Muhammad Abed Al-Jabri
Mohammed Abed Al-Jabri (December 27, 1936 - May 3,
2010) was a Moroccan thinker who advocated for the possibility of establishing
an Arab modernity based on a re-reading of the Arab heritage. He was known for
his works in critiquing the Arab mind, based on structuralist and
archaeological approaches and partial epistemological ruptures.
His life
Al-Jabri details his
academic, professional, and political career on his official website, from
which we present the main points.
Educational path
Al-Jabri lists his educational path as follows:
In October 1953, after the
secondary section of the Mohammedan College in Casablanca was closed, following
the exile of Mohammed V, I joined the same school as a teacher in the
preparatory class and then in the primary certificate classes. In 1956, I obtained
my secondary school certificate (Brevet). I
also obtained a certificate of proficiency in primary education, which
qualified me to join the teaching staff of the Ministry of National Education
as an official teacher starting October 1, 1957. I was appointed to the same
school as an official teacher on loan for private education. In 1956, I
obtained my first certificate in translation (free candidate). Then, in June
1957, I obtained my baccalaureate certificate as a free candidate. This was my
first contact with the martyr Mehdi.
From October 1957 to June 1958, I took a sabbatical from teaching and
spent my first university year in Damascus. I obtained a "General
Culture" certificate. In October 1958, I enrolled in the Faculty of Arts
in Rabat, Department of Philosophy, where I continued my undergraduate studies.
In June 1961, I obtained a BA in Philosophy. I obtained my fourth-year
(additional) certificate in June 1962.
In June 1967, I obtained a postgraduate diploma in philosophy, and in
October, I joined the Faculty of Arts in Rabat as an assistant professor. In
1970, I obtained a doctorate in philosophy. The examination committee was
jointly Moroccan and French. From France, the panelists were Professor Henri
Laoussot and Professor Roger Arlandiz. From Morocco, the panelists included Dr.
Najib Beldi, the late Dr. Amjad Trabelsi, and the dean of the faculty at the
time, Professor Ibrahim Boutaleb. It was the first doctorate in philosophy in
Morocco.
His professional and
political career
Al-Jabri also narrates
his professional and political career as follows:
I spent the summer of
1957 at Al Alam newspaper, and in October 1958 I joined the L'Hermitage
Institute in Casablanca as acting director from its inception on the same date
until June 1959. I then participated in the January 25, 1959 uprising and
joined At-Tahrir newspaper from its inception on April 2, 1959, as a volunteer
editorial secretary, while continuing my duties as supervisor of the
L'Hermitage Institute. In June 1959, I stopped working at this institute due to
the circumstances of the January 25 uprising, giving up my salary there,
continuing to work at At-Tahrir with a modest monthly salary.
In the spring of 1960,
I traveled to Paris to enroll at the Sorbonne. However, I changed my mind and returned
to Tahrir at the insistence of the martyr Al-Mahdi. In the summer of 1962, I
decided to return to teaching and continue my higher education. I was elected
as a member of the National Council of the National Union of Popular Forces at
the second conference in May 1962.
In October 1962, the
Casablanca Municipal Council (which was federal) established two secondary
schools, one for boys, the management of which was entrusted to the late
Abdelkader Sahraoui, and the other for girls, the management of which was
entrusted to me.
On July 16, 1963, I was
arrested along with other federal officials and cadres in a plot to liquidate
the union. I remained in detention in a cell in Casablanca for more than two
months, then I was released to complete the file. In the same year (1963), the
Ministry of Education decided to "nationalize" the two municipal
institutes and integrate their workers into the Ministry of Education's staff.
I was appointed a teacher for the second year of secondary school, starting in
October 1962.
In March 1964, I
contributed to the publication of Aqlam magazine. Professor Abderrahmane
Benamrou assumed the role of editor-in-chief, while brothers Mohamed Ibrahim
Boualou and Ahmed Settati assumed the editorial duties. Brother Boualou also
served as administrative director. The existence and continued tenacity of
Aqlam owed almost solely to him.
In June 1964,
Al-Muharrir was temporarily published as a weekly (Al-Tahrir had ceased
publication in October 1963). My attendance at Al-Muharrir, as a volunteer, was
as regular as at Al-Tahrir, while I retained my teaching position. I served as
editorial secretary, and Abderrahmane Youssoufi was editor-in-chief. This
continued until I was systematically detained when the trial of those
responsible for the kidnapping of the martyr Mehdi began in Paris.
