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Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā

Personnalité contemporaine

Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā was born in 1865 in al-Qalamūn, near Tripoli, in what is now Lebanon, then an Ottoman province. He died in Cairo in 1935. Training He studied traditional religious sciences and was first attracted to asceticism and Sufism. Reading the journal al-ʿUrwa al-wuthqā, published in Paris by Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī and Muḥammad ʿAbduh, changed his vision: he became convinced of the need to reform the teaching and thinking of Muslims to face the challenges of the time. In Cairo with ʿAbduh In 1897, he moved to Cairo to join Muḥammad ʿAbduh, whose closest disciple he became. In 1898, he founded the magazine al-Manār (“The Lighthouse”), which he edited until his death. Read from North Africa to Indonesia, it published articles of religious reflection, legal responses (fatwās) and debates on education, politics and society. Tafsīr al-Manār Based on the exegesis courses given by ʿAbduh at al-Azhar, Rashīd Riḍā wrote the Tafsīr al-Manār, which he continued alone after the death of his master, up to Surah Yūsuf. This commentary emphasizes the guiding meaning of the Quran, reason and the reform of society. Other works He wrote an important biography of Muḥammad ʿAbduh, a book on the revelation received by the Prophet ﷺ (al-Waḥy al-Muḥammadī) and an essay on the caliphate, after the end of the Ottoman Empire. Its positions, both reformist and attached to the first generations, influenced many trends of the 20th century. Photo: portrait of Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā.