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2018 | Book

Introduction—Critique and Change: Al-Jabri in Contemporary Arab Thought Read chapter Read first chapter

Islam, State, and Modernity

Mohammed Abed al-Jabri and the Future of the Arab World

Editors: Zaid Eyadat, Dr. Francesca M. Corrao, Dr. Mohammed Hashas

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan US

Book Series : Middle East Today

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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About this book

This book offers the first comprehensive introduction to one of the most significant Arab thinkers of the late 20th century and the early 21st century: the Moroccan philosopher and social theorist Mohammed Abed al-Jabri. With his intellectual and political engagement, al-Jabri has influenced the development of a modern reading of the Islamic tradition in the broad Arab-Islamic world and has been, in recent years, subject to an increasing interest among Muslims and non-Muslim scholars, social activists and lay men. The contributors to this volume read al-Jabri with reference to prominent past Arab-Muslim scholars, such as Ibn Rushd, al-Ghazali, al-Shatibi, and Ibn Khaldun, as well as contemporary Arab philosophers, like Hassan Hanafi, Abdellah Laroui, George Tarabishi, Taha Abderrahmane; they engage with various aspects of his intellectual project, and trace his influence in non-Arab-Islamic lands, like Indonesia, as well. His analysis of Arab thought since the 1970s as a harbinger analysis of the ongoing “Arab Spring uprising” remains relevant for today's political challenges in the region.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Introduction—Critique and Change: Al-Jabri in Contemporary Arab Thought
Abstract
The editors raise a number of points in their introduction of this first volume dedicated to the Moroccan philosopher Mohammed Abed al-Jabri. First, they start with underlining the ethical predicament that the Arab world and the regional and international powers face in dealing with Arab issues. They situate the so-called “Arab Spring,” or Arab revolts, in a context of what they refer to as global mobile injustice. They critique the invisibility of Arab intellectual productions in “Western” scholarship that deals with Arab political affairs; they argue that a modern Arab political philosophy exists and deserves attention. Second, they situate al-Jabri in the post-1967 Arab intellectual tradition, as a second wave of Arab Renaissance (naḥda), and refer to him as one of its most important figures, through his magnum opus Critique of Arab Reason, which seeks reform from within. Third, they stop at some of the major intellectual advances that al-Jabri has made to Arab-Islamic modern political theory, and how his concepts are so relevant to current politics and thought.
Mohammed Hashas, Zaid Eyadat, Francesca M. Corrao