In December 1974, in
preparation for the extraordinary conference, Al-Muharrir resumed publication,
with the late Omar Benjelloun taking over its management and editorship. I
continued to write a daily column in Al-Tahrir titled "Sabah Al-Nour"
from its publication on April 2, 1959, until July 16, 1963, when we were
arrested. I also continued to write a daily column in Al-Muharrir titled
"Frankly."
In October 1964, I was
appointed a second-year secondary school teacher at Lycée Moulay Abdellah in
Casablanca. In January 1965, the 6th District High School in Casablanca (near
the Lycée Moulay Abdellah where I taught) was built and equipped, and I was
assigned there as acting director. I then participated in the transitional
movement and was officially appointed its director.
Following the events of
March 1965, I was arrested with a group of educators, then released to clear
the file. I contributed to the establishment of the National
Union of Education and the restoration of Moroccan university solidarity.
In November 1966, Ahmed
Al-Sattati, Mustafa Al-Omari, and I wrote a book called "Philosophy
Lessons" for baccalaureate students in two parts: the first on ethics and
metaphysics, and the second on science curricula, sociology, and psychology. In
January 1967, we followed it with "Islamic Thought and the Study of Its
Authorship," according to the baccalaureate curriculum. Both books were
approved by the Ministry of Education. In 1968, while still a university professor,
I assumed the role of philosophy inspector for Arabized secondary education
throughout Morocco.
October 1971 I was
appointed a professor of higher education, based on my obtaining a state
doctorate.
In 1971, my first book,
my doctoral thesis, was published and titled “Asabiyyah and the State: Features
of Khaldunian Theory in Islamic History.”
In 1973, I published a
book titled “Lights on the Problem of Education.” It was originally a
collection of articles I wrote in the Moroccan magazine “Aqlam” between June
1972 and March 1973.
In the fall of 1974, I
contributed to preparing for the extraordinary conference of the Union and to
writing the ideological report, the final draft of which I was responsible for.
At the aforementioned conference, I was elected a member of the Political
Bureau (details in Book Eight, p. 43 and following).
In 1976, my book,
"Introduction to the Philosophy of Science," was published. It
consists of two parts. The first is entitled "The Development of
Mathematical Thought and Contemporary Rationality," and the second is
entitled "The Experimental Method and the Development of Scientific
Thought." In 1977, my book, "Towards a Progressive Vision of Some of
Our Intellectual and Educational Problems," was published. Then, in 1980,
my book, "We and the Heritage," was published. My books followed
after that.
On April 5, 1981, I
submitted my resignation from the Political Bureau for the final time,
resisting pressure from the Brotherhood, members of the Political Bureau, and
others until it became a fait accompli. Since that time (April 1981), I devoted
myself almost entirely to cultural work, while maintaining my relationship as
it had been with the first secretary of the Union (the late Abderrahim Bouabid,
then Professor Abderrahmane El Youssoufi, may God prolong his life), while
contributing to the party newspaper.
In September 1997, I
co-founded the magazine “Fikr wa Naqd” (Thought and Criticism), with the
brothers Mohamed Ibrahim Boualou and Abdel Salam Ben Abdelali, in which I served
as editor-in-chief.
I retired in October
2002, after spending forty-five years of service in the education sector, as an
official educator (i.e., from October 1, 1957 to September 30, 2002).
His philosophical
project
The essence of Al-Jabri's
philosophical project is to re-read the Arab/Islamic heritage in a new way that
allows us to achieve Arab modernity from within. Al-Jabri expresses this as
follows:
All the weeping and
self-flagellation we see in the media today are attributed to Ja'far al-Sadiq,
who attributes them to Ali ibn Abi Talib. However, this ideology, whether it
masquerades as Shi'ite, Sufi, or Sunni, is, as I have shown in The Structure of
the Arab Mind, entirely Hermetic. We therefore need to uncover the true origins
of this ideology. And when we undertake this kind of excavation and
investigation into intellectual structures, we will achieve the desired change,
which affects the makers of popular culture itself. This popular culture, as it
appears today, is a backward ideology for the exploitation of the masses by the
master. And when we expose the master and reveal that his mastery is built on
illusions that he also believes in, or knows are false, it does not matter. We
are revealing the foundations that are intended to be left hidden from the
general public. This requires a long time because popular culture is the most
difficult thing to change; it is customs and traditions that have not been
subjected to reflection and criticism. When we dig up their roots and uncover
them, then change will become possible. (A frank and provocative interview with
the Arab thinker Muhammad Abed al-Jabri)
Scholars agree that the
introductory introduction to this project is his famous book “We and the
Heritage,” and Al-Jabri explains the characteristics of his reading of the
heritage as follows:
It is a "reading,"
not just research or study, because it transcends documentary research and
analytical study—let alone collective "works"—and explicitly and
consciously proposes an interpretation that gives the text a
"meaning," making it meaningful both for its intellectual, social,
and political environment and for us, the readers. It is
"contemporary" in both senses:
On the one hand, this
reading is keen to make the text contemporary with itself in terms of the
problem, cognitive content, and ideological substance, and hence its meaning in
relation to its own environment.
