“The Fall of The Western Family” Ṭāhā ‘Abd al-Raḥmān&apos;s Critical Islamic Ethics

Abdessamad Belhaj, null

doi:10.13169/reorient.4.1.0024

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ReOrient

Volume 4, Issue 1

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“The Fall of The Western Family” Ṭāhā ‘Abd al-Raḥmān's Critical Islamic Ethics

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research-article

Author(s): Abdessamad Belhaj

Publication date (Print): Autumn 2018

Journal: ReOrient

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: Ṭāhā ‘Abd al-Raḥmān, Morocco, philosophy in the Arab world today, modernity, family ethics, spirituality, critical thought, Sufism

Abstract

Ṭāhā ‘Abd al-Raḥmān is a Moroccan Islamic philosopher who has authored, so far, more than 25 books, and considered to be a leading intellectual in Morocco and one of the most important philosophers in the Arab world. Yet, he is unfamiliar to the Western scholarship of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies which can be inferred from the rare academic publications in European forums dedicated to this philosopher. Ṭāhā ‘Abd al-Raḥmān offers a philosophical justification for Islamism and Islamic reformism, especially on ethical matters. He developed a particular interest in family ethics, criticizing the Western family ethics, and using his skills in dialectical argumentation to promote the authenticity of and superiority of Islamic values, knowledge, and communities; he could be considered al-Ghazzālī of his age.

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Abdessamad Belhaj

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.13169

Journal ID (publisher-id): reorient

Title: ReOrient

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 20555601

ISSN (Electronic): 2055561X

Publication date (Print): Autumn 2018

Volume: 4

Issue: 1

Pages: 24-43

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Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium

