Sciences and religions in the late modern period

Introduction

Ever since the beginning of the 20th century, practicing Muslim academics have elected to study the Muslim religion as a social practice linked to cultural and civilisational factors in particular contexts through the lens of human and social sciences, bringing in history then other disciplines such as philosophy, linguistics or anthropology. These intellectuals sought to develop concepts shared across diverse fields and scientific theories that would help find new answers to questions raised by the traditional approaches. This methodology, that signals a major epistemological shift, has aimed to stir clear from any mythical or religious influence in the framework of academic research. This epistemological change was effected in the wake of relations and tensions between those who speak from without religious institutions and those who seek to refresh the understanding of society through the prism of religious thought. We have here a complex process involving conflictual views. The stakes are high in that learning methodologies engage values which, sidelined in the scientific context of research, can be perceived as relativized.

The Ulama[2][1], equipped with religious knowledge developed within fixed disciplines for over a millennium, have worked for the purpose of providing sound and precise answers to the questions humans raise about themselves and their lives. This knowledge founded in a considerable corpus, has, to some extent been challenged. Indeed human sciences academics do not start from the same premises when they investigate religion, neither do they use the same methods of interpretation and explanation of Islam's Holy Book. As it did among Christians and Jews, this approach founded in a different epistemology has caused debates, which are on-going. Two models will be proposed of those new readings of the Islamic heritage. The first is framed as operating from within, taking a ‘Islamic humanist” standpoint, it has been championed by Mohammed Abed Al Jabri[3] and Mohammed Arkoun[4]. The second, more external, analytical, including a cultural, hermeneutic and political dimension, has been proposed by Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd[5].

  1. Hadith

    « faits » et les « dits » attribués au prophète de l'islam qui ont été compilés et mis par écrit dans des recueils.

  2. Ulama:

    scholars specialised in Islamic religious sciences. They may be referred to as “Doctors of Islamic law”

  3. Mohammed Abed Al Jabri (1935-2010):

    Moroccan philosopher, professor at the University of Rabat, he was a specialist of thought in the Arab and Muslim world from its origin to the present and well versed in 18th century European philosophic tradition. The necessity of critical thought, both as a methodology and as a mentality, convey Al Jabri's project in its entirety. In 1984, he published the first of four volumes of his Critique of the Arab Mind. In that same year Mohammed Arkoun published his Critique of Islamic Thought.

  4. Mohammed Arkloun (1928-1010):

    born in Kabylie in the French colony of Algeria. He follows in the Enlightenment tradition while adopting a critical approach of 18th century French philosophy. Enjoying international fame, as attested by his invitation to deliver the Gifford Lectures in 2001, he chose to discuss the “Inaugurating a Critique of Islamic Reason”. He taught the history of Islamic thought and “applied Islamology”, a discipline he created as an extension to Roger Bastide's applied anthropology, in a range of American and European universities (notably at the Sorbonne). He showed particular interest in the unthought in in classical and contemporary Islam

  5. Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (1943-2010):

    Exegete of the Quran born in an Egyptian village near Tanta. He was sent to Nasser's jails aged twelve on suspicion of sympathies with the Muslim Brothers. Trained as an electrical engineer he worked for the National Communications Organization in Cairo. At that time, he started studying Arabic at the University of Cairo where he graduated with a BA then an MA in 1977. Four years later, his studies on Quranic interpretation earned him his PhD in Islamic studies. In 1982, he joined the faculty of the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at Cairo University as an assistant professor. He became an associate professor there in 1987. However the nature of his teaching and research resulted in attacks from ulama and fundamentalist elements: in a hisbah trial they started against him, he was declared an apostate (murtadd), and consequently was declared to be divorced from his wife and denied full professorship. With his life at risk, he fled with his wife and settled in the Netherlands where he continued to teach until his death.

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