On the other hand, this
reading attempt to make the text contemporary to us, but only on the level of
understanding and rationality, hence its meaning for us. The reader's granting
of rationality to the text means transferring it to the reader's sphere of
interest, which may allow the latter to use it to enrich or even reconstruct
his or her self.
Making the text contemporary
with itself means separating it from us. Making it contemporary with us means
connecting it to us. Our reading, then, relies on separation and connection as
two main methodological steps. (We and Heritage, p. 11).
This particular reading
developed into what Al-Jabri called in his series “Critique of the Arab Mind,”
which formed the core of his philosophical project entitled “The Formation of
the Arab Mind,” “The Structure of the Arab Mind,” “The Arab Political Mind,”
and “The Arab Moral Mind.”
His philosophy
In this context, it can
be said that Al-Jabiri's philosophy is a "critical" philosophy whose
critical subject is "heritage" as a product of the Arab/Islamic mind.
Its goal is to "modernize" and rationalize this heritage so that it
can be used to produce the process of contemporary Arab modernity. Al-Jabri expresses
his concept of criticism as follows:
In any case, as is well
known, I have repeatedly stated that [my criticism] is a philosophical
epistemological criticism in the sense that it refers to modern epistemology;
this means that it is a genealogical epistemological criticism that proposes to
uncover the foundations of our cultural heritage and analyze the
epistemological significance of all types of knowledge, within the framework of
the sciences of jurisprudence and theology, as well as the sciences of
philosophy and history, etc. Philosophical epistemological criticism lies
in analyzing the epistemological system in all fields; that is, the
epistemological foundations of modern scientific theological discourse. (Interview with Muhammad Abed al-Jabri).
The desired result of
the critical process is to return the rationalism that migrated to the West to
its original home in the East. This is made clear by Al-Jabiri’s expression as
follows:
Ibn Rushd's idea was based
on the critical rationalism that originated in Andalusia, within the embrace of
Arab-Islamic culture. However, historically, this school of thought migrated to
the West. After Ibn Rushd, decline began in the East, in Andalusia, in the
Maghreb, and in the lands of Islam. However, the future that Ibn Rushd longed
for was realized in Europe in the twelfth century, that is, with the beginning
of the Renaissance.
Along with Spinoza, Kant,
and others, Ibn Rushd occupied a prominent place in European culture throughout
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and even into the nineteenth century.
I believe that this unfulfilled future for Arab-Islamic culture must be reborn,
and this means that the future of Arab-Islamic culture and its (intellectual)
foundations must be “Rushdian,” that is, open, as Ibn Rushd was. (Interview
with Muhammad Abed al-Jabri).
His approach
Al-Jabri presents his
general conception of the method that must be followed as follows:
Establishing modernity
within us and with us requires reorganizing our heritage, rebuilding our
relationship with it in a modern way: Modernity begins with embracing and
possessing heritage because that alone is the path to inaugurating a series of
"breaks" with it, to achieving a profound transcendence of it to a
new heritage that we create, a truly new heritage, connected to the heritage of
the past in terms of identity and particularity, separate from it in terms of
comprehensiveness and universality. (Dialogue between East and West).
Al-Jabri discusses his
approach to reading heritage in more detail in the first chapter of his book,
We and Heritage, and it is clear from this that he adopted several approaches
at the same time.
This includes the
concept of epistemological rupture as it appeared in Western thought, but Al-Jabri
uses it here in a partial way, and in his own words, he uses it procedurally,
as part of the separation step in the process of separation and connection with
heritage. He also relies on an objective reading of heritage, separate from
previous ideological aspects, through
“Avoid reading the meaning before reading the words. Words are elements in
a network of relationships, not as independent words with their own meaning.”