Al-Jabri’s Reconstruction of Arab-Islamic Thought

Frontmatter
Chapter 2. Mohammed Abed al-Jabri and Ibn Khaldun: A Path to Modernity
Abstract
Campanini brings two Arab philosophers that belong to two different historical moments together to this comparative study about the future of the Arab world. Campanini presents how Mohammed Abed al-Jabri studies Ibn Khaldun in the larger framework of his reconstruction and renewal of the Arab intellect in order to modernize the Arab world, by focusing on the two central concepts of ‘aṣabiyya (group feeling) and dawla (state). According to Campanini, while Ibn Khaldun was utterly pessimistic, al-Jabri—like Gramsci—nurtures the optimism of the will against the pessimism of reason. Al-Jabri thinks that the future is different from the past and must substitute the past by improving it; there is the chance to change and improve the present situation; freedom and democracy are possible.
Massimo Campanini
Chapter 3. The Critique of Arab Reason Between al-Jabri and Tarabishi
Abstract
The disagreement between al-Jabri and Tarabishi over the Arabs and their language in general and the pre-Islamic Arabs in particular is an ostensible rather than a substantial disagreement. It is a disagreement about theoretical frameworks, which does not lead to a difference between the results of their research, and that their research outcomes are not, in the final analysis, different from research studies that endorse the a priori ideas about the Arabs in general and the pre-Islamic Arabs in particular. In this paper, the authors aim to demonstrate that the disagreement between the two thinkers over the presence of philosophy in Arab-Islamic civilization is also an ostensible one, and that Tarabishi’s critique of al-Jabri, at its best, does not go beyond the disagreement over theoretical frameworks. Both al-Jabri and Tarabishi agree on the non-existence of philosophy per se and disagree over their methods of demonstrating it.
Abdul Karim Barghouti, Jamal Daher, Nadim Mseis
Chapter 4. The Arab Reader by al-Jabri: The Question of Disjunction and Rejunction
Abstract
This chapter sheds light on the role and limits of the Arab Reader in his reasoning with the text, as is highlighted by al-Jabri in his magnum opus, Critique of Arab Reason. Starting with an analysis of al-bayān (Explication-Indication/Rhetoric) paradigm of thought in Arab-Islamic formative period, it is possible to disclose the strong relation reason-text put in evidence by al-Jabri, a relation through which emerges the figure of the Arab Reader that, “restricted by his tradition and overwhelmed by his present”, lives his reading like “a game of reminiscence”. The “comprehension of the world” is compared “to the philological analysis” to examine that “textual cooperation” between read-object and subject-reader.
Kinira Monica Carbone
Chapter 5. An Intellectual Between the Maghreb and the Mashreq: Mohammed Abed al-Jabri and the Location of Thought
Abstract
Mohammed Abed al-Jabri emerged as one of the most important figures in the Arab intellectual field after 1967. To understand his emergence, we must consider the field is seen as a sum of struggles and competitions which shape the content of debates and overall orientations, borrowing Pierre Bourdieu’s definition. This chapter will consider three significant moments in his trajectory: his first publications in Beirut in the early 1980s, the infamous polemic with George Tarabishi starting from the middle of the decade, and finally, his published exchange with Hassan Hanafi in 1989 known as the “dialogue between the Mashreq and the Maghreb”.
Idriss Jebari
Chapter 6. Al-Jabri and His Introduction to the Qur’ān
Abstract
This chapter examines the late work of al-Jabri madkhal ilā al-qur’ān al-karīm, 2006—[Introduction to the Noble Qur’ān]—with which he intended an explanation of a new methodological approach for a better understanding of the Qur’ān. His proposal, which comprises an introduction [madkhal] and a commentary work, fahm al-qur’ān al-ḥakīm: al-tafsīr al-wāḍiḥ ḥasaba tartīb al-nuzūl, 2008—[The understanding of the Wise Qur’an: Clear Exegesis According to the Sequence of Revelation] of the sacred Text—leads into a reflection on the phenomenon of the Qur’an with regard to its relation to time, its identity and its purpose. In this undertaking of his, he makes use of the disjunctive-reconjunctive theory whose principles are presented in his work naḥnu wa al-turāth, 1993—[Us and the Tradition].
Mariangela Laviano
Chapter 7. The International Becoming of an Arab Philosopher: An Analysis of the Non-reception of Mohammed Abed al-Jabri in Euro-American Scholarship
Abstract
Brahimi investigates the reasons behind the marginalisation of an influential Arab philosopher and public intellectual as al-Jabri in Euro-American scholarship. Hardly cited in scientific reviews, al-Jabri is very rarely featured in the works of general philosophy. This chapter explains this marginalising effect by examining two major factors: the first is concerned with al-Jabiri’s professional trajectory, i.e. his student years and his career choices which have determined his reception in the Arab worlds “only”; the second is of a structural nature; it suggests that the explanation for the non-reception of al-Jabiri’s work in Europe-America lies in the symbolic and economic value that can be ascribed to his work on a transnational level. Brahimi argues that the there is a dialectic that plays out in the process of reception of a work: an objective standards system and the social dispositions that underlie intellectual output.
Mohamed Amine Brahimi
Chapter 8. Al-Jabri in Indonesia: The Critique of Arab Reason Travels to the Lands Below the Winds
Abstract
It seems rather unlikely that the writings of a Moroccan philosopher would hold much appeal to Indonesian Muslims. In spite of geographical distance and cultural differences, the ideas of al-Jabri have been taken up by both Islamic modernists and traditionalists since his work became known in Indonesia during the mid-1990s. They have been used in shaping an Islamic philosophy of education and the transformation of the notion of ahl al-sunna wa’l-jamāʿa from a doctrinal school (madhhab) into a method (manhaj) for critical discourse analysis, emancipation and empowerment. This chapter maps and traces how al-Jabri’s comprehensive critique of the Islamic heritage has influenced Indonesia’s Muslim intelligentsia such as Ahmed Baso and Amin Abdullah
Carool Kersten

