nationalist movement against British occupation
of the country. This culminated in Abduh’s partici-
pation in the unsuccessful 1882 Urabi Revolt and
his exile by the Egyptian khedive (ruler).
A major influence in Abduh’s life was Jamal
al-din al-aFghani, who had come to cairo in
- They worked closely together there and
later in Paris, where in 1884 they organized a
secret society and published al-Urwa al-Wuthqa
(the strongest link), a newspaper promoting resis-
tance to European expansionism through Mus-
lims’ solidarity with one another and through
the revival and reform of Islam. Both Abduh and
al-Afghani saw stagnation and weakness in Islami-
cate societies as rooted in the imitation (taqlid)
of old traditions and called for the use of rational
interpretation (iJtihad) to incorporate modern
ideas into Islam. Abduh in particular saw many
parallels between concepts in Islam and ideas
associated with the European Enlightenment and
drew on these for inspiration. He rejected, how-
ever, a wholesale appropriation of western secular
values, choosing instead the middle path of an
enlightened Islam that valued the human intellect
and modern sciences but revered the divine as the
source of human morality. He presented his ideas
on theology in a series of lectures given in Beirut
that were later published as Risalat al-tawhid (The
Theology of Unity, 1942–1943).
In 1888, Abduh returned to Cairo, focus-
ing his energies on educational and institutional
reform. After becoming the head (mUFti) of the
nation’s sharia court system in 1899, he worked
to liberalize interpretations of religious law. In this
field, he was especially concerned with the status
of women and advocated changes in family law
and equal opportunities in education, but he was
often countered by strong conservative forces.
Muhammad Abduh’s ideas were carried on
by his associates long after his death. mUhammad
rashid rida, a Syrian, published the reformist
journal Al-Manar (the beacon), which they had
started together, until his death in 1935. Qasim
Amin (d. 1908) developed further the arguments
for women’s emancipation as integral to national
development and a healthy Muslim society, and he
became an inspiration to feminists in the region.
hasan al-banna (d. 1949) would take the spirit of
Abduh’s activist Islamic ideology and apply it in
the founding of the mUslim brotherhood. Abduh
died in 1905 near Alexandria, Egypt.
See also edUcation; egypt; reneWal and reForm
movements; salaFism; secUlarism.
Michelle ZimneyFurther reading: Hamid Enayat, Modern Islamic Politi-
cal Thought (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982);
Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age,
1798–1939 (London: Oxford University Press, 1970);
Malcolm H. Kerr, Islamic Reform: The Political and Legal
Theories of Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida (Berke-
ley: University of California Press, 1966).ablution
Ablution involves the ritual cleansing of the
body with pure water in preparation for perfor-
mance of other acts of worship. Although there
are minor differences of opinion among Islamic
legal schools, Islamic law generally stipulates two
kinds of ablution. One, called ghusl, requires an
expression of intention, followed by a cleansing
of the entire body. It must be performed after
sexual activity, menstruation, and childbirth; it
is also performed on the body of a dead person
to prepare it for funerary prayer and burial. The
second kind of ablution, wudu, involves a partial
cleansing starting with an expression of intention,
followed by washing of the face, hands up to the
elbows, head, and feet. It may also involve wash-
ing the ears and nostrils and rinsing the mouth.
This method is believed to purify the body after
urination and defecation, touching the genitals,
sleep, and other activities. Ablution may be per-
formed at home or at the mosqUe, which has
special facilities for this purpose. The numerous
communal bathhouses that characterized medi-K 6 ablution