He adds, “We must be freed from understanding based on traditional foundations
and present desires in order to arrive at a necessary matter that lies in
extracting the meaning of the text from the text itself, that is, through the
relationships existing between its parts... This method of dealing with the
text will liberate the self from the dominance of the traditional text, by
subjecting it to a precise dissection process that transforms it into a subject
for this self, into a readable material. This is an important methodological
step towards more objectivity and scientific reading. This step includes three
processes: 1- structural treatment, 2- historical analysis, 3- ideological
presentation (We and the Heritage, pp. 23-25).
Next comes the problem
of continuity, i.e. connecting the reader to what is read. Here, intuition is
relied upon to reach what is unspoken or withheld from those who are not
qualified for it. This is also done through a general perspective or vision, or
what Al-Jabri calls the starting points of reading. He explains that the vision
frames the method, defines its horizon and dimensions, and the method enriches
and corrects the vision. Al-Jabri explains the elements of this vision, which
are: A- Unity of thought... Unity of the problem, B- Historicity of thought:
the cognitive field and the ideological content, C- Islamic philosophy:
readings of another philosophy. (We and the Heritage, pp. 26-30)
Critique of Arab Reason
Accordingly, our topic is reading the Arab-Islamic intellectual
heritage (meaning uncovering its intellectual structure, methodological
mechanisms, and relationship to its cultural and ideological environment).
Within the framework of the definition of the separation and connection
methodology we propose in this work, the reader becomes the subjective aspect,
the intellectual heritage becomes the objective aspect, and the relationship
between them becomes the reading process.
1-The common issue
(revealing the mechanisms of thought of a religious/rational nature in the
ancient Arab-Islamic heritage)
The issue raised by Al-Jabri above represents a common issue
because it can be analyzed into two issues. The first is an objective reading
of the heritage, without projecting our subjective perceptions and ideological
biases. This raises the question of the criteria that can be used to arrive at
an objective reading. The second is the use of objective reading to arrive at
an integrated conception of the intellectual structure and cognitive mechanisms
of the heritage based on the subjective perspective and the contemporary
circumstances of the reading process. This raises the question of the limits of
the subjective perspective and its connection to the objective aspect of
reading. According to the method of separation and connection, the answer to
these two questions is that what ensures the limits of both sides is the
creation of a connecting relationship between them that achieves what is
required of both .
Al-Jabri begins his treatment of the subject by presenting the
justifications for the issue at hand as follows:
" This book addresses
a topic that should have been discussed a hundred years ago. Criticism of
reason is an essential and primary part of every renaissance project. However,
our modern Arab renaissance has not proceeded this way, and this is perhaps one
of the most important factors in its ongoing stumbling block. Is it possible to
build a renaissance with an unempowered mind, one that has not undertaken a
comprehensive review of its mechanisms, concepts, perceptions, and
visions?" (The Formation of the Arab Mind: 5). He then outlines the
project's divisions: "Thus, the project was divided into two separate but
complementary parts: one that addresses 'the formation of the Arab mind' and
one that analyzes 'the structure of the Arab mind'. In the first, formative
analysis dominates, while in the second, structural analysis predominates"
(The Formation of the Arab Mind: 5-6). Al-Jabri adds, "What we will be
concerned with in this book are not the ideas themselves, but rather the
instrument that produces these ideas" (The Formation of the Arab Mind: 11).
This is followed by defining the issue and choosing the title
“The Arab Mind” for it, as follows:
" We can now define
the concept of the 'Arab mind' as we will analyze and examine it in this study,
in a preliminary definition, and say: It is nothing other than this 'thought'
we are talking about: thought as a tool for theoretical production created by a
specific culture with its own particularity, namely the Arab culture." He
adds, "Our only destination is the 'scientific' analysis of a 'mind'
formed through its production of a specific culture, and by means of this
culture itself: the Arab-Islamic culture. If we put the word 'scientific' in
quotation marks, that is an admission from us from the outset that this
research cannot be scientific to the same degree of scientificity that we find in
mathematical or physical research." (The Formation of the Arab Mind: 13 )
2-The objective issue
(the nature and mechanisms of Arab-Islamic thought)
The first step according to the separation and connection method
is "objectivity," that is, separating the subjective elements from
the objective. In the issue raised by Al-Jabiri, this is translated into an
"objective" reading of the heritage, which Al-Jabri expresses as
follows:
We have excluded the content of Arab thought – opinions,
theories, doctrines, and, in general, ideology – from our field of interest and
have confined this attempt to the epistemological field alone.” More
specifically, “What we mean by ‘the Arab mind’ is the formed mind, that is, the
set of principles and rules that Arab culture offers to its adherents as a
basis for acquiring knowledge, or rather: imposes on them as a cognitive system
(The Formation of the Arab Mind: 14-15) .
