Islam and the Baha'i Faith: A Comparative Study of Muhammad Abduh and Abdul-Baha Abbas (Culture and Civilization in the Middle EastAY)

252 Pages·2008·2.38 MB·English

by  Oliv Scharbrodt

(cid:1)
Islam and the Baha i Faith
Muhammad (cid:1)Abduh (1849–1905) was one of the key thinkers and reformers
of modern Islam who has influenced both liberal and fundamentalist Mus-
lims today. (cid:1)Abdul-Baha (1844–1921) was the son of Baha(cid:2)ullah (1817–1892),
the founder of the Baha(cid:2)i Faith; a new religion which began as a messianic
movement in Shii Islam, before it departed from Islam.
Oliver Scharbrodt offers an innovative and radically new perspective on the
lives of these two major religious reformers in nineteenth-century Middle
East by placing both figures into unfamiliar terrain. While one would classify
(cid:1)Abdul-Baha, leader of a messianic movement which claims to depart from
Islam, as an exponent of heresy in Islam, (cid:1)Abduh is perceived as an orthodox
Sunni reformer. This book, however, argues against the assumption that both
represent two extremely opposite expressions of Islamic religiosity. It shows
that both were influenced by similar intellectual and religious traditions of
Islam and that both participated in the same discussions on the reform of
Islam in the nineteenth century.
Islam and the Baha(cid:2)i Faith provides new insights into the Islamic back-
ground of the Baha(cid:2)i Faith and into (cid:1)Abduh’s own association with so-called
heretical movements in Islam. This book is a valuable resource to anyone
interested in the Baha(cid:2)i Faith and its Islamic roots and in the intellectual
history of modern Islam.
Oliver Scharbrodt is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Western
Kentucky University, USA. His research interests lie in the study of modern
Islam and of Iranian Shiism and Sufism.
Culture and civilization in the Middle East
General Editor: Ian Richard Netton
Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Exeter
This series studies the Middle East through the twin foci of its diverse cultures and
civilizations. Comprising original monographs as well as scholarly surveys, it covers
topics in the fields of Middle Eastern literature, archaeology, law, history, philosophy,
science, folklore, art, architecture and language. While there is a plurality of views, the
series presents serious scholarship in a lucid and stimulating fashion.
PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED BY CURZON
The Origins of Islamic Law The Formation of Hanbalism
The Qur(cid:2)an, the Muwatta(cid:2) and Madinan Piety into power
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Yasin Dutton
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The history of Cambridge University’s
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H.adı¯th as discourse between Qum and
Baghdad Muslims and Christians in Norman Sicily
Andrew J. Newman Arabic-speakers and the end of Islam
Alexander Metcalfe
Qur(cid:2)an Translation
Discourse, texture and exegesis Modern Arab Historiography
Hussein Abdul-Raof Historical discourse and the nation-state
Youssef Choueiri
Christians in Al-Andalus 711–1000
Ann Rosemary Christys The Philosophical Poetics of Alfarabi,
Avicenna and Averroes
Folklore and Folklife in the United Arab The Aristotelian reception
Emirates Salim Kemal
Sayyid Hamid Hurriez
PUBLISHED BY ROUTLEDGE
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Zaid Ahmad Devotional piety in Sunni Islam
Marion Holmes Katz
2. The Hanbali School of Law and Ibn
Taymiyyah 9. Space and Muslim Urban Life
Conflict or concilation At the limits of the labyrinth of Fez
Abdul Hakim I Al-Matroudi Simon O’Meara
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A pragmatic analysis The intellectual career of Nizam al-
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4. Arab Representations of the Occident
East-West encounters in Arabic 11. Ibn (cid:1)Arabî – Time and Cosmology
fiction Mohamed Haj Yousef
Rasheed El-Enany
12. Muslim Women in Law and Society
5. God and Humans in Islamic Thought Annotated translation of al-T.a¯hir
Abd al-Jabba¯r, Ibn Sı¯na¯ and al-H.adda¯d’s Imra (cid:2)tuna¯ fi (cid:1)l-sharı¯ca
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Yasin Dutton (cid:1)Abduh and (cid:1)Abdul-Baha (cid:1)Abbas
Oliver Scharbrodt
7. Al-Ghaza¯l¯ı and the Qur(cid:1)an
One book, many meanings
Martin Whittingham

(cid:1)
Islam and the Baha i Faith
A comparative study of Muhammad
(cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1)
Abduh and Abdul-Baha Abbas
Oliver Scharbrodt
First published 2008
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2008 Oliver Scharbrodt
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Scharbrodt, Oliver, 1976–
Islam and the Baha(cid:2)i Faith : a comparative study of Muhammad
(cid:1)Abduh and (cid:1)Abdul-Baha (cid:1)Abbas / Oliver Scharbrodt.
p. cm.—(Culture and civilization in the middle east)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Bahai Faith—Relations—Islam. 2. Islam—Relations—Bahai
Faith. 3. Islamic renewal. 4. (cid:1)Abdu(cid:2)l-Bahá, 1844–1921.
5. Muhammad (cid:1)Abduh, 1849–1905. I. Title.
BP378.7.S35 2008
297.9′315–dc22 2007041599
ISBN 0-203-92857-1 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0–415–77441–1 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–92857–1 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–77441–3 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–92857–8 (ebk)
To my mother
Le Printemps adorable a perdu son odeur!
Baudelaire

Contents
Preface xi
Note on transliteration and translations xiii
Maps and illustrations xiv
1 Introduction 1
2 The formative years: mysticism and millenarianism 29
3 Into modernity 57
4 Succession and renewal 84
5 Charisma routinised 114
6 Creating orthodoxy: the view of posterity 145
Epilogue 168
Notes 176
Bibliography 215
Index 233