Politics, Ethics, and the Future of the State in the Arab World

Frontmatter
Chapter 9. State and Religion in al-Jabri’s Political Thought
Abstract
Since the nineteenth century, Arab-Islamic quest for renewal has emerged as a response to the challenges of modern times. Modern Arab-Muslim intellectuals have presented a number of theories to explain the relative decline of the Islamic civilization vis-à-vis the modern West. This article reflects on the aspects of Arab political thought as expressed by the eminent modernist political theorist al-Jabri, with main reference to his critique of the dominant epistemological political system of thought in the Arab world, and his claim for a necessary renewal based on a modern interpretation of the place of religion in politics. Al-Jabri refers to Ibn Khaldun’s theory of history and discusses the contemporary reality of religious interpretations of sharia and the way ahead.
Mohsine El Ahmadi
Chapter 10. “Dare to be Wise!” On the Reception of al-Jabri Post-2011
Abstract
This chapter examines reactions to the so-called Arab Spring by authors from the Middle East-North Africa who explicitly refer to the Moroccan philosopher of rationalism al-Jabri in their discussion of the new social mobilization since the end of 2010. After introducing his life’s work with regard to his practical, political and didactical engagement, five contemporary Arab scholars are presented in order to understand their (diverse) lines of argumentation, based on al-Jabri’s heritage and the way it is received and put to use. This reception centres on al-Jabri’s conception of re-appropriating Arab-Islamic heritage in the light of foreign cultural and economic penetration, political alienation and internal subjugation. Al-Jabri’s views on human rights, social justice, freedom and the state of law are introduced in the context of the ongoing region-wide protests and turmoil.
Sonja Hegasy
Chapter 11. Reflections on Education and Culture in al-Jabri’s Thought
Abstract
Corrao puts the philosopher’s care for education as the means for both cultural and political renewal in the context of classical and modern Arab-Islamic views on the school. Corrao starts by polarizing the development of educational schools and critical thought in the Arab-Islamic tradition in the sense that there were political factors that led to such a development in the past. She brings in the Mu‘tazila movement, the context of its development and demise. This is linked with al-Jabri’s view that the intellectual and philosophical debates in the tradition are not ideological free. She ends her reflections by underlining al-Jabri’s emphasis on the humanities as important disciplines for cultural opening and the development of critique among students in Arab schools, against rigidity that scientific teaching alone brings about.
Francesca M. Corrao
Chapter 12. A Critique of al-Jabri’s Arab Ethical Reason
Abstract
The world at large and specifically the Arab World has been experiencing a “value crisis” for decades now. This chapter explores the late Moroccan philosopher al-Jabri and his contribution to the resolution of the Arab ethical crisis. He attributes this crisis to the incompatibility between the different values that comprise Arab value systems, especially the conflict between the values that are authentically Arab and Islamic and the ones internalized from other sources encountered in the course of the Islamic expansion, and now the values of modernity. As a remedy, he attempts to enact an epistemological break between present Arab reality and tradition in order to liberate the Arab mind and usher it into a creative space where Arab societies can renew and reconstruct their paradigm(s) of thought in ways compatible with modernity and at the same time fulfilling of its own modernity. Besides presenting al-Jabri’s view on this particular topic, the chapter also articulates a critique to it and shows its limitations and possible horizons beyond it.
Zaid Eyadat, Hanadi Riyad
Chapter 13. The Ethical Dialectic in al-Jabri’s “Critique of Arab Reason”
Abstract
This paper takes an in-depth look at al-Jabri’s analysis of Arab ethical reason. Starting from the fact that al-Jabri’s efforts are guided by the aim to modernize and rationalize Arab society, while remaining true to its tradition, it shows why his methodology used in analysing Arab theoretical reason cannot be used to the same effect in dealing with Arab ethical reason, the main reason for this being that the methodology he used to analyze theoretical reason lacks a normative-ethical standard. This incompatibility forces al-Jabri to reconceptualize his methodology and adopt a genealogical method of critique that centres on subverting his opponents’ claims to authenticity. Although this approach may work to undermine his opponents, it also leaves him with a minimal basis for establishing a modern ethical framework.
Harald Viersen
Chapter 14. The Arab Possible State: From al-Tahtawi to al-Jabri
Abstract
Based on al-Jabri’s study of Arab–Islamic intellectual history, this chapter argues that a modern Arab State is possible from within the Arab–Islamic tradition, despite the various obstacles encountering its realization, lately manifested in the disappointments of the so-called Arab Spring of 2010. After presenting three Arab political discourse levels that preceded al-Jabri’s time and thought since the nineteenth century, Hashas introduces three conditions that block the formation of such a state and form its threefold predicament, based on a synthetic reading of al-Jabri. This predicament is doubly internal but also external: (1) internal intellectual crisis and (2) internal political dictatorship, and (3) external “Western” hegemony. Against these three “oppressive sovereignties”, three “renewal strategies” are required: (1) an epistemological break, (2) democratization and pluralism from within and (3) regional awakening and union.
Mohammed Hashas
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Islam, State, and Modernity
Editors
Zaid Eyadat
Dr. Francesca M. Corrao
Dr. Mohammed Hashas
Copyright Year
2018
Electronic ISBN
978-1-137-59760-1
Print ISBN
978-1-349-95155-0
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59760-1