Nahda, Reform Movement, and Modernism
Abstract
An appraisal of the Nahda—the colonial Renaissance or modernity in the Arab world from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries—entails both critical challenges and constructive assessments. The Nahda marked a revival of Arabic literature, education, linguistic reform, and the arts, giving rise to new ideas about patriotism, nationalism, and political reform, as exemplified by key figures in Islamic modernism. The concept of Enlightenment in Islam can be compared to Kant’s philosophy of Enlightenment within the Christian tradition.
Political Consolidation and Decline in Islam
The Seljuk Empire was ruled from 1063 to 1092 by the brilliant Persian vizier Nizam al-Mulk, who sought to use the Turks to restore unity to the empire and rebuild the traditional Abbasid bureaucracy. The Seljuk Turks, influenced by Persian culture, recognized and defended the religious leadership and authority of the Abbasid Caliphate, while establishing their own empire (1037–1194).
Nizam al-Mulk encouraged the establishment of madrasahs throughout the Seljuk realm and founded the prestigious Nizamiyyah Madrasah in Baghdad in 1067. During this period, Muslims began to be represented by the ulama, a religious scholarly class that became coextensive with the entire Dar al-Islam (the abode under Muslim rule).
Al-Ghazzali, a protégé of Vizier Nizam al-Mulk, served as a lecturer at the Nizamiyyah Madrasah in Baghdad and was a leading authority in Islamic law. By this time, many members of the ulama believed that the ‘gates of ijtihad’ (independent legal reasoning) had been closed.[1]
Salah al-Din (1137/8–1193), a Kurdish Sunni, also established an independent dynasty in Egypt, the Ayyubids (1171–1250). During his reign, the Mamluk system was introduced, which later became a defining feature of the region’s military and political structure. Similar to the Abbasids before them, the Ayyubids sought to ensure a loyal and effective army by staffing it with slaves, known as mamluks (from the Arabic word for ‘slave’), primarily of Turkish origin.
In 1260, the Mamluks seized power in Egypt and Syria, establishing a powerful regime in the Middle East that would last for nearly two centuries (1250–1517). The Fatimids, who had ruled earlier, were the ones to establish the city of Cairo in 969, transforming it into a major center of military and intellectual power. They also founded al-Azhar University, which became the first university in the Islamic world and remains a prominent institution to this day.[2]
The general assumption that Islam is inherently opposed to business and capitalism is misguided. Mecca, a major caravan center, was a hub of trade long before the advent of Islam, and Muhammad himself worked as a business agent before his religious experience. Both partnership and commenda agreements were commonly used in the medieval Muslim world, reflecting a practical and sophisticated approach to commerce.
Cairo reached its peak during the reign of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad (1294–1340), when the state exerted greater control over the economy. The Mamluks managed to subordinate the freewheeling karimi (wholesale merchants), restricting their trade with foreign entities. This allowed the Mamluk state to monopolize markets for profitable goods, placing key sectors under direct state control.[3]
Under the established dynasty of sultans, Sultan Selim I (r. 1512–1520), considered the real founder of the Ottoman Empire, defeated the Mamluk Empire in Egypt and Syria. The Ottoman Empire itself was founded in 1299 by the tribal leader Osman I and lasted until 1924. Prior to Selim’s victory, the expanding Ottoman power under Sultan Mehmed II had conquered Constantinople in 1453, marking a significant turning point. The empire reached its apogee under Sultan Suleiman al-Qanuni (‘the Lawgiver’) (1520–1566), who oversaw a cultural renaissance in Istanbul.
However, the Umayyad state of Córdoba finally disintegrated in the early 11th century, replaced by the Almohad Caliphate (a North African Berber Muslim empire). In the 12th century, Christian kingdoms won most of the battles through the process of the Reconquista, leaving only the Muslim enclave of Granada as a tributary state. This process ended in 1492 with the fall of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada to the Catholic Monarchs.
European Hegemony and Orientalism
The Catholic Monarchs of Spain, formed by the marriage of Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1469, completed the Reconquista in 1492 and also decided to fund the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus’s expedition that same year.
