Background
Rahman, Fazlur was born on September 21, 1919 in Seraisaleh, Pakistan. Came to the United States, 1969. Daughter of Shihab and Wafadar (Qazi) Din.
Rahman, Fazlur was born on September 21, 1919 in Seraisaleh, Pakistan. Came to the United States, 1969. Daughter of Shihab and Wafadar (Qazi) Din.
Bachelor, University Punjah, Pakistan, 1940. Master of Arts, University Punjah, Pakistan, 1942. Doctor of Philosophy, Oxford University, 1950.
Lecturer in Persian studies and Islamic philosophy University Durham, England, 1950-1958. Associate professor Institute Islamic Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, 1958-1961. Visiting professor Islamic Research Institute, Karachi, Pakistan, 1961-1962, director Islamabad, Pakistan, 1962-1968.
Professor Islamic Thought University Chicago, from 1969, Harold H. Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Islamic Thought, from 1986. Visiting professor University of California at Los Angeles, 1969. Consultant to the United States State Department, Washington, 1979-1980, Government of Indonesia for Higher Islamic Studies, 1985.
Contributor numerous articles to professional journals, author numerous books.
Rahman’s early works dealt with important aspects of classical Islamic philosophy, and he set very high standards in the analysis of Avicenna, al-Farabi and the falasifa. In his later work he concentrated more on Islamic theology and Islam itself, although he did try to show in his work on Mulla Sadra how philosophy in the Islamic world continued to flourish after its apparent decline in the eleventh century after the onslaught of alGhazali. In his work on the Qur’an he pointed to the unity and cohesion of the text of the book which centres on its practical ethical character.
Much has changed since the original message transmitted by Muhammad, but the ethical force of the message has remained the same. It is important to reinterpret the text in such a way as to demonstrate its relevance to Muslims in modern society. Rahman criticizes Islamic philosophy for its obsession with metaphysics and its disinclination to consider ethical issues as central.
The Qur'an and the hadith were misunderstood by their interpreters as rigid and immutable, whereas they in fact are products of a particular cultural and historical context, and to understand them properly one must regard them as part and parcel of a particular time.
If one does this, one will be able to see how to apply them to changing circumstances. If no effort is made to relate Islam to its original context, the Muslim is left with the choice between secularism and an antiquated and rigid religious system. The Qur’an needs to be freed from its straitjacket of commentary and tradition in order for it to be fully applicable to new realities in the modern age.
In the end Rahman emphasizes the importance of the ijtihad of the believer through which life can be breathed into the body of the religion.
Rahman was obliged to leave Pakistan in the late 1960s due to the furore which his views on Islamic modernism created. None the less, he has had a large impact upon the modernist movement throughout the intellectual world of Islam. Sources: Personal communication with L. E. Goodman.
Married Bilqees Rafiq Rahman, January 25, 1950. Children: Mahmood, Khaliq, Salma, Laiq, Shafiq, Atiq.