Article

Publisher ID: reorient.4.1.0024

DOI: 10.13169/reorient.4.1.0024

SO-VID: 670fddaf-8c6c-4d09-bac2-6e45e33469b9

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History

References

Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (1979) Langage et philosophie: essai sur les structures linguistiques de l'ontologie. Rabat, Université Mohammed V.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (1983) al-ManṬiq wa-l-naḥw al-ṣūrī. Beirut: Dār al-Ṭalī'a.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (1985a) De la discussion louable à la controverse et de celle-ci à la science de la croyance. In The Hassanian Lectures of Ramadan 1985 . Edited by the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs. Rabat: Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs, 227–52.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (1985b) Essai sur les logiques des raisonnements argumentatifs et naturels. Paris: Sorbonne.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (1987) Fī uṣūl al-ḥiwār wa-tajdīd'ilm al-kalām . Casablanca: al-Mu'assasa al-ḥadītha li-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawzī'.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (1989) al-'Amal al-dīnī wa-tajdīd al-'aql . Rabat: Sharikat Bābil li-l-Ṭibā'a wa-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawzī'.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (1994) Tajdīd al-manhaj fī taqwīm al-turāth . Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-Arabī.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (1995) Fiqh al-falsafa. 1, al-falsafa wa-l-tarjama. Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-'Arabī.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (1998) al-Lisān wa-l-mīzān, aw al-takawthur al-'aqlī. Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-'Arabī.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (1999) al-Qawl al-falsafī: kitāb al-mafhūm wa-l-ta'thīl. Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-'Arabī.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2000a) ḥiwārāt min ajl al-mustaqbal. Beirut: al-Shabaka al-'Arabiyya lil-Abḥāth wa-l-Nashr.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2000b) Su'āl al-akhlāq: musāhama fī al-naqd al-akhlāqī lil-ḥ adātha al-gharbiyya . Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-Arabī.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2001) Ta'addudiyyat al-qiyam: mā madāhā wa-mā ḥudūduhā? Marrakesh: Kulliyyat al-Ādāb wa ’l-’Ulūm al-Insāniyya.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2002) al-ḥaqq al-'Arabī fī al-ikhtilāf al-falsafī. Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-'Arabī.
Άbd al-Raḥmä n, Ṭ. (2003) The principle of mutual mercy and the institutionalization of ethical modernity. In The Hassanian Lectures of Ramadan 2003 . Edited by the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs. Rabat: Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs, 95–117.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2004) Essence of modernity and right to creativity. Islam Today . 21, 83–119.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2005a) al-ḥadātha wa-l-muqāwama. Beirut: Ma'had al-Ma'ārif al-ḥikamiyya.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2005b) Rūḥ al-ḥadātha: al-madkhal ilā ta'sīs al-ḥadātha al-Islāmiyya . Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-'Arabī.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2005c) al-ḥaqq al-Islāmī fī al-ikhtilāf al-fikrī. Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-'Arabī.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2010) Language Matters: A Dialogue On Language & Logic . Abu Dhabi: Tabah Foundation.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2012a) Su'āl al-'amal: baḥth ‘an al-uṣūl al-'amaliyya fī al-fikr wa-l-'ilm. Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-'Arabī.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2012b) Rūḥ al-dīn: min ḍayq al-'ilmāniyya ilā sa'at al-i'timāniyya. Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-'Arabī.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2013) al-ḥiwār ufuqan lil-fikr. Beirut: al-Shabaka al-'Arabiyya lil-Abḥāth wa-l-Nashr.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2014) Bu's al-dahrāniyya: al-naqd al-i'timānī li-faṣl al-dīn ‘an al-akhlāq. Beirut: al-Mu'assasa al-'Arabiyya lil-Fikr wa-l-Ibdā'.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2016) Shurūd mā ba'da al-dahrāniyya. Beirut: al-Mu'assasa al-'Arabiyya lil-Fikr wa-l-Ibdā'.
Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2017) Dīn al-ḥayā': min al-fiqh al-i'timārī ilā al-fiqh al-i'timānī, 3 Rūḥ al-ḥijāb . Beirut: al-Mu'assasa al-'Arabiyya lil-Fikr wa-l-Ibdā'.
Abu-Rabi', I. M. (1997) The concept of the “other” in modern Arab thought: From Muhammad ‘Abdu to Abdallah Laroui. Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations . 8 (1), 85–95.
Akbar, S. A. (1992) Postmodernism and Islam: Predicament and Promise . London: Routledge.
Arberry, A. J. (1996) The Koran Interpreted . New York: Touchstone.
Arkoun, M. (1969) Contribution à l'étude du lexique de l'éthique musulmane. Bulletin d'études orientales . 22, 205–37.
Bevers, M. L. (2017) Taha Abderrahmane's ethics for a secular age (A review article). Journal of Islamic Ethics . 1 (1-2), 195–202.
Buchanan, I. (2010) A Dictionary of Critical Theory . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Eisenstadt, S. N. (2000) Multiple modernities. Daedalus . 129(1), 1–29.
El Makrini, Naïma (2015) Regards croisés sur les conditions d'une modernité arabo-musulmane: Mohammed Arkoun et Mohammed al-Jabri . Louvain-la-Neuve: Academia-L'Harmattan.
Fakhry, M. (1991) Ethical Theories in Islam . Leiden and New York: Brill.
Feener, R. M. (2007) Cross-cultural contexts of modern Muslim intellectualism. Welt des Islams . 47 (3–4), 264–82.
Hashas, M. (2015) Taha Abderrahmane's trusteeship paradigm: Spiritual modernity and the Islamic contribution to the formation of a renewed universal civilization of ethos. Oriente Moderno . 95(1), 67–105.
Karrār, K. (2009) al-Usra fī al-gharb, asbāb taghyīr mafhūmihā wa-wazīfatihā . Damascus: Dar al-Fikr.
Kausar, Z. (1997) Breakdown of family in the West: Islamic solution. Journal of Objective Studies . 9(1), 16–51.
Kaya, V. (2010) A Review of Fī uṣūl al-ḥiwār wa tajdīd ‘Ilm al-Kalām. Ilahiyat Studies . 1, 120–3.
Kersten, C. (2013) Islamic post-traditionalism in Indonesia: Revisiting tradition and the future of Islam. In Kersten, C. and Olsson, S. (eds.) Alternative Islamic Discourses and Religious Authority . Farnham: Ashgate, 137–58.
Kigar, S. (2017) Arguing the archive: Ṭāhā ‘Abd al-Raḥmān, Muḥammad 'Ābid al-Jābirī, and the future of Islamic thought. Comparative Islamic Studies . 11(1), 5–33.
Lahoud, N. (2004) Political Thought in Islam: A Study in Intellectual Boundaries . New York: Routledge.
Macías Amoretti, J. A. and Marsá Fuentes, J. (2012) The struggle for reform: Contested conceptualizations of iṣlāḥ in the Maghreb. The Muslim World . 102(2), 211–24.
Quṭb, S. (1992) al-Salām al-'ālamī wa-l-Islām . Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq.
Rahman, F. (1980a) A survey of modernization of Muslim family law. International Journal of Middle East Studies . 11(4), 451–65.
Rahman, F. (1980b) Major Themes of the Qur'an . Minneapolis: Bibliotheca Islamica.
Riecken, N. (2015) History, time and temporality in a global frame: Abdallah Laroui's historical epistemology of history. History and Theory: Studies in the Philosophy of History . 54(4), 5–26.
Ruddick, W. (1998) Ethics and the family. In Craig, E. (ed.) Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy . London: Routledge, 2709–12.
Sajoo, A. B. (ed.) (2010) A Companion to Muslim Ethics . London: I.B.Tauris.
Salvatore, A. (1995) The rational authentication of turāth in contemporary Arab thought: Muḥammad al-Jābirī and ḥasan ḥanafī. The Muslim World . 85 (3–4), 191–214.
Urvoy, M.-T. (2006) La morale conjugale dans l'islam. Revue d'éthique et de théologie morale . 240(3), 9–34.
Willemart, J. (1994) La tentative de conciliation de la foi et de la raison dans Le personnalisme musulman de Muḥammad ‘Azīz Laḥbābī. Réflexions sur le dialogue. In Naster, P. et al. (eds.) Humanisme, Science & Religion: In Memoriam Aristide Théodoridès . Brussels: Société royale belge d'études orientales, 255–66.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (1979) Langage et philosophie: essai sur les structures linguistiques de l'ontologie. Rabat, Université Mohammed V.