Columbus’s first voyage in 1492 and the establishment of the first Spanish colony in the New World on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic) marked the beginning of European colonialism, the brutal exploitation of indigenous populations, and the initiation of the transatlantic slave trade. Immanuel Wallerstein considers the period from 1450 to 1640 as a significant time frame during which a capitalist world-economy was created, though in a vast but weak sense.[4]
Columbus’s first name in Latin, Christoferens (‘Christbearer’), reflected his vocation to open the door to the apocalypse. He sought to bring the message of Christ to new lands, while also acquiring wealth from those lands to finance a new crusade aimed at wresting Jerusalem from Muslim control.[5]
On the other hand, the Italian Renaissance, through the Medici family’s financial empire, made the most decisive contribution to the development of capitalism as a world system, particularly in the sphere of high finance. It refers to a Florentine invention formed by the alliance between the House of Medici and the political agents of the Florentine state, which took shape during the trade expansion of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. The real birthplace of modern finance capitalism was mid-fifteenth-century Genoa, in its systemic cycle of capital accumulation. However, the rise of Ottoman power in Asia Minor undermined Genoese supremacy.[6]
Under his rule, the Ottoman court became a patron of the arts, including painting, history, and medicine. The Ottomans built an observatory in 1577, a significant astronomical research center and were intrigued by the new European discoveries in navigation and geography. While the Ottoman state maintained a distinct Islamic orientation, it balanced this with secular law and a sophisticated bureaucratic administrative framework.
Orientalism and modernization theory are no longer neatly applied to Islam as being ‘traditionalist’ or ‘backward, as such colonial discourses are considered reductionist and ahistorical. In reality, European capitalism began to infiltrate Ottoman markets in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, while the French Revolution had a profound impact on Egypt through Napoleon’s expedition. This period also saw the combined effects of imperialism and the spread of free trade, which significantly shaped the region’s socio-economic landscape.[7]
In the eighteenth century, Sultan Ahmed III began to turn to Europe for solutions to the Ottoman Empire’s problems, and this reliance on Europe continued throughout the nineteenth century. In terms of global power, France and England dominated the new world order, from the outbreak of the Anglo-Dutch Wars (1652) to the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1815). This period marks the rise of the inter-state system, dominated by the struggle for world hegemony and the systemic cycle of capital accumulation. For the Ottomans, this era also coincided with the gradual decline of their empire.[8]
In fact, the European impulse to depict the Orient as backward was significantly reinforced by Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt. This culminated in the publication of Description de l’Égypte (1803–1828), a comprehensive work by a team of French scholars, which included numerous maps and illustrations of both ancient and modern Egypt.[9]
Nonetheless, the Islamic world could hardly be considered subordinate in comparison to Europe. Following the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, European politicians, journalists, and scientists began to frame Europe as the bulwark of modern civilization, positioning it in opposition to Islamic countries. This marked a significant turning point in Europe-Islam relations, where Oriental countries were increasingly judged and represented from a Eurocentric perspective, situated within the structure of imperial power and colonial discourse.[10]
Nahda and European Modernity
The French Revolution was perceived by many Muslims as the first significant European movement. In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte set out to conquer Egypt, and the French administrators in Egypt began modernizing the country in their own image.
In Napoleon Bonaparte’s expedition to Egypt and following his brief occupation (1798–1799), Muhammad Ali (1805–1848) was appointed governor-general and came to power. Unlike the Ottoman sultans, he boldly reshaped Egyptian society based on European law and economic practices, seeking independence from the Ottoman Empire. He is considered the founder of modern Egypt, and his dynasty ruled the country until the 1952 revolution.
In the nineteenth century, the Ottoman Empire managed to preserve its independence, though it was largely limited to the Turkish heartlands. In 1908, a revolution led by the Young Turks, primarily composed of army officers, reinstated a constitution and marked a shift from Islamic modernism to a secular, constitutional model of patriotism.
Meanwhile, Muhammad Ali, the Albanian pasha of Egypt, virtually made Egypt independent from Istanbul, though he also massacred political opposition. With the assistance of European capital and advisors, he introduced significant reforms, modernizing the army, administration, and legal systems. He also revamped the country’s irrigation systems and introduced improved crops for export. His reform policy extended to education, where he brought in French instructors and advisors and encouraged Egyptians to study abroad.[11]
At the height of European modernity in the nineteenth century, the so-called Pan-Islamic movement emerged, calling for the alliance of all Islamic peoples and giving rise to Pan-Arabism. This movement was inspired by the glorious period of the Arab Empire under the Umayyad Caliphate. It eventually turned against the rule of the sultan and gained widespread support after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.[12]
In 1826, Muhammad Ali sent a commission to Paris, led by Rifa‘a al-Tahtawi (1801–73). Al-Tahtawi, who had studied at al-Azhar University, was appointed as the imam for the Egyptian mission in Paris for five years. During his time in Paris, he studied the political organization, scientific and technical progress, patriotism, and literature of the French, translating some 20 books into Arabic.
