Religion and Reason in Contemporary Islamic Ethics: A Comparative Study of Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas and Taha Abderrahmane Thought

Keywords: ethics, reason, religion, Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, Taha Abderrahmane

Abstract

Abstract Views: 0

The current research was based on a comparative study of the views of two prominent Islamic intellectual figures, namely Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas and Taha Abderrahmane regarding the position of reason and religion in contemporary Islamic ethics. As library-based research, the current study applied a comparative and textual analytical method to study the primary sources obtained from al-Attas' and Taha's works as well as supplemented by secondary sources from journals and books that are relevant to the topic of discussion. This study concluded that the difference between them was more obvious than the similarities. Through a philosophical lens of virtue ethics, al-Attas viewed ethics as an endeavor to cultivate and refine one's character and spirit by honing the key virtues, wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice, guided by the practical reasoning informed by the overarching influence of theoretical reason. Meanwhile, Taha rejects virtue ethics because for him to limit human actions to only a few elements of virtue cannot be justified since humans are ethical creatures who produce limitless actions. Through the conception of supported reason, which combines theory, praxis, and living experience, he strives for comprehensive ethics based on Sufi approach. However, they share the same opinion that in ethical decisions, the reason is dependent on religion, which they elaborate on through their respective arguments.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Abderrahmane, Taha. Al-ʿAmal al-Dīnī wa-Tajdīd al-ʿAql [Religious Practice and the Renewal of Reason]. Beirut and Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-ʿArabī, 1989.

—. Suʾāl al-Akhlāq: Musāhama fī al-Naqd al-Akhlāqī lil-Ḥadātha al-Gharbiyya. Casablanca and Beirut: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-ʿArabī, 2000.

—. Ḥiwārāt Min Ajl al-Mustaqbal. Casablanca and Beirut: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-ʿArabī, 2011.

—. Suʾāl al-ʿAmal: Baḥth ʿan al-Uṣūl al-ʿAmaliyya lil-Fikr wa-l-ʿIlm [The Question of Doing: A Search for Practical Origins in Thought and Science]. Casablanca and Beirut: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-ʿArabī, 2012.

—. Tajdīd al-Manhaj fī Taqwīm al-Turāth [Renewing the Method of Assessing the Tradition]. Casablanca and Beirut: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-ʿArabī, 1994.

Aristotle. The Nicomachean Ethics. Edited by W. D. Ross, and L. Brown. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Al-Akiti, M. Afifi., and H. A. Hellyer. "The Negotiation of Modernity through Tradition in Contemporary Muslim Intellectual Discourse: The Neo Ghazalian, Attasian Perspective." In Knowledge, Language, Thought and the Civilization of Islam: Essays in Honor of Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas. (Eds) Mohd Nor Wan Daud, Muhammad Zainiy Uthman and Muhammad Naguib Al-Attas. Skudai: UTM Press, 2010.

Al-Attas, Syed Muhammad Naquib. The Positive Aspects of Tasawwuf. Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Academy of Science (ASASI), 1981.

—. Islam and Secularism. Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 1993.

—. Commemorative Volume on the Conferment of the Al-Ghazālī Chair of Islamic Thought. Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 1994.

—. Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam. Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 1995.

—. On Justice and the Nature of Men. Kuala Lumpur: IBFIM, 2015.

—. The Concept of Education in Islam. Kuala Lumpur: Ta’dib International, 2018.

Avicenna. The Metaphysics of the Healing, Ed. and Trans. By Michael Marmura. Provo: UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2005.

Belhaj, Abdessamad. “The Fall of The Western Family” Ṭāhā ‘Abd Al-Raḥmān’s Critical Islamic Ethics." ReOrient 4, no. 1 (2018): 24-43. [https://doi.org/10.13169/reorient.4.1.0024].

Black, Deborah L. "Psychology: Soul and Intellect." In The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy. Edited by Peter Adamson and Richard C. Taylor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. [https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521817439.015]

Donaldson, Dwight M. Studies in Muslim Ethics. London: S.P.C.K, 1953.

Fakhry, Majid. Ethical Theories in Islam. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1991.

Al-Ghazālī. Mizan ‘Amal, Ed. Sulaimān Dunyā. Cairo: Dār al-Ma’ārif, 1964.

Hallaq, Wael B. Reforming Modernity: Ethics and the New Human in the Philosophy of Abdurrahman Taha. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019. [https://doi.org/10.7312/hall19388]

Hashas, Mohammed. “‘Taha Abderrahmane’s Trusteeship Paradigm: Spiritual Modernity and the Islamic Contribution to the Formation of a Renewed Universal Civilization of Ethos.’” Oriente Moderno 95, no. 1 (2015): 67–105. [https://doi.org/10.1163/22138617-12340077]

Hashas, Mohammed., and Mutaz Al-Khatib.“Introduction: Modern Arabic-Islamic Scholarship on Ethics in Islamic Ethics and Trusteeship Paradigm.” In Islamic Ethics and Trusteeship Paradigm: Taha Abderrahmane’s Philosophy in Comparative Perspectives, (Eds.) Mohammed Hashas & Mutaz Al-Khatib. Leiden: Brill, 2020.

Hourani, George. Reason and Tradition in Islamic Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. [https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511570780]

Ibn Sīnā, “Fī ‘Ilm al-akhlāq, in Tis’ Rasāil fī al-Hikmah wa al-Tabī’iyyāt Cairo: Matba’ah Hindiyah, 1908.

Kania, Dinar Dewi. “Konsep Virtue Ethics Dalam Pemikiran Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas Dan Tantangan Postmodernisme.” [The Concept of Virtue Ethics in the Thought of Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas and the Challenges of Postmodernism]. Tasfiyah, 1, no. 2 (2017): 157–78. [https://doi.org/10.21111/tasfiyah.v1i2.1850]

Sherif, M. A. Ghazali’s Theory of Virtue. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1975.

Suleiman, Farid. “‘The Philosophy of Taha Abderrahman: A Critical Study.’” Die Welt Des Islams 61, no. 1 (2020): 15.

Uthman, Muhammad Zainiy. “‘Al-Attas on Action, Thinking Framework and The Human Soul.’” International Journal of the Asian Philosophical Association 13, no. 1 (2020): pp. 43-68.

Published
2023-12-06
How to Cite
Rakhmat, Aulia. 2023. “Religion and Reason in Contemporary Islamic Ethics: A Comparative Study of Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas and Taha Abderrahmane Thought”. Journal of Islamic Thought and Civilization 13 (2), 134-51. https://doi.org/10.32350/jitc.132.09.
Section
Articles