[2] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (1983) al-ManṬiq wa-l-naḥw al-ṣūrī. Beirut: Dār al-Ṭalī'a.

[3] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (1985a) De la discussion louable à la controverse et de celle-ci à la science de la croyance. In The Hassanian Lectures of Ramadan 1985 . Edited by the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs. Rabat: Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs, 227–52.

[4] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (1985b) Essai sur les logiques des raisonnements argumentatifs et naturels. Paris: Sorbonne.

[5] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (1987) Fī uṣūl al-ḥiwār wa-tajdīd'ilm al-kalām . Casablanca: al-Mu'assasa al-ḥadītha li-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawzī'.

[6] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (1989) al-'Amal al-dīnī wa-tajdīd al-'aql . Rabat: Sharikat Bābil li-l-Ṭibā'a wa-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawzī'.

[7] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (1994) Tajdīd al-manhaj fī taqwīm al-turāth . Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-Arabī.

[8] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (1995) Fiqh al-falsafa. 1, al-falsafa wa-l-tarjama. Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-'Arabī.

[9] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (1998) al-Lisān wa-l-mīzān, aw al-takawthur al-'aqlī. Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-'Arabī.

[10] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (1999) al-Qawl al-falsafī: kitāb al-mafhūm wa-l-ta'thīl. Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-'Arabī.

[11] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2000a) ḥiwārāt min ajl al-mustaqbal. Beirut: al-Shabaka al-'Arabiyya lil-Abḥāth wa-l-Nashr.

[12] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2000b) Su'āl al-akhlāq: musāhama fī al-naqd al-akhlāqī lil-ḥ adātha al-gharbiyya . Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-Arabī.

[13] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2001) Ta'addudiyyat al-qiyam: mā madāhā wa-mā ḥudūduhā? Marrakesh: Kulliyyat al-Ādāb wa ’l-’Ulūm al-Insāniyya.

[14] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2002) al-ḥaqq al-'Arabī fī al-ikhtilāf al-falsafī. Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-'Arabī.

[15] Άbd al-Raḥmä n, Ṭ. (2003) The principle of mutual mercy and the institutionalization of ethical modernity. In The Hassanian Lectures of Ramadan 2003 . Edited by the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs. Rabat: Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs, 95–117.

[16] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2004) Essence of modernity and right to creativity. Islam Today . 21, 83–119.

[17] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2005a) al-ḥadātha wa-l-muqāwama. Beirut: Ma'had al-Ma'ārif al-ḥikamiyya.

[18] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2005b) Rūḥ al-ḥadātha: al-madkhal ilā ta'sīs al-ḥadātha al-Islāmiyya . Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-'Arabī.

[19] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2005c) al-ḥaqq al-Islāmī fī al-ikhtilāf al-fikrī. Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-'Arabī.

[20] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2010) Language Matters: A Dialogue On Language & Logic . Abu Dhabi: Tabah Foundation.

[21] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2012a) Su'āl al-'amal: baḥth ‘an al-uṣūl al-'amaliyya fī al-fikr wa-l-'ilm. Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-'Arabī.

[22] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2012b) Rūḥ al-dīn: min ḍayq al-'ilmāniyya ilā sa'at al-i'timāniyya. Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-'Arabī.

[23] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2013) al-ḥiwār ufuqan lil-fikr. Beirut: al-Shabaka al-'Arabiyya lil-Abḥāth wa-l-Nashr.

[24] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2014) Bu's al-dahrāniyya: al-naqd al-i'timānī li-faṣl al-dīn ‘an al-akhlāq. Beirut: al-Mu'assasa al-'Arabiyya lil-Fikr wa-l-Ibdā'.

[25] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2016) Shurūd mā ba'da al-dahrāniyya. Beirut: al-Mu'assasa al-'Arabiyya lil-Fikr wa-l-Ibdā'.