While he admired France’s openness to new ideas, al-Tahtawi also sought to redeem and preserve the best qualities of Islamic culture. He is regarded as a pioneer of the Nahda (Arabic Renaissance), which emerged four centuries after the Italian Renaissance. Al-Tahtawi first articulated the idea of an Arabic Renaissance in a book he wrote in 1834, after his five-year stay in France. The Travel Diary of My Stay in Paris garnered significant interest from both Arabs and Turks, and included a translation of the French Constitution of 1814.
He also witnessed the July Revolution of 1830 against Charles X, King of France (r. 1824–1830), and his political views advocated for parliamentarism and women’s education. Embracing Western society and values, Tahtawi maintained that reform must be adapted to the values of Islamic cultures. This perspective defines the identity of the Nahda in its cultural articulation and synthesis. The Arab Enlightenment flourished in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Tunisia during the second half of the 19th century and into the early 20th century.
However, more recent scholarship links the Nahda’s cultural reform program to the Tanzimat (‘Reorganization’), a period of political liberal reforms, modern education, intellectual modernization, and social infrastructure development within the Ottoman Empire (1839), which ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. This reform brought about constitutional orders and engendered a new political class, continuing into the later Young Turk Revolution (1908), a constitutional revolution in the Ottoman Empire.
The Nahda was fueled by internal social, political change, and economic reform, aimed at reviving Arab culture, literature, and modern national identity in the pursuit of independence and self-determination in response to European colonialism, which also impacted Islamic society.
Given this different context, the renaissance itself began in both Egypt and the Levant. The Levant focused more on cultural aspects, while Egypt concentrated on the political aspects of the Muslim world.[13]
In fact, the concepts of fatherland and patriotism that Rifa‘a al-Tahtawi introduced and advocated were novel in Muslim thought. By combining religion with patriotism, he stated: “The love of religion and the passion to protect it… they call love of fatherland. However, among us, the people of Islam, love of the fatherland is just one branch of the faith, and the defense of religion is its capstone.”[14]
However, in Amin’s view, the Nahda did not fully grasp the concept of secularism, as the separation between religion and politics is a fundamental requirement for modernity. The Nahda also failed to understand democracy as a break from Islamic tradition, without fostering aspirations for women’s liberation. Instead, the Nahda equated the meaning of modernity with technical progress.[15]
Nonetheless, Amin’s evaluation seems to underestimate the significance of the Nahda in introducing the need for constitutional democracy, civil rights, women’s education, and municipal privileges, particularly in relation to sharia, natural law, and civil society.
As al-Tahtawi argues: “The regulations of sharia do not go contrary to most of these natural laws. They represent the innate character which God created along with man and made obligatory for him in existence.”[16]
Islam and Modernism: Jamal al-Din Afghani
Rifa‘a al-Tahtawi established a college of languages and translated both the French Constitution and French civil law into Arabic. He was likely the first to argue that Muslims must learn all the modern sciences, as Europeans had developed them by building upon knowledge originally derived from Muslims themselves. Al-Tahtawi was highly critical of Muhammad Ali for not incorporating these sciences into the current Al-Azhar curriculum, even though they had once been taught there.[17]
From the 1870s, Islamic modernism was primarily disseminated by the Iranian activist Jamal al-Din Afghani (1839–1897), who drew from both the traditions of the Qur’an and Medina, as well as European education. Afghani marked a turning point, traveling from India to Egypt, awakening Muslims to resist European imperialism and galvanizing them as a united Muslim nation.
Muslims had fallen into a comfortable traditionalism, following the paths of their ancestors. This was reflected in the habitual practice of taqlid (following precedent) among legal scholars, rather than ijtihad (independent reasoning), and the rejection of modern learning by some religious scholars.