He then adds,
“ If we want to begin talking about the ‘Arab mind’ from
where we left off talking about the Greek-European mind, we must first note
that what distinguishes the ‘Arab mind’ as the mind of Arab-Islamic culture is
that the relationships within it revolve around three poles: God, man, and
nature. If we want to condense this relationship around only two poles, as we
did for the Greek-European mind, we must place God in one of them and man in
the other. As for nature, in this case, we must record its relative absence,
perhaps to the same degree that we recorded the absence of God in the structure
of the Greek-European mind” (The Formation of the Arab Mind: 29) .
In continuation of the objective review of the characteristics
of the Arab-Islamic heritage, with regard to the moral and ethical aspect of
the heritage, Al-Jabri comments,
“ But there is a big difference between the trend from
knowledge to ethics and the trend from ethics to knowledge. In the first case,
which is the case of European thought, ethics is based on knowledge, while in
the second case, which is the case of Arab thought, knowledge is based on
ethics. Knowledge here, in the case of Arab thought, is not a discovery of the
relationships that link the phenomena of nature to each other, it is not a
process through which the mind discovers itself in nature, but rather it is the
distinction in the subjects of knowledge (whether sensory or social) between
good and bad, between good and evil. The task and function of the mind, indeed
the sign of its existence, is to compel its owner to behave well and prevent
him from doing bad.” (The Formation of the Arab Mind: 30 )
On this basis, Al-Jabri turns to developing a comprehensive,
objective picture of the Arab-Islamic intellectual heritage in the first
section of the project, "The Formation of the Arab Mind." By the end
of this section, the objective material is ready for subjective processing. To
achieve the next step, Al-Jabri requires a criterion by which the subject's
relationship to the object off study will be shaped, so that his reading does
not devolve into a purely subjective one .
3- The connecting
relationship (the concept of demonstrative rationality)
Al-Jabri chose modern and contemporary Western thought as the
criterion for the relationship between subject and object (i.e., between reader
and read). He demonstrates this in the following text:
We now move to the next step on the ladder of preliminary
approaches to the subject of our study: ‘the Arab mind.’ This time it is a
matter of exploiting the comparison with the ‘Greek mind’ and the modern and
contemporary ‘European mind’ (The Formation of the Arab Mind: 17) .
Al-Jabri presents the reasons for this choice, represented by
the identification between reason and nature, as follows:
In ancient Greek thought, he shows that “all of nature—in
Aristotle’s view, the pinnacle of Greek philosophy—can be comprehended by
reason despite the ambiguity that surrounds it. This is because reason—in the
sense of order—is its foundation, and because whoever looks at it with the eye
of reason sees nothing in it but reason. Hence, reason in the
Greek-Aristotelian conception is “the perception of causes.” He adds, likewise
in modern European thought, “Modern philosophy in Europe has moved in the same
direction... Modern European thought, despite all its revolutions against the
‘ancient,’ has remained attached to the idea of ‘universal reason,’
conceiving of it as ‘the absolute law of human
reason.’ Whether this reason is viewed as self-sufficient and independent of
the idea of God, or as God himself, the relationship between it and the order
of nature remains the same: it is conformity, or at least correspondence.” (The
Formation of the Arab Mind: 20).
As for contemporary developments in Western thought, he states,
If we wanted to be more precise – based on the
contemporary scientific conception of the reality of the mind – we would say
with Jules Olmo: It is not the rules by which the mind works that determine and
define it, but rather its ability to extract an infinite number of them that
constitutes its essence. Rationality, in this respect, becomes not only the
belief in the conformity of the principles of reason with the laws of nature,
but also the conviction that mental activity can build systems that expand to
include various phenomena. And since experience alone can decide on the issue
of conformity, which has come to mean experimental verification, contemporary
rationality is experimental rationality and not contemplative rationality as
was the case before (The Formation of the Arab Mind: 25) .
Al-Jabri concludes with a general picture of Western thought
throughout its history that expresses the essence of this thought.