[26] Άbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭ. (2017) Dīn al-ḥayā': min al-fiqh al-i'timārī ilā al-fiqh al-i'timānī, 3 Rūḥ al-ḥijāb . Beirut: al-Mu'assasa al-'Arabiyya lil-Fikr wa-l-Ibdā'.

[27] Abu-Rabi', I. M. (1997) The concept of the “other” in modern Arab thought: From Muhammad ‘Abdu to Abdallah Laroui. Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations . 8 (1), 85–95.

[28] Akbar, S. A. (1992) Postmodernism and Islam: Predicament and Promise . London: Routledge.

[29] Arberry, A. J. (1996) The Koran Interpreted . New York: Touchstone.

[30] Arkoun, M. (1969) Contribution à l'étude du lexique de l'éthique musulmane. Bulletin d'études orientales . 22, 205–37.

[31] Bevers, M. L. (2017) Taha Abderrahmane's ethics for a secular age (A review article). Journal of Islamic Ethics . 1 (1-2), 195–202.

[32] Buchanan, I. (2010) A Dictionary of Critical Theory . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[33] Eisenstadt, S. N. (2000) Multiple modernities. Daedalus . 129(1), 1–29.

[34] El Makrini, Naïma (2015) Regards croisés sur les conditions d'une modernité arabo-musulmane: Mohammed Arkoun et Mohammed al-Jabri . Louvain-la-Neuve: Academia-L'Harmattan.

[35] Fakhry, M. (1991) Ethical Theories in Islam . Leiden and New York: Brill.

[36] Feener, R. M. (2007) Cross-cultural contexts of modern Muslim intellectualism. Welt des Islams . 47 (3–4), 264–82.

[37] Hashas, M. (2015) Taha Abderrahmane's trusteeship paradigm: Spiritual modernity and the Islamic contribution to the formation of a renewed universal civilization of ethos. Oriente Moderno . 95(1), 67–105.

[38] Karrār, K. (2009) al-Usra fī al-gharb, asbāb taghyīr mafhūmihā wa-wazīfatihā . Damascus: Dar al-Fikr.

[39] Kausar, Z. (1997) Breakdown of family in the West: Islamic solution. Journal of Objective Studies . 9(1), 16–51.

[40] Kaya, V. (2010) A Review of Fī uṣūl al-ḥiwār wa tajdīd ‘Ilm al-Kalām. Ilahiyat Studies . 1, 120–3.

[41] Kersten, C. (2013) Islamic post-traditionalism in Indonesia: Revisiting tradition and the future of Islam. In Kersten, C. and Olsson, S. (eds.) Alternative Islamic Discourses and Religious Authority . Farnham: Ashgate, 137–58.

[42] Kigar, S. (2017) Arguing the archive: Ṭāhā ‘Abd al-Raḥmān, Muḥammad 'Ābid al-Jābirī, and the future of Islamic thought. Comparative Islamic Studies . 11(1), 5–33.

[43] Lahoud, N. (2004) Political Thought in Islam: A Study in Intellectual Boundaries . New York: Routledge.

[44] Macías Amoretti, J. A. and Marsá Fuentes, J. (2012) The struggle for reform: Contested conceptualizations of iṣlāḥ in the Maghreb. The Muslim World . 102(2), 211–24.

[45] Quṭb, S. (1992) al-Salām al-'ālamī wa-l-Islām . Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq.

[46] Rahman, F. (1980a) A survey of modernization of Muslim family law. International Journal of Middle East Studies . 11(4), 451–65.

[47] Rahman, F. (1980b) Major Themes of the Qur'an . Minneapolis: Bibliotheca Islamica.

[48] Riecken, N. (2015) History, time and temporality in a global frame: Abdallah Laroui's historical epistemology of history. History and Theory: Studies in the Philosophy of History . 54(4), 5–26.

[49] Ruddick, W. (1998) Ethics and the family. In Craig, E. (ed.) Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy . London: Routledge, 2709–12.

[50] Sajoo, A. B. (ed.) (2010) A Companion to Muslim Ethics . London: I.B.Tauris.

[51] Salvatore, A. (1995) The rational authentication of turāth in contemporary Arab thought: Muḥammad al-Jābirī and ḥasan ḥanafī. The Muslim World . 85 (3–4), 191–214.

[52] Urvoy, M.-T. (2006) La morale conjugale dans l'islam. Revue d'éthique et de théologie morale . 240(3), 9–34.

[53] Willemart, J. (1994) La tentative de conciliation de la foi et de la raison dans Le personnalisme musulman de Muḥammad ‘Azīz Laḥbābī. Réflexions sur le dialogue. In Naster, P. et al. (eds.) Humanisme, Science & Religion: In Memoriam Aristide Théodoridès . Brussels: Société royale belge d'études orientales, 255–66.