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani insisted that science was the basis of power. “If someone looks deeply into the question, he will see that science rules the world.” “The Europeans have now put their hands on every part of the world … In reality this usurpation, aggression, and conquest has not come from the French or the English. Rather it is science that everywhere manifests its greatness and power. Ignorance had no alternative to prostrating itself humbly before science and acknowledging its submission.”[18]
In the context of Islamic modernism from the 1870s al-Afghani insisted that Muslims must rebel against the long closing of the gates of ijtihad (independent reasoning) and use their own unfettered reason and democratic consensus (ijma), as accord with the Prophet and the Quran. He argued that the Muslim religion has tried to stifle science, preventing its progress unlike Christian religion.[19]
Ijtihad was the means by which scholars derived legislation for new or changing circumstances from the primary sources: the Quran and the Sunna. Scholars also introduced another source of Islamic law: consensus (ijma`) among scholars regarding the legal implications of the Quran and the Sunna.
Using this source, it was decided that no further ijtihad would be necessary. While there is no specific date for this decision, the agreement that the gates of ijtihad were closed became clear by the beginning of the tenth century. Instead of ijtihad, following precedent (taqlid) was recommended. However, from the perspective of many reformers, the cessation of ijtihad made Islamic law inflexible, unable to effectively address change, and led to detrimental consequences.[20]
Almost akin to an Islamic Martin Luther, al-Afghani is regarded as the father of modern Muslim nationalism, emphasizing the need for an Islamic reformation in the face of colonialism. He argued that European progress and modernity had been possible only because the Reformation had preceded it.[21]
In its historical context, the Peace of Westphalia was significantly shaped by the Protestant Reformation, marking the conclusion of the war for dominance between Catholic and Protestant states within the Holy Roman Empire—the Thirty Years’ War, which ended in 1648. The principle of cuius regio, eius religio (whose realm, his religion) established the modern system of the sovereign state as an independent nation-state. In this regard, the Reformation holds political significance for Islamic modernism and its reform movements.
Moreover, al-Afghani was concerned with two interconnected causes: the defense of Islamic lands threatened by European expansion and the internal revitalization of Islam. He focuses on the importance of natural science. “Thus it is evident that all wealth and riches are the result of science. There are no riches in the world without science, and there is no wealth in the world other than science…If sciences are removed from the human sphere, no man would continue to remain in the world…”[22]
Afghani rejected the prevalent notion that Europeans were inherently superior to Muslims. On the contrary, he argued that ‘authentic Islam’ was ultimately founded on reason—the very basis of Western success. He accepted the validity of a scientific worldview and even declared that: “…those who forbid science and knowledge in the belief that they are safeguarding the Islamic religion are really the enemies of that religion. The Islamic religion is the closest of religions to science and knowledge, and there is no incompatibility between science and knowledge and the foundation of the Islamic faith….”[23]
Muhammad Abduh and The Theology of Unity
The Mu’tazilite position on the relationship between reason and revelation emphasized practical moral and social justice, an influence that can be seen in the works of al-Afghani, his pupil Muhammad Abduh (1849–1905), and Rashid Rida (1865–1935), a biographer of Abduh in the context of Islamic modernism. Abduh, a Neo-Mu’tazilite, was a synthesizer who discovered the Islamic roots of modernity in the rationalist Mu’tazila school and the philosophical enlightenment of Averroes. He integrated the original Islamic tradition with modern scientific development. This vision became a cornerstone of Abduh’s educational reforms, particularly in the reform of the Al-Azhar curriculum.[24]
In the discussion of Islam, reason and civilization, he maintains: “Rather, religion must promote this very search, demanding respect for evidence and enjoining the utmost possible devotion and endeavor through all the worlds of knowledge,…holding fast the while to sound itself. Any who assert contrary do not know what religion is and do despite to it which the Lord or the worlds will not forgive…”[25]
In Abduh’s view, taqlid was equivalent to intellectual servitude. For him, the Quran “forbids us to be slavishly credulous.” “Traditionalism can have evil consequences as well as good and may occasion loss as well as conduce gain. It is a deceptive thing, and though it may be pardoned in an animal, is scarcely seemly in man.”[26]
In his theology of Unity, Abduh acknowledged the significance of the Reformation and the subsequent reform movements in the West, drawing a parallel with Islam and continuing al-Afghani’s call for an Islamic Reformation. A key element of this was the reintroduction of the legacy of ijtihad. Averroes, in twelfth-century Cordova, championed secular reasoning and refused to accept the closure of the gates of ijtihad.
