Islam's Reformers .pdf

strong that his mind and conscience were too upset to see therelations between the âyats.9. In the interpretation of the sûrat al-’Asr, he said, “Îmândoes not mean an imitative belief in the things which mind andconscience cannot grasp. It is not îmân to memorize and saysome words which one has heard from his parents. Islam isagainst imitation. It is of no value to have come before, soeverything must be solved by one’s investigation throughreason.” In his Risâlat at-tawhîd [1] , however, he wrote: “Ifreason cannot grasp something in the religion, it has to believeit,” thus his words disagreed with each other.10. Georgy Zaidan, the proprietor of the Hilâl Publications inEgypt and author of The History of Islamic Civilization, wroteabout ’Âbduh, “Muhammad ’Abduh did not remain dependentupon the words of old scholars, nor did he esteem the rules putby them.”11. In the interpretation of the Fâtiha, he wrote: “The Qur’ânaddressed the people living in that time [of its revelation] and itaddressed them not because they were superior, but becausethey were human beings,” thus he refused the hadîths aboutthe superiority attained by as-Sahâba.12. In an attempt to interpret the âyat, “The deed-books offâjirs are in Sijjîn,” he wrote: “I have seen in some people’sbooks that ‘senjun’ means ‘mud’ in the Ethiopian language.This word has probably come to Yemen from Ethiopia. Theâyat, then, means, ‘The deeds of the fâjirs are like mud.’ ”Disliking the interpretations of Rasûlullah (’alaihi ’s-salâm), as-Sahâbat al-kirâm and of the profound Islamic scholars, heinterpreted âyats on a coincidental and presumptive basis.13. When interpreting the sûrat al-Fîl, he wrote, “The birds ofAbâbîl may be mosquitos, so the soldiers possibly died of smallpoxor measles.” I wonder how he would interpret it if he lived ahundred years later. Indeed, Rasûlullah (’alaihi ’s-salâm)explained their meanings, and tafsîr scholars found thesemeanings and wrote them in their books.14. In the interpretation of the sûrat an-Nâs, he wrote:[1] A compilation of his propagandas directed to the students of Almadrasatas-Sultâniyya in Beirut in 1885, published a year after hisdeath.- 193 -