Fazlur Rahman Malik interprets the orientation towards tafsir as an indication of Muslims' disregard for the Qur'an. Fazlurrahman argues that instead of relying on interpretations, one should try to understand the Qur'an by his own efforts.
Pakistani academician, scholar, and intellectual Fazlurrahman were born on September 21, 1919, in Hezare city of present-day Pakistan. Fazlurrahman, who grew up in a religious family, had a great influence on the formation of his personality and beliefs. His father, Mevlana Şehabeddin, was educated in Diyûbend, and after his studies in the field of Islamic law, he rose to the rank of professor. Although his father received a traditional education, he also has a personality that supports contemporary education. Unlike many traditionalist Islamic scholars who view modern education as objectionable, Fazlurrahman's father believed that Islam had to face modernity.
Fazlur Rahman Malik (September 21, 1919 – July 26, 1988), commonly known as Fazlur Rahman, was a modernist scholar and Islamic philosopher from today's Pakistan. Fazlur Rahman is renowned as a prominent liberal reformer of Islam, who devoted himself to educational reform and the revival of independent reasoning (ijtihad).
Fazlurrahman, a gifted child, started receiving madrasah-style education from his father at the age of 3, learned Arabic, and became a hafiz at the age of 10. Fazlurrahman, who started higher education in Lahore after being directed to positive sciences by his father, also continued to study religious sciences his father.
Fazlurrahman graduated from the Arabic department of Punjab University in 1940 and completed his master's degree at the same university in 1942, and then started his doctoral studies. Fazlurrahman, who preserved his "Pakistani" identity during the years he went to Oxford for his doctoral studies, went to his doctor in traditional clothes.
Fazlurrahman, who stated that he wanted to do a doctorate in the field of Islamic philosophy, has a beard and a traditional dress appearance, which will cause his doctoral teacher to not take Fazlurrahman seriously. His teacher, who does not want to work with Fazlurrahman, wants to remove Fazurrahman by claiming that he should know Greek. Fazlurrahman, who does not speak Greek, leaves his teacher's room without any objection and returns to his teacher after learning Greek within three months.
Notable work: Avicenna's Psychology, Islamic Methodology in History, Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition
Era: Contemporary Islamic philosophy, 20th-century philosophy
Unbelievable that Fazlurrahman is learning Greek, his teacher puts Fazlurrahman to the test with one of Aristotle's books, and is convinced that he knows Greek. Realizing Fazlurrahman's talent, his teacher asks Fazlurrahman to learn Latin this time. Fazlurrahman also learned Latin in a short time. He completes his doctorate in three years.
He continued his doctoral studies at Oxford University in England, where he went in 1946. He completed his doctoral studies on the "en-Nefs" section of Ibn-i Sina's en-Necât. Fazlurrahman went through a period of serious doubt arising from studying philosophy from the end of the 1940s to the beginning of the 1950s. Their traditional beliefs crumble. He then learns French and German in order to make his doctoral thesis more qualified in England. He completed his doctoral thesis, Avicenna's Psychology, in 1949, and his thesis was published in Oxford in 1952.
Fazlurrahman, who started to work as an academician at Durham University in 1950, gives lectures on Islamic philosophy and Iranian civilization. After starting to teach at Durham University, Fazlurrahman begins to feel a conflict between his previous modern education and traditional education. Thinking that Muslim philosophers, who were influenced by Greek philosophers and shaped their philosophies, are on the wrong path, Fazlurrahman feels a new excitement to understand Islam correctly.
Questioning the traditional Islam that his father taught him, Fazlurrahman realizes again that his father transferred a tradition of fourteen centuries to him. Their doubts are knotted at key points of tradition. Although Muslims claim that their beliefs are based on revelation, Fazlurrahman realizes that the Qur'an is not taught alone in any traditional educational institution and is made dependent on tafsir and criticizes this situation.
Fazlurrahman interprets the orientation towards tafsir as an indication of Muslims' disregard for the Qur'an. Fazlurrahman argues that rather than relying on the interpretations of commentators and accepting these interpretations as absolute truth, one should try to understand the Qur'an through one's own efforts.
Later, Fazlurrahman transferred to McGill University, where he worked as an associate professor of Islamic sciences until 1961. He returned to Pakistan in 1961 upon an invitation from the Pakistani government. He started to teach at the Institute of Islamic Studies in Karachi, and in 1962 he was appointed as the general director of the institute and held this post until 1968. During his stay in Pakistan, his 'modernist' ideas began to take shape.
Fazlurrahman, who published more than twenty articles and two books between 1961-68, examined the importance of making ijtihad with a different understanding in the fields of hadith, sunnah, and fiqh in his book Islamic Methodology in History.
Fazlurrahman wrote his book "Islam", which was published in 1966, for non-Muslims in order to be an alternative to the texts, which are usually titled "Islam", which are taught in the departments of "Religious Study" in universities abroad and which do not reflect Islam correctly and written with an orientalist point of view.
Fazlurrahman was disbelieved in Pakistan because of his statement about the revelation in the book. Regarding the revelation from the book in Pakistan, "The meaning of the Qur'an came through revelation, Hz. It was revealed to the heart of Muhammad, our Prophet put it into words” has been the focus of criticism. But Fazlurrahman, at the beginning of the chapter on revelation in the book, says, "The Qur'an has come with revelation. Every word is the word of God”.
Fazlurrahman criticized the history of Islamic thought and therefore became the focus of criticism in Pakistan.
In addition to his academic activities, Fazlurrahman was also a consultant to the President of Pakistan, Mohammed Eyüp Khan, contributing to social transformation. The traditionalist school and anti-government opponents, especially Mawdudi, the leader of the Jamaat-i Islami, made Fazlurrahman a target.
Fazlurrahman resigned from his advisory post in order not to put Pakistani President Mohammed Ayub Khan in a difficult position. He left Pakistan and settled in America because of the bounty placed on his head.
Fazlurrahman, who served as a professor of Islamic thought at the University of Chicago from 1969 until his death on July 26, 1988, is buried in Elmhurst, Illinois.