Pembaharuan di Mesir

Pemikiran Muhammad Abduh dan Rasyid Ridha

Abstract

This article examines the reformist thought of Islamic modernism in Egypt initiated by Muhammad Abduh and Rasyid Ridha as an intellectual response to the decline of the Muslim community and the pressure of Western colonialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This study uses a qualitative method with a library research approach, examining primary and secondary sources relevant to the thought of both figures. The findings show that Muhammad Abduh emphasized reopening the door of ijtihad, eradicating blind imitation (taqlid) and stagnation (jumud), the rational use of reason in understanding revelation, and reforming the education system by integrating religious and modern sciences. Rasyid Ridha, as Abduh's student and successor, developed these ideas with a stronger emphasis on purifying creed from heresy, superstition, and blind imitation, and proposed the importance of Muslim unity through the caliphate system. Through his monumental work, Tafsir al-Manar, Ridha promoted the integration of religious and modern knowledge while rejecting westernization. This study concludes that the reforms proposed by both figures were not an attempt to abandon Islamic tradition, but rather an effort to restore Islamic teachings to their purity through a rational, dynamic, and contextual approach capable of responding to the challenges of modernity.