Editing Muhammad Abduh (section)

==Thought==
[[File:Таухид. توحيد.pdf|left|thumb|Work of Muḥammad ʿAbduh, translated in [[Old Tatar language]] and published in [[Kazan]] in 1911]]
{{blockquote|I went to the West and saw Islam, but no Muslims; I got back to the East and saw Muslims, but not Islam.|(Attributed to Muḥammad ʿAbduh upon his return from France<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2011/07/02/democracy-religion-and-moral-values-a-road-map-toward-political-transformation-in-egypt/|title=Democracy, Religion and Moral Values: A Road Map Toward Political Transformation in Egypt|author=Ahmed Hasan|date=2 July 201|work=Foreign Policy Journal|access-date=14 August 2017}}</ref> }}

Muḥammad ʿAbduh 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, but that man was given intelligence so that he could be guided by knowledge. According to ʿAbduh, a teacher's 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.<ref>Gelvin, J. L. (2008). The Modern Middle East (2nd ed., pp. 161-162). New York: Oxford university Press.</ref> His Muslim opponents [[Takfir|accused him]] of being an infidel (''[[kafir]]''), whereas his students and followers regarded him as a sage, a reviver of Islam (''[[Mujaddid]]''), and a reforming leader. He is conventionally graced with the honorary epithets ''al-Ustādh al-Imām'' and ''al-Shaykh al-Muftī''. 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. ʿAbduh didn't advocate for returning to the early stages of Islam. He was against [[Polygyny in Islam|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 [[Tafsir|exegesis of the Quran]] and abolish [[racial discrimination]].<ref name=KG/> He 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.e-ir.info/2014/09/12/islamic-state-the-arab-spring-and-the-disenchantment-with-political-islam/|title = Islamic State, the Arab Spring, and the Disenchantment with Political Islam|date = 12 September 2014}}</ref>

[[File:Imam Muḥammad 'Abduh.jpg|thumb|right|Muḥammad ʿAbduh during his last days]]
ʿAbduh regularly called for better [[Interfaith dialogue|friendship between religious communities]]. He made great efforts to preach harmony between [[Sunni Islam|Sunnī]] and [[Shia Islam|Shīʿa]] Muslims. Broadly speaking, he preached brotherhood between all [[Islamic schools and branches|schools of thought within Islam]]. However, he criticized what he perceived as errors such as [[superstition]]s coming from popular [[Sufism]].<ref name=Benzine>Benzine, Rachid. Les nouveaux penseurs de l'islam, p. 43-44.</ref> His critiques to the popular cult of [[Wali|Muslim saints]], customs of ''[[tabarruk]]'' (seeking blessings) from relics, shrine venerations, etc. were central themes in ʿAbduh's works. He believed that practices such as supplicating and seeking intercession by placing intermediaries between God and human beings were all acts of "manifest ''[[Shirk (Islam)|shirk]]''" (polytheism) and ''[[bidʻah]]'' (heretical innovations) unknown to the ''[[Salaf]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Linhoff|first=Josef|url=https://hdl.handle.net/1842/36935|title='Associating with God in Islamic Thought': A Comparative Study of Muslim interpretations of shirk|publisher=University of Edinburgh|year=2020|location=Edinburgh, United Kingdom|pages=160|doi=10.7488/era/236|hdl=1842/36935}}</ref> According to ʿAbduh:
{{blockquote|Shirk is of various types including that which has come to affect the Muslim masses ('''āmat al-muslimīn'') in their worship of other than God by way of bowing and prostration. And the greatest of these kinds of shirk is that by way of supplicating and seeking intercession (with God) by placing intermediaries between themselves and Him... And we certainly see this shirk among Muslims today. And you will not see any god added to this religion... except that (expressed by) the word "intercession" (''shafā'a''), which its practitioners reckon is a means of veneration the prophets and saints, but which is, in reality, a means of turning its them into idols, that disgrace the greatness of the Lord of the Worlds. The only explanation for this is in the whispers of Satan.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Linhoff|first=Josef|url=https://hdl.handle.net/1842/36935|title='Associating with God in Islamic Thought': A Comparative Study of Muslim interpretations of shirk|publisher=University of Edinburgh|year=2020|location=Edinburgh, United Kingdom|page=160|chapter=V: Shirk, reason and colonial modernity: Muḥammad 'Abduh (d. 1905)|doi=10.7488/era/236|hdl=1842/36935}}</ref>}}