Abduh expanded the definition of ijtihad to encompass critical, independent reasoning in all areas of thought, asserting that all Muslims have the responsibility to engage in ijtihad. The creativity inherent in ijtihad had allowed the Islamic community to thrive by responding dynamically to changing historical circumstances. This method of legal reasoning was independent of the traditional schools of jurisprudence or madhabs. Jurists were encouraged to use ijtihad to issue legal rulings based on their own reasoning in cases where the Quran and Sunnah did not provide clear guidance.
Abduh advocated for the rights of Muslim women through the reform of Islamic law and society. European powers found it challenging to deal with Islamic legal codes and often criticized Islamic law as rigid and archaic. However, in the face of increasing foreign domination, many people became defensive of traditional law, seeing it as a core part of their Muslim identity. As a result, many traditional Islamic scholars denounced reformers like Abduh as ‘Westernizers.’
Nonetheless, according to al-Afghani, those who reject science and knowledge in the name of safeguarding Islam are, in fact, enemies of the religion. He argued that Islam is the religion most aligned with science and knowledge, asserting that there is no inherent conflict between science and the Islamic faith.[27]
Similarly, Abduh linked the need for reform in Islamic law through ijtihad to Islam’s inherent rationality. He viewed the rationality of the universe as a reflection of divine unity, with the divine being revealed through all of creation. The Quran frequently urges people to examine the world and recognize the signs of God within it. Based on the Quranic command to ‘read the signs’ and ‘seek knowledge,’ the exercise of reason is central to the practice of Islam.
In interaction with Andalusia, the desire for knowledge was further cultivated in the West, which called for reform and a return to the simplicities of faith. This idea echoes the Christian Reformation, which, much like Islam, sought to “enunciate the fundamental principles of modern civilization.”[28]
Nahda and Islamic Intellectual Enlightenment
The Islamic concept of mutual consultation among believers (Shura), as outlined in the Quran (42:38), and exemplified by the Prophet, should not be confined to traditional Islamic structures. However, it can be developed to align with modern parliamentary systems. This idea also reflects the Pan-Arab vision that emerged after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, questioning the right of the Turks to rule over the Arabs.
Following the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the Arab awakening was first sparked by Rifa‘a al-Tahtawi (1801–1873). His focus was primarily on Egyptian nationalism and Islamic modernism, reconciling tradition with European modernity. His work laid the foundation for the later emergence of Pan-Arabism.
For his concept of Nahda, Islam is compatible with reason and science, as well as with education and social reform. In this vision, citizens are encouraged to actively participate in building a civilized society, rooted in the ideas of fatherland and patriotism. Egypt’s unique or alternative path to modernization contributed to a broader intellectual discourse that highlighted Arab cultural virtues and a shared sense of identity. This discourse later resonated with proponents of Pan-Arabism, particularly during the presidency of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt (1956-1970).
This intellectual movement inspired Pan-Arabism and the idea of a unified Arab consciousness, where Christians and Muslims could coexist peacefully under a constitutional regime. Arab Christians played a significant role in the intellectual formation of Pan-Arabism, advocating for a secular, unified Arab state to secure their stability and equal rights, moving beyond their marginalized status. Nonetheless, Nasser’s anti-Christian legislation led to many conversions, eroding the Coptic community.[29]
However, Abduh’s vision was not anti-Christian or anti-Jewish; rather, he recognized both faiths as sharing core monotheistic principles with Islam. “Say, O people of the Book, come, hear one word which will bring us into accord. We will worship none but God and not take other gods instead of Him, and that none of us will set up other lords in His place. If they refuse, say: Bear witness that we are surrendered” (Surah 3.64.)[30]
On the other hand, the Nahda-modernist vision was later realized through scientific renovation and political reform, which included structural changes to the educational system and a democratic renewal. In this regard “Abduh cast off the last vestiges of world-denying asceticism and entered the world of socio-political activism from which he never retired, although ultimately he was to eschew Afghani’s revolutionism in favor of a more conciliatory and evolutionary approach.”[31]
Enlightenment in Europe and Islam
According to Tariq Ramadan, one of the foremost Muslim intellectuals, a remarkable aspect of the Islamic path to its own modernism is “a very dynamic relation to the scriptural sources and a constant desire to use reason in the treatment of the Texts in order to deal with the new challenges of their age and the social, economic, and political evolution of societies”.[32]
Reformers such as al-Afghani and Abduh sought to conceptualize Pan-Islamic alternatives to Western colonialism by returning to the Quran and drawing on the rich, dynamic Islamic tradition of independent legal reasoning. They also emphasized the revitalization of national languages, alongside the integration of scientific knowledge and philosophy. Islam, as a religion, was called upon to play a central role in the liberation and the political, cultural, and economic future of Muslim communities.[33]
As we have already discussed, the Mutazilite tradition integrated Aristotelian thought so deeply into Islamic philosophy and Quranic exegesis that the created nature of the Quran is articulated in relation to the concept of divine unity (tawhid) and social justice.
