Between Western Academia and Pakistan: Fazlur Rahman and the fight for fusionism

Abstract

In the wake of European colonization, Muslims across the globe have wrestled with the problem of intellectual dualism, or the bifurcation of knowledge into the distinct Islamic and modern Western spheres. This article examines the career of Pakistani intellectual and University of Chicago professor, Fazlur Rahman (1919–1988), who emerged as a particularly significant figure in this debate over intellectual dualism in the latter half of the twentieth century. Arguing that academic methodologies were integral for Muslim understandings of Islam, Rahman broke down the dichotomy between Western and Islamic knowledge in favour of a merging of the two, an approach I term ‘fusionism’. He propagated this fusionist vision, with mixed success, in his native Pakistan and across the Islamic world. In his position as a respected professor at the University of Chicago, Rahman furthermore re-imagined and utilized the Western university as a valuable space for modern Islamic thought, thereby challenging any sharp boundary between the two discourses and their respective institutions.

Balancing Hope and Fear: Muslim Modernists, Democracy, and the Tyranny of the Majority

“…The mass outcry eventually forced Rahman to resign his post and seek exile in the United States. 64 The dangers of demagoguery and majoritarian tyranny were real.…”

From Modernism to Neo-Modernism: A Religio-Political Context of Muhammad Abduh and Fazlur Rahman

“…but in 1880, the Minister of Riyadh Pasha again called him to be one of the directors of the government newspaper called " al-Waqā'ī al-Misriyyah " and later he was also given the task of being an Editor in Chief ( ' Abduh, 1993;Nasution, 1968) In addition to intellectual activities, Abduh also engaged in political movements by joining the Egyptian National Party (al-Hizb al-Watan) founded by Jamaluddin al-Afghani (Al-Afghānī, 2000) Due to some reasons, Abduh was tried and exiled from the country for three years. In 1982 he has been exiled to Syria but he has chosen to stay in Beirut, 1983 he received an invitation from Jamaluddin al-Afghani to join him in Paris in an al-Urwah al-Wutsqā organization and finally Abduh followed him to Paris, and they published a weekly political magazine which could only be published as many as 18 editions because it was dismissed by the colonial government ( ' Abduh, 1993;Syalāsy, 1987) Latterly (Abbas, 2017;Ahmed, 2017;Akbar, 2020;Ali, 2018;Sibawaihi, 2021;Usman et al, 2022).…”

“…While practically, he was trying to find an Islamic identity for his country Pakistan. Unfortunately, this has not been successful because Pakistan at that time was not conducive until finally, he decided to leave his country for reasons; of the absence of intellectual freedom, and because his career has more place in the West (Abbas, 2017;Akbar, 2020;Ali, 2018;Muhammad Khalid Masud, 1988;Usman et al, 2022).…”

“…In Chicago, he noted the need for the reconstruction of Islamic intellectualism with the concept that Muslims must be able to distinguish normative Islam and historical Islam, as well as the need to reconstruct the Islamic sciences which include theology, law, ethics, philosophy, and social sciences. Here then he formulated the typology of the Islamic movement by categorizing his thoughts as part of neo-modernism because of the development of a systematic methodology in carrying out a total reconstruction of Islam (Abbas, 2017).…”