Despite the tremendous development that the Western mind has
known since Heraclitus until today, there are two constants that regulate the
course of that development, and consequently determine the structure of the
mind in European Greek culture. These two constants are: a- considering the
relationship between the mind and nature as a direct relationship on the one
hand, b- and belief in the mind’s ability to interpret it and reveal its
secrets on the other hand. The first constant establishes a point of view on
existence, and the second constant establishes a point of view on knowledge,
and that is why we separated them. In reality, they together form a single
structural constant whose foundation is the centering of relationships in the structure
of the mind that we are talking about around a single axis whose two poles are:
the mind and nature. (The Formation of the Arab Mind: 27).
He then decides, based on this, that this general picture of the
essence of Western thought is the standard by which to
compare what is observed of the objective picture of Arab thought, before
establishing its structure, mechanisms, and relationships based on subjective
perceptions. Al-Jabri decides this as follows:
We believe – and this is what we will explain later – that Arab
culture, or more precisely: the subject dealt with by the intellectual activity
of Islamic thinkers, is a subject with distinctive characteristics that differ
from the characteristics of the subject dealt with by the intellectual activity
of Greek thinkers and European philosophers. Consequently, the rules extracted
by the intellectual activity operating within Arab-Islamic culture will be
different from the rules that formed the essence of the Greek mind and the
European mind. Therefore, when we use the term “Arab mind,” we use it from a
scientific perspective in which we adopt the contemporary scientific view of
the mind. (The Formation of the Arab Mind: 26)
4
- The subjective issue (that Arab thought is based on three
separate methods of knowledge)
By defining a criterion for the relationship between subject and
object (i.e., reader and read), represented by the "contemporary Western
scientific view of the mind," Al-Jabri can establish his vision of the
"Arab mind" based on objective foundations. Al-Jabri begins by
presenting his overall vision of the "Arab mind," which is governed
by a subjective view of things, as follows:
The above data puts us, at least in principle, in a position
that allows us to say that the 'Arab mind' is governed by the normative view of
things. By the normative view, we mean that direction of thinking that searches
for things and their place and position in the system of values that this
thinking takes as its reference and foundation. This is in contrast to the
objective view, which searches for things’ intrinsic components and attempts to
uncover what is essential in them. The normative view is a reductive view,
reducing a thing to its value, and thus to the meaning that the person (and
society and culture) who holds that view confers on it. The objective view,
however, is an analytical, synthetic view that decomposes a thing into its
basic elements in order to reconstruct it in a way that highlights what is
essential in it (The Formation of the Arab Mind: 31-32) .
At the end of the objective review of the "Arab mind"
in the first part of the project, "The Formation of the Arab Mind," Al-Jabri
presents the outcome of his objective reading, represented by his tripartite
division into the sciences of mysticism, the sciences of rhetoric, and the
sciences of proof. Al-Jabri expresses this as follows:
Thus, it was possible to classify the
sciences and all types of knowledge in Arab-Islamic culture into three groups: expression
(Bayan), such as grammar, jurisprudence, theology, and rhetoric, which are
founded on a single system based on measuring the unseen from the seen as a
method for producing knowledge; what we called "the rational Arab
religion," which is restricted to the original communicative field of the
Arabic language, as a vision and outlook; and the sciences of mysticism,
including Sufism, Shiite thought, Ismaili philosophy, esoteric interpretation
of the Qur'an, illuminationist philosophy, alchemy, medicine, stellar
agriculture, magic, talismans, astrology, etc., which are founded on a
cognitive system based on "discovery and union," attraction and
repulsion as a method; and what we called "the rational irrational"—that
is, what is attributed to reason, not religion, and which was consecrated by
Hermeticism—as a vision of outlook. Finally, the sciences of proof, including
logic, mathematics, physics with its various branches, theology, and even
metaphysics, are founded on a single epistemological system based on empirical
observation and rational deduction as a method, and on what we call “rational
reason,” meaning rational knowledge based on rational premises—such as vision
and insight. (The Formation of the Arab Mind: 334).
In the second part of the project, "The Structure of the
Arab Mind," Al-Jabri analyzes each of these three epistemological systems
in detail, establishing the dominance of rhetorical sciences and the decline of
demonstrative sciences, with the parallel survival of mysticism and the
principled exclusion of the natural sciences. This resulted in the dominance of
three authorities over the Arab mind, as follows:
It is clear from the above, then, that
the three authorities: the authority of the word, the authority of the origin
in its two forms, and the authority of authorization, form, through their
intertwining and interlocking relationships, a single structure, which we call
the structure obtained from the cognitive systems that established Arab-Islamic
culture. In clear terms, it is the structure of the mind formed within this
culture, the Arab mind. Thus, the jurist, grammarian, theologian, rhetorical
critic, "gnostic," mystic, or others whose minds are formed within
Arab culture and its fields of knowledge, submit in their thinking, in this way
or that and to
this degree or that, to the authority of the word, the authority of the
predecessors of analogy, and the authority of authorization. This is to the
point where it is correct to say that the Arab mind is a mind that deals with
words more than it deals with concepts, and it only thinks from an origin, or
ends with it, or is directed by it, the origin that carries with it the
authority of the predecessors, either in its wording or in its meaning. Its
mechanism, the mechanism of this mind, in acquiring knowledge—not to say in
producing it—is approximation (or rhetorical analogy) and similarity (or
mystical analogy), and that in all of this it relies on authorization. As a
principle, as a general law that establishes his method of thinking and his
vision of the world” (The Structure of the Arab Mind: 564).
