Fanta Pompilus

#6848761
Essay Question 800 to 1,000 words

Muhammad Abduh is one of the main figures in the modern Islamist movement.
His main goal was to gradually reconstruct the Muslim world and modernize it, so that
Islam could be seen as a role model for democracy. Muhammad Abduh was engaged
politically and spiritually in Islam, he used the influence of one of the pioneer of modern
Islamist movement Al-Afghani to rethink Islam and conform it to modern society. Abduh
had a strong point of view toward the West and Christianity, for him the European
civilization and Christianity were the main obstacles to Islams evolution. Modernity was
really the main focus in Abduhs theory. Here, we are going to see how Abduh perceive
the West and Christianity in contrast to the Muslim world.
To begin with, Abduh opposes the Islamic teaching to the Christian education, for
instance Islam is rational because it is not founded on the belief in miracles like in
Christianity, a Muslim will always choose reason over religion, whereas Christians do the
total opposite. Abduh argues, the fact that the Christian religion requires a certain type of
exclusion from reality, for examples priest are not allowed to have any sexual
intercourse, they must be devoted entirely to god; if they would like to access the
kingdom of heaven, therefore they cant really state that they have total freedom in
their religion. So to speak, Abduh finds that the Quran holds the truth, because it
represents the revelation of god; unlike the Bible, which humans have modified. In fact,
there is no need for religious authority in Islam because the only relationship that counts
is the one between the believer and God; the believer is not force to prove his faith to
someone else. Abduh reproaches to Christians the fact that they want to convert
everyone and they do so, with force; however for him Islam allows anyone to practise
the religion of their choices. He insisted on the fact that Islam is very tolerant towards
other religions, unlike Christians. At one point he also accused Christians bringing much
more violence, rather than peace. Last but not least, he noticed that Christians are not
allowed to marry someone outside their religion without converting them, for instance
Muslims men are allowed to marry Christians or Jewish women, as long as they keep
their faith. Here we see that Muhammad Abduh is highly critical of Christianity and the
West. With reference to The Necessity of Religious Form written by Abduh himself, we
really see how Abduh founded his doctrine on rationalism of Islam.
Furthermore, there is one author that can describe perfectly well Abduhs view of
the West. Shepard uses ontological arguments to explain the modern Islamist
movement. The ontological orientation that illustrate Abduhs doctrine is the Islamist
orientation, the reason why is that they believe Islam can be very well adapted to

modern times, more than Christianity. Modernists are looking for democracy and they
know that true Islam can be achieved by understanding the spirit of the Quran. Just like
Abduh stated in his texts, Islam is rational and allows many types of interpretations.
Modernists like Abduh wanted to free themselves from the domination of the West and
the absolute monopoly of Christianity over the world. Shepard expresses that
modernists had this desire to create a true Islamic society and that in order to do
Muslims should get back to ijitihad. Modernists have values such as tolerance, equality,
freedom and many more principles. All things considered, Shepards argumentation
comes enlighten Muhammad Abduhs project for Islam and his representation of the
West and Christianity. However, Abduh was really oppose to secularism, he saw this
movement as simply imitating the West.
In conclusion, we see that the Modernist Movement was really determinate to
make Islam the best it could be. Abduh, used the rationality of Islam to show how Islam
was superior to the West and how it was designed for modernity, unlike Christianity. He
really wanted Islam, to unify and carry the whole Muslim world; he encouraged Muslims
to read earlier original text and really practised the Sunnah, Abduh interpreted the Quran
rationally, his project was really to reform Islam. Last of all, Abduh did see some good in
the West, his thoughts were inspired by many great Europeans thinkers such as Marx,
he even learned French and love French literature. From my point of View Abduh just
saw in the West how Islam could be if they werent so much confusion, reforming Islam
meant giving the Muslim world strength to be glorious on its own. Islam had the potential
for him to inspire and innovate; Islam had the capacity to evolve in the same time as
modernity.