Part 4: the Reformist Activists

The three outstanding and influential 19th and early 20th Century examples of this type of thinker are Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani (1838 – 1897), Muhammad ‘Abduh (1844 – 1905) and Rashid Rida (1865 – 1935).

Afghani was a charismatic thinker and polymath who influenced both contemporary and later activists and thinkers. He lived, wrote and published with ‘Abduh in Paris and London. He was a political activist and intellectual rather than a religious thinker. He was also eccentric and a rabble-rouser who also engaged in writing for the educated classes. He urged resistance against the British and others in Egypt and elsewhere and finally met his death in mysterious circumstances. He was unpopular with both the religious and political powers-that-be of his time.

‘Abduh had a degree of Islamic training and an interest in blending Islamic with Western ideas as a disciple of the slightly older Afghani. As with Afghani he spread his practical ideas for reform widely via the then-vibrant Arab/Ottoman presses. Among his ideas was that ultimately representative government in the Arab and Islamic world should follow a period of learning self-government under benevolent despotism. As a disciple of Afghani, he was also an Arab nationalist. He personally attempted (unsuccessfully) to reform al-Azhar. He also attempted the reform of the Arabic language itself and proposed unpopularly that judges and rulers should be areligious (or at least not religious scholars). He also had no interest in the re-establishment of any kind of Grand Caliphate.

Rida, in turn, was a disciple of ‘Abduh. He had more Salafiyya ideas than either of his predecessors. He established the al-Manār journal in which he discussed the Qur’an and expressed his desire for the return of a Caliphate (unlike Afghani and ‘Abduh, he lived to see the end of the Ottoman Empire and alleged Caliphate). In order to achieve this return, he encouraged Islamic rulers of different modern countries of the early 20th Century to discuss uniting politically. He also opposed European interference in the Islamic region as imperialism and domination. He saw both tradition and modernity as challenges (but not problems) for the Islamic world and therefore cautiously approved of both.