Critique of the
Critique of Arab Reason
The project of the Critique of Arab Reason was met
with various forms of criticism, some objective and some ideological. The most
significant criticism directed at Al-Jabri's project was his division of
mystical thought in the East versus rational thought in the Maghreb. This was
reflected in the responses of thinkers from the East, such as Tayeb Tizini,
Mutaa Safadi, Ahmad al-Barqawi, and others, in addition to George Tarabishi,
who devoted a corresponding project entitled "Critique of the Critique of
Arab Reason." It was also criticized for rejecting the idea of an Arab
and a non-Arab mind by Abdelkader Bouarfa and Hisham Ghasib, in addition to the
responses of Ali Harb, Taha Abdel Rahman, Kamal Abdel Latif, Ibrahim Mahmoud,
Hussam al-Alusi, and Hassan Hanafi (Between the Critique of Arab Reason and its
Support, p. 117).
His position on the
future of the Arab state
Al-Jabri believes that
discussing how the state system should be determined must be through concepts
that are clear and connected to the history and heritage of contemporary Arab
states. Based on this, he sees the necessity of excluding the concept of
secularism from this discussion, considering it an unclear and ambiguous
concept, as follows:
The issue of secularism is a
false one, meaning that it expresses needs with content that does not match
those needs: The need today for democracy that respects the rights of
minorities and the need for rational political practice are indeed objective
needs; they are reasonable and necessary demands in our Arab world, but they
lose their reasonableness, necessity, and even legitimacy when expressed with
an ambiguous slogan such as the slogan of secularism. He adds, "In my
opinion, the fundamental problem is the 'form of the state'." The following
is a summary of my point of view on the subject: 1- I believe that Islam is
both worldly and religious, and that it established a state since the time of
the Prophet (peace be upon him), and that the foundations of this state were
consolidated during the time of Abu Bakr and Umar. Therefore, to say that Islam
is a religion and not a state is, in my opinion, a statement that ignores
history. 2- I am fully convinced that Islam, which is both a religion and a
state, has not specified, neither in a Quranic text nor in a prophetic hadith,
the form the state should take, but rather left the issue to the ijtihad of Muslims, as
it is one of the matters to which the saying of the Prophet (peace be upon him)
applies: "You know best about your worldly affairs." (East-West Dialogue).
His most important works
·
Asabiyyah
and the State : Features
of Khaldunian Theory in Islamic History 1971. This is the text of my doctoral
thesis in Islamic Philosophy and Thought, Faculty of Arts, Mohammed V
University, Rabat 1970. It was titled: “Khaldunian
Urbanism : Features of Khaldunian
Theory in Islamic History.”
·
Highlights
on the problem of education in Morocco 1973.
*
·
Introduction
to the Philosophy of Science :
Two
Parts 1976
o
First: The development of
mathematical thought and contemporary rationality.
o
Second: The experimental
method and the development of scientific thought.
·
For a
progressive vision of some of our intellectual and educational problems 1977. *
·
We
and the Heritage: Contemporary
Readings in Our Philosophical Heritage 1980. (Translated into Spanish). New
edition (tenth) with an addition 2006.
·
Contemporary
Arab Discourse : A
Critical Analytical Study 1982 (translated into Turkish)
·
The
Formation of the Arab Mind. 1984.
(Translated
into Turkish, and under translation into French).
·
The
Structure of the Arab Mind : 1986. (Translated
into Turkish and under translation into French).
·
Educational
Policies in the Maghreb 1988.
*
·
Problems
of Contemporary Arab Thought 1988.
·
Contemporary
Morocco: Privacy and Identity.. Modernity and Development .
·
The
Arab Political Mind :
1990 (translated into Turkish, French and Indonesian.