Despite his strong condemnation of excessive saint veneration, ʿAbduh was sympathetic to ''[[Sufism|Tasawwuf]]'' and [[Al-Ghazali|Ghazzalian]] cosmology. He would explain the philosophical and esoteric Sufi traditions of Islam in his treatise ''Risālat al-Wāridāt fī Sirr al-Tajalliyyat'' ("Treatise on Mystical Inspirations from the Secrets of Revelations") which articulated the philosophical and mystical teachings of his master, [[Jamal al-Din al-Afghani|Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī]], incorporating the spiritual ideas of medieval Sufi saints and philosophers such as [[Ibn Arabi]] and [[Avicenna|Ibn Sina]]. The language ʿAbduh employs to describe al-Afghānī's instructions was based on a distinctly Sufi framework that symbolised [[Ishraqi|Ishrāqi philosophy]]. The treatise dealt with substantiating the philosophical proofs of [[Existence of God|God's existence]] and his nature, elaborating a [[Sufi cosmology]] and developed a rationalistic understanding of [[Prophets and messengers in Islam|prophecy]]. ʿAbduh adhered to the cosmological doctrine of ''[[Wahdat ul-wujud|Wahdat ul-Wujud]]'' developed by [[Islamic mysticism|mystical]] [[Islamic philosophy|Islamic philosophers]], which held that God and his creation are co-existent and co-eternal.<ref name="Scharbrodt 2007 89–115"/> Defending the doctrine of ''Wahdat ul-Wujud'' of the Sufi philosophers and saints Ibn Arabi, [[Abu al-Najib Suhrawardi|Suhrawardi]], etc., ʿAbduh wrote:{{blockquote|... we believe: there is no existence apart from His existence and no attribute (''wasf'') apart from His attribute. He is existent and anything else is non-existent. The first commanders of the faithful (''al-umarā' al-awwalun''), may God be pleased with them, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali said: ''You do not perceive anything without seeing God before it, behind it, in it or with it''. ... Do not fall into the delusion that this is the belief in incarnationism (''hulul''). Incarnationism rather occurs between two beings when one of the two becomes the other. But we believe: there is no existence apart from His existence.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Scharbrodt |first=Oliver |year=2007 |title=The ''Salafiyya'' and Sufism: Muḥammad 'Abduh and His ''Risālat al-Wāridāt'' (Treatise on Mystical Inspirations) |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London |location=[[Cambridge]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |volume=70 |issue=1 |pages=89–115 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X07000031 |jstor=40378895 |s2cid=170641656}}</ref>{{rp|100}}}}

As [[Christianity in Egypt|Christianity was the second largest religion in Egypt]], ʿAbduh would devote special efforts towards friendship between Muslims and Christians. He had many Christian friends and many times he stood up to defend [[Copts]],<ref name="Benzine" /> especially during the Egyptian nationalist [[ʻUrabi revolt]] led by [[Ahmed ʻUrabi]] in 1879, when some Muslim mobs had misguidedly attacked a number of Copts resulting from their anger towards European colonialism.<ref name="Benzine" /> ʿAbduh also had meetings in [[Baghdad]] with [[ʻAbdu'l-Bahá]],<ref name="Brill 2016"/> son of the founder and spiritual leader of the [[Baháʼí Faith]],<ref name="Iranica">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Bausani |first1=Alessandro |author1-link=Alessandro Bausani |last2=MacEoin |first2=Denis |author2-link=Denis MacEoin |title=ʿAbd-al-Bahā |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/abd-al-baha |volume=I/1 |pages=102–104 |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |publisher=[[Columbia University]] |location=[[New York City|New York]] |date=14 July 2011 |orig-year=15 December 1982 |issn=2330-4804 |access-date=25 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121116231933/https://iranicaonline.org/articles/abd-al-baha |archive-date=16 November 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> whom he had a generally positive view of—although it was asserted by his students that he was unaware of the [[Baháʼí literature|extra-Quranic Baháʼí sacred scriptures]] or status of [[Baháʼu'lláh]] as a [[Manifestation of God (Baháʼí Faith)|Manifestation of God in the Baháʼí Faith]], and mistakenly viewed it as a reformation of [[Shia Islam|Shīʿīsm]].<ref>Juan R.I. Cole. ''[http://www.h-net.org/~bahai/diglib/articles/A-E/cole/abduh/abduh.htm Muhammad `Abduh and Rashid Rida: A Dialogue on the Baháʼí Faith.]'' World Order Vol. 15, nos. 3-4 (Spring/Summer 1981):7-16.</ref> ʿAbduh's collected works have been compiled and published in five volumes by [[Muhammad Imarah]].