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Western sociology and the Muslim world

Syeikh Muhammad Abduh's ideas on societal reform

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Abstract

This article examines the Syeikh Muhammad Abduh's ideas on society, diagnoses of its problems and viable solutions. Central to this article's argument is the appropriation of Abduh into the list of thinkers found within the discipline of sociology that has been dominated by Europeans in his era. By highlighting several themes related to the challenges and anxieties faced by Muslim societies in facing up to Western modernity, which Abduh was much concerned with in his discourses, it is hoped that future scholars would re-examine his sociological thoughts in light of its significance towards fostering East–West intellectual symbiosis.

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Notes

  1. A. Nabil Khoury, Islam and Modernization in the Middle East: Muhammad Abduh, An Ideology of Development, (USA: State University of New York, 1976), p. 17.

  2. Albert Hourani, Arabian Thought in the Liberal Age: 1798–1939, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1983), p. 140.

  3. For a detailed and update discussion on sociological thought and theory see Bert N. Adams and R.A. Sydie, Sociological Theory, (Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge 2001).

  4. Hourani, Arabian Thought in the Liberal Age, p. 151.

  5. Khoury, Islam and Modernization in the Middle East, p. 2.

  6. See Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (trans. by Talcott Parsons), (New York: Allen & Unwin,1976).

  7. Khoury, Islam and Modernization in the Middle East, p. 5.

  8. Ibid., p. 63.

  9. Muhammad Abduh, The Theology of Unity (Great Britain: Unwin Brothers Ltd, 1966), p. 7.

  10. Hourani, Arabian Thought in the Liberal Age, p. 151.

  11. Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel's ‘Philosophy of Right’ (trans. by Annette Jolin and Joseph O'Malley, (London: Cambridge University Press, 1970).

  12. Khoury, Islam and Modernization in the Middle East, p. 92.

  13. Yvonne Haddad, Muhammad abduh: Pioneer of Islamic Reform, in Ali Rahnema (ed.), Pioneers of Islamic Revival, (Kuala Lumpur: Abdul Majeed and Co, 1995), p. 560.

  14. Ibid., p. 58.

  15. Khoury, Islam and Modernization in the Middle East, p. 21.

  16. Ibid., p. 29.

  17. Haddad, Muhammad Abduh, p. 53.

  18. Osman Amin, Muhammad Abduh, (USA: Edwards Brothers, 1953), p. 31.

  19. 19Ibid., p. 29.

  20. Khoury, Islam and Modernization in the Middle East, p. 35.

  21. Amin, Muhammad Abduh, p. 94.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The School of Oriental and African Studies (S.O.A.S), Thornbaugh Street, Russel Square, London, England, UK

    Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied

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Correspondence to Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied.

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Aljunied, S.M.K. Western sociology and the Muslim world. AEJ 3, 421–427 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10308-005-0012-8

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