The five principles are presented in the following order: the first is justice, the second is punishment and threat, the third is the intermediate rank, used to judge someone who commits a grave sin. The fourth principle is the obligation to command what is right and forbid what is wrong, while the fifth principle is unity.[34]
The central Mutazilite doctrine of the freedom of the human will and a general emphasis on reason was further developed in Shiite theology in the thirteenth century. “After the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the high-level and creative philosophical tradition persisted only in Iran, where it has remained unbroken till the present.”[35]
In the European context of the Enlightenment, Kant established the basic requirement for enlightenment: the freedom for individuals to publicly use their reason to engage with both religious and worldly matters, while still adhering to certain rules.
In his essay “What is Enlightenment?” (1784), Kant defines Enlightenment within the Christian tradition, encapsulated by the motto Aude sapere (dare to know). He describes it as a process that frees human beings from the status of immaturity. The natural state is expressed as one where individuals pay their taxes while still being able to critique the taxation system, or take responsibility as a pastor for parish service while freely reasoning about religious dogmas.[36]
If Kant situates religion within the realm of practical moral reason, then a new reformist theology, drawing from the tradition of Nahda and modernization, must emerge from the Quran—one that aligns with the criteria of conformity to nature as understood in nineteenth-century modern science. The Enlightenment, as the age of critique, shares much in common with the Islamic concept of independent critical reasoning.
Concluding Remark
Early scholars of Islam and leaders of the community exercised considerable freedom and ingenuity in interpreting the Qur’an, incorporating the principles of ijtihad (personal reasoning) and qiyas (analogical reasoning based on a particular text of the Qur’an). There is no doubt that Muslim scientists were motivated by the Qur’an’s high regard for knowledge, particularly the study of the universe, alongside the study of humanity and history. Indeed, within the epistemological framework of the natural sciences, it is essential to extract intellectual principles from religious texts (the Qur’an and the Sunna). Islam is not a religion contrary to reason; rather, it encourages scientific rationality, as demonstrated during the Golden Age of Islam from the 8th to the 13th centuries CE.
Furthermore, during British colonialism in India, Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817–1898) emerged as one of the most radical thinkers influenced by European rationalism in the nineteenth century. He embraced the arguments of the Mutazila as well as those of Muslim philosophers. According to his view, all religious texts must align with the laws of nature, rendering orthodox Muslim theology no longer tenable.[37]
In his lecture on Islam, Khan sought to reconcile the tenets of modern science with Islamic doctrine, returning to the original teachings of Islam as revealed by God and the Prophet, in contrast to the interpretations shaped by the ulama. The sole criterion for determining the truth of a religion, according to Khan, is whether it aligns with the natural disposition of human beings or with nature itself. This alignment serves as a clear indicator of the original meaning of Islam—or any religion.
In this sense, the truth of Islam can be tested by whether it corresponds with the natural constitution of humanity. Kahn’s provocative thesis reads: “Islam is nature and nature is Islam.”[38]
Kahn sought to a radical reevaluation of Islamic thought, which is open to modern science and philosophy. Islamic modernism in India became a real option for integration of science and religion. In this regard, there would never be a contradiction for Islamic epistemology between sacred texts and scientific experiences and statements. It is meaningful to interpret holy texts grounded in monotheistic worldview to be in accord with scientific experiences and facts.