·
Dialogue
between the Maghreb and the Levant :
A
dialogue with Dr. Hassan Hanafi 1990*
·
Heritage
and Modernity : Studies
and Discussions 1991.
·
Introduction
to the Critique of Arab Reason, texts
translated into French under the title:
·
Introduction to criticism of the Arab language*:
translation of the Arab language and presented by Ahmed Mahfoud and Marc
Geoffroy, ed. La découverte. Paris. 1994, Translated into Italian,
English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Japanese and Indonesian.
·
The
Cultural Issue 1994.
·
Intellectuals
in the Arab-Islamic Civilization, the Ordeal of Ibn Hanbal and the Catastrophe
of Ibn Rushd 1995.
·
The
Question of Identity: Arabism, Islam... and the West 1995.
·
Religion,
State and the Application of Sharia 1996.
(Translated
into Kurdish, Iraqi Kurdistan. English translation in print).
·
The Arab Renaissance Project
1996.
·
Democracy and Human Rights
1997.
·
Issues
in Contemporary Thought 1997:
(Globalization,
Clash of Civilizations, Return to Ethics, Tolerance, Democracy and the Value
System, Philosophy and the City.
·
Human
Development and Socio-Cultural Particularity: The Arab World as a Model . 1997 (United
Nations publication, ESCWA, translated into English.
·
Viewpoint:
Towards Reconstructing Contemporary Arab Thought Issues 1997.
·
Excavations
in Memory, from
Far Away (An Autobiography from Youth to Twenty) 1997.
·
Supervising a new publication
of Ibn Rushd’s original works with analytical introductions and commentaries,
etc. 1997-1998
·
The decisive
on the relationship between Sharia and wisdom in connection.
·
Revealing
the methods of evidence in the beliefs of the religion.
·
The incoherence
of the incoherence.
·
The
book of colleges in medicine.
·
The
Necessary in Politics: A Summary of Plato's Politics
·
Ibn
Rushd: Biography and Thought 1998.
·
The
Arab Moral Mind: A Critical Analytical Study of Value Systems in Arab Culture . 2001.
·
Mawaqif
Series, A series of books in pocket-sized form
·
In Criticism of the Need for
Reform September 2005
·
Introduction to the Qur’an.
September 2006
·
Understanding the Qur’an:
Clear Interpretation According to the Order of Revelation March 2008
Awards
and decorations
Al-Jabri has received
many awards, including:
·
Baghdad
Prize for Arab Culture awarded by UNESCO ($5,000), 1988.
·
Maghreb
Prize for Culture, awarded by Tunisia ($16,000), 1999.
·
Award
for Intellectual Studies in the Arab World, MBI Foundation under
the patronage of UNESCO 2005
·
Pioneers
Award. Arab Thought Foundation, Beirut, 2005
·
Ibn
Sina Medal from UNESCO at a ceremony attended by the Moroccan government on the
occasion of World Philosophy Day, Rabat/Skhirat: 2006
·
Ibn
Rushd Prize for Freedom of Thought. 2008. Berlin, Germany.
Articles
·
A multi-valued logic establishes an authentic Islamic
rationality - Al-Ittihad
newspaper, UAE
·
Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence: Foundation
and Methodology of Deduction - Al-Ittihad Newspaper,
UAE
·
Reason and Faith in Islam - Al-Ittihad
Newspaper, UAE
·
Reconstructing Our Cultural History - Al-Ittihad
Newspaper, UAE
·
The Cultural Issue in the Arab World Since the
1950s - Al-Mustaqbal Al-Arabi
Dialogues:
·
Interview with Muhammad Abed Al-Jabri - Wisdom
about the Italian neighborhood of Rest
·
A frank and exciting dialogue with Muhammad Abed
al-Jabri - Al-Quds Al-Arabi
Articles about him
·
A critical reading of the legacy of the late
thinker Muhammad Abed al-Jabri - Rachid Boutayeb
·
Between criticism of reason and its support:
Al-Jabiri, a quarter century after dissecting the
Arab mind - Alaa al-Din al-Araji
·
Muhammad Abed al-Jabri's Approach to the Study of
the Arab-Islamic Heritage - Kifah Ali Othman
·
Mohammed Abed Al-Jabri and his project - Zuhair
Tawfiq
·
Critique of Al-Jabiri's Concepts and Visions on
the Resigned Mind - Abdelkader Bouarfa
Sources:
The official page of Dr. Muhammad Abed Al-Jabri's platform
By: Samir Abu Zaid