Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah

Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah (Arabic: محمد أحمد خلف الله, 1916-1991) was an Egyptian Islamic modernist thinker and writer.[1][2]

In 1947, Cairo University refused his doctoral dissertation presented to the Department of Arabic entitled The Narrative Art in the Holy Qur'an (al-Fann al-qasasi fi al-Qurʾan al-karim), as he suggested that holy texts are allegoric and that they should not be seen as something fixed, but as a moral direction.[3] As a pupil of Amin al-Khuli, he stated that one can study the Qur'an from a literary point of view.[4] Indeed, the aim of Muhammad is to convince people. So he uses all rhetorical ways at his disposal, which includes metaphors, biblical and pre-islamic narratives. In Khalafallah's opinion, historical truth is not the main goal, but rather the religious and ethic sense conveyed by these stories.[5] Khalafallah has been accused to treat the Speech of God as if it was a human product. Yet, he does not question the authenticity of the revelation.[6] He takes up a traditional theme, that of the inimitability (iʿjaz) of the Qur'an - the first title of his thesis was Min asrar al-iʿjaz, (“On the Secrets of the Qurʾan’s inimitability").[7] He was fired from his teaching position and transferred to the Ministry of Culture.[3]

Afterwards, he started a thesis on a non-religious subject and received his doctorate in 1952. He ended his career at the Egyptian Ministry of Culture.[3][1]

His doctoral thesis has finally been published in 1954.[8] His master's thesis, al-Jadal fī l-Qurʾān (“Polemic in the Qurʾān”) has been published with the title Muhammad wa l-quwâ l-mudadda ("Muhammad and the opposition forces"), Cairo, 1973.[9][10]

He wrote Mafāhīm Qurʼānīyah ( "Quranic concepts"), published in arabic in 1984,[11] al-Qur'ân-wa mushkilat hayâti-nâ l-mu'âsira ("The Qur'an and our contemporary problems") and al-Qur'ân wa l-dawla ("The Qur'an and the State"). But these works are less innovative than his doctoral thesis.[12]

Notes and references
  1. عمارة, محمد (1 January 2011). أشهر مناظرات القرن العشرين. الجزء الأول، مصر بين الدولة المدنية والدينية (in Arabic). Al Manhal. ISBN 9796500078472.
  2. Khalafallah, Muhammad Ahmad, Oxford Islamic Studies On-line, citing The Oxford Dictionary of Islam (page visited on 30 January 2015).
  3. Zeid, Nasr Hamid Abou; Zayd, Nasr Hamid Abu; Zayd, Naṣr Ḥāmid Abū; Zaid, Nasr Abu; Nelson, Esther R. (2004). Voice of an Exile: Reflections on Islam. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-275-98250-8.
  4. Benzine, Rachid (2008). Les nouveaux penseurs de l'islam (in French). Albin Michel. p. 163. ISBN 978-2-226-17858-9.
  5. Chartier, Marc (1974). "Exégèse coranique" (PDF). Comprendre n° 99 (in French). Retrieved 25 November 2022.
  6. Chartier, Marc, p. 3.
  7. Reynolds, Gabriel Said (10 July 2017). "Psychological Readings of the Qurʾan". International Qur'anic Studies Association. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
  8. Chebel, Malek (5 February 2013). Changer l'islam: Dictionnaire des réformateurs musulmans des origines à nos jours (in French). Albin Michel. p. 109. ISBN 978-2-226-28620-8.
  9. Chartier, Marc, p. 7.
  10. Shepard, William, "Khalafallāh, Muḥammad Aḥmad", Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE, Brill, retrieved 25 November 2022
  11. "مفاهيم قرآنية | WorldCat.org". www.worldcat.org. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
  12. Chartier, Marc, p. 8.

al-Fann al-qasasi fi al-Qurʾan al-karim on archive.org (in arabic).

See also


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.