As Fazlur Rahman confesses, “I can say without fear of contradiction that, for the Qur’an, knowledge-that is, the creation of ideas-is an activity of the highest possible value.”[39]
Given this historical and intellectual context, I argue that the Nahda should be recognized as a pivotal moment in Islamic engagement with European modernity and colonialism, paving an alternative path to modernity and civil society through the reformers. The Islamic Renaissance sui generis can be seen as a historical bridge, linking Islamic civilization in its earlier phases—such as in Baghdad and Spain—through a process of critical questioning and dialogue, both backward and forward.[40]
This lifeworld approach to the Islamic renaissance does not diminish the legacy of the Nahda in Egypt or the Tanzimat liberal reforms in the Ottoman Empire, beginning with the Edict of Gülhane (1839). Instead, it repositions the historical legacy of liberal reform and cultural awakening within am intentional circle, linking it with the subsequent modernist movement. This approach opens new horizons of meaning, emphasizing Islam’s contribution to an alternative path to modernity, democracy, and civil society in the aftermath of colonialism.
[1] Armstrong, Islam, 101, 103.
[2] Sonn, Islam, 87.
[3] Janet, Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony, 212-215.
[4] Immanuel Wallerstein, The Modern World-System I: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century (London and San Diego: Academic Press, 1974), 68.
[5] David Chidester, Christianity: A Global History (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2000), 353.
[6] Arrighi, The long Twentieth Century, 113-115.
[7] James A. Reilly, “Capitalism and the Ottoman Empire,” Middle East Report 157 (March/April 1989).
[8] Arrighi, The Long Twentieth Century, 47-8.
[9] Carl W. Ernst, Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World
(Chapel Hill & London: The University of North Carolina Press, 2003), 191.
[10] Reinhard Schulze, A Modern History of the Islamic World, trans. Azizeh Azod (London and New York: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2000),15.
[11] Sonn, Islam, 120.
[12] Küng, Islam, 238. 429.
[13] Stephen Sheehi, Foundations of Modern Arab Identity (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004).
[14] Al-Tahtawi, “Fatherland and Patriotism,” in Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives, 2nd ed., eds. J.L. Donohue and J.L. Esposito (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 11.
[15] Amin, Eurocentrism, 67.
[16] Al-Tahtawi, “Fatherland and Patriotism,” Islam in Transition,12.
[17] Fazlur Rahman, Islam & Modernity (Chicago: The University of Chicago, 1982), 64.
[18] Cited in Sonn, Islam, 147-8.
[19] Al-Afghani, “An Islamic Response to Imperialism,” Islam in Transition, 13.
[20] Sonn, Islam, 140.
[21] Kűng, Islam, 422.
[22] Al-Afghani, “An Islamic Response to Imperialism,” Islam in Transition, 14.
[23] Ibid., 15.
[24] Rahman, Islam & Modernity, 67.
[25] Muhammad Abduh, “The Theology of Unity,” Islam in Transition, 20.
[26] Cited in Sonn, Islam, 142.
[27] Al-Afghani, “An Islamic Response to Imperialism,” Islam in Transition, 15.
[28] Muhammad Abduh, “The Theology of Unity,” Ibid., 23.
[29] Edward Wakin, A Lonely Minority: The Modern Story of Egypt’s Copts (New York: Morrow, 1963).
[30] Muhammad Abduh, The Theology of Unity, trans. Islzaq Mus’ad and Kenneth Cragg (London: George Allen & Unwin LTD, 1966), 130.
[31] Yvonne Y. Haddad, “Muhammad Abduh: Pioneer of Islamic Reform”, in Ali Rahnema (ed.), Pioneers of Islamic Revival (UK, London: Zed Books, 1994), 32.
[32] Tariq Ramadan, Western Muslims and the Future of Islam (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 26.
[33] Tariq Ramadan, Islam and the Arab Awakening (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 69-70.
[34] Racha el-Omari, “The Mutazilite Movement (I): The Origins of the Muʿtazila”, in The Oxford Handbook of Islamic theology, ed. Sabine Schmidtke (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 178.
[35] Rahman, Islam & Modernity, 35.
[36] Foucault, “What is Enlightenment?” The Essential Foucault, eds. Paul Rabinow and Nikolas Rose (New York and London: The New Press, 2003), 46.
[37] Rahman, Islam & Modernity, 52.
[38] Khan “Islam: The Religion of Reason and Nature,” in Islam in Transition, 37.
[39] Rahman, Islam & Modernity, 158.
[40] The Arab Renaissance: A Bilingual Anthology of the Nahda, ed. Tarek El-Ariss (Modern Language Association, 2018).