was the top religious post in Egypt, and had Abdou been given it, he would have had the chance to introduce his own program to reform that historic establishment for the betterment of Muslims in Egypt and throughout the Islamic world. But this was not to be. Abdou was given the post of Mufti, but then some of his critics were very hostile, particularly when they realized that the Khedive was in support. This led Abdou to resign his post as Mufti, shortly before his death in 1905.
Abdou sums up his career as a reformist, saying: “I speak out advocating two great matters: the first is liberating the minds from the shackles of blind following so that people would understand religion like the early generations did, before the emergence of divergent views. This means that they should receive their understanding of Islam from its main sources. Thus, religion becomes one of the criteria guiding the human mind and preventing its errors. In this way, religion will be seen as a friend of science, providing motivation to look into the universe and discover its secrets, taking full cognizance of proven facts — The second is reforming the style of written Arabic, whether in official documents or in private letters.”
A major contribution of Muhammad Abdou to Islamic knowledge is his commentary on the Qur’an. This was mainly given in his lectures in two mosques in Beirut, one mosque in the city of Cairo and in Al-Azhar, as well as in the schools run by the Islamic Charitable Association which he supervised. His work in this area was collected and edited, and then supplemented by his close disciple, friend and associate Sheikh Rasheed Redha in their major work, Tafseer Al-Manar. We will speak more elaborately about this commentary when we introduce Sheikh Rasheed Redha next week, God willing.
We need to mention here that Abdou and Redha were the leaders of what is known as the Rationalist school in religious thinking. This approach relies on reason in accepting or rejecting certain ways of understanding religious text. While there is nothing in Islam that cannot be understood rationally, there are matters the nature of which we cannot fathom, because they do not belong to our world, or what is familiar to us. For example, Abdou interprets the destruction of the Abyssinian army that tried to destroy the Kaabah before the advent of Islam as being accomplished by an infection of smallpox.
This is a very narrow and unnecessary view of the event. There will be more on this later in this series.
As we have seen, the mission to which Abdou dedicated much of his life was a reform of education, particularly in Al-Azhar, the oldest university in the world. He felt that Al-Azhar must be turned into “a university, in the full sense of the word, where students receive sound education preparing them to contribute to the welfare of their community. Thus, Egypt and the world of Islam will have from among them fair judges, dedicated teachers, specialized scientists, proper educators who work diligently to promote sound Islamic principles and values among the Muslim community, leaving no room for superstition or deviant views.” He felt that reform of Al-Azhar would render a great service to the Muslim world as a whole, as it would ensure that its graduates acquired a sound understanding of Islam, its principles and values. His main tool of reform was a good understanding of the Qur’an, outlining the Qur’anic method of bringing out the best in man and molding the community in a well-knit unit.
Muhammad Abdou also contributed to the publication of some of the more important works of the Islamic heritage. He formed a society dedicated to this task, which managed to obtain many manuscripts from different countries. It then published a number of works, such as Al-Mukhassas, an old Arabic dictionary devoted to semantics, and two books on the literary aspects of the Qur’anic style by Abdul-Qahir Al-Jorjani.
Although Muhammad Abdou was a religious and social reformer, he had a contribution to make in political reform. He was certainly no politician, and his approach, based on careful study and gradual action, was not suitable to swift moving political activity. While he advocated political freedom, he preferred that this should be achieved gradually, with a reform first of municipal councils. When the people had a chance to get used to such free institutions, the process would move on to include a parliament.
If we are to sum up Abdou’s political views, we would say that he belonged to a conservative trend, advocating a series of measures that ensure, eventually, a thorough reform of the political scene and victory over the colonial power. These include reforming education and making it available to all young people. It is important that education should also teach people their rights and duties. Secondly, the press must be used as a powerful tool in combating corruption and enhancing national awareness. Thirdly, there should be a committed approach to the implementation of reform by the government. Finally, there must be a gradual and steady progress toward representative government, starting with municipal councils paving the way for the people to learn how to conduct constructive and free dialogue. When this has become a reality and people get used to this sort of debate, a parliament can play its full role. This will ensure government accountability.
There is no doubt that Muhammad Abdou was highly influential in Egyptian and Islamic society during his lifetime and for a long period after his death. Many social, religious and political reformers benefited by his guidance. Many were among his students and friends who were influenced by his work. May God bless his soul.
