Background
His father had been a traditional religious scholar, who despite his own immersion in Arabic and Islamic culture sent his son to a Dutch primary school.
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Harun Nasution
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After an unhappy period of further study in Mecca, he went to Egypt, where he attended lectures at al-Azhar University in Cairo. Nasution completed his Doctor of Philosophy in 1969 and then returned to Indonesia, where he took up a position at IAIN in Jakarta.
Career
Nasution spent much of his youth outside of Indonesia, living in Arabia and Egypt before moving to Europe and eventually Canada. Nasution did, however, attend an Islamic secondary school, although one that taught secular as well as religious subjects. In 1962 he began studying at the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University in Montreal.
His doctoral studies were on the theology of Muhammad Abduh, focusing on the extent to which Abduh had been influenced by Mu"tazila teachings.
Nasution"s influence on his fellow Indonesia thinkers is significant. His fellow Indonesian thinker Nurcholish Madjid argues that Nasution was an important influence in the development of modern Indonesian religious thought, particularly through his influence on students at IAIN. He is less known outside that country but he forms part of a significant movement that includes other "modernist" thinkers such as Mohammed Arkoun and Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd.
Fauzan Saleh, Modern Trends in Islamic Theological Discourse in 20th Century Indonesia: A Critical Study (Leiden: East J Brill, 2001), p.231 n.71
Richard C. Martin, Mark R. Woodward, and Dwi South. Atmaja, Defenders of Reason in Islam: Mutazilism from Medieval School to Modern Symbol(Oxford: Oneworld, 1997),Online Computer Library Center 37923050, p.160
Martin et al, Defenders of Reason in Islam, p.161
Martin et al, Defenders of Reason in Islam, p.164
Saleh, Modern Trends in Islamic Theological Discourse in 20th Century Indonesia p.198-200
Harun Nasution, "The Mu"tazila and Rational Philosophy" translated in Defenders of Reason in Islam by Martin et al, pp.191-92. Saleh, Modern Trends in Islamic Theological Discourse in 20th Century Indonesia pp.230,233.
