References
Taha Abderrahmane, “Al-Faylasūf Ṭāhā ʿAbd al-Raḥmān: Sīrah Fikriyya | Būdkāst al-Sharq,” Al Sharq Youth, YouTube video, November 20, 2024, youtube.com.
For a complimentary and more academic biographical-intellectual sketch of Taha Abderrahmane’s life, see the introduction in Mohammed Hashas, “1 The Trusteeship Paradigm: The Formation and Reception of a Philosophy,” in Islamic Ethics and the Trusteeship Paradigm (Brill, 2020), 37-61. Aqil Azme’s notes accompanying a translation (in subtitles) of the same interview that is the focus of the present article—published independently after the first draft of this piece was complete—are also insightful. See Aqil Azme, “Taha Abderrahmane: Philosophy, Language, Ethics, and the Renewal of the Islamic Tradition (al-Sharq),” ʿAqil Azme, YouTube video, May 3, 2025, youtube.com.
Suʾāl al-akhlāq: musāhama fī al-naqd al-akhlāqī lil-ḥadātha al-gharbiyya [The Question of Ethics—A Contribution to Ethical Criticism of Western Modernity] (Al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-ʿArabī, 2000); Fiqh al-falsafa, 1; and Fiqh al-falsafa, 2: al-Qawl al-falsafī—Kitāb al-mafhūm wa-l-taʾthīl [The Essence of Philosophy, Vol. II: On Philosophical Discourse—The Book of Concept and Etymology] (Al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-ʿArabī, 1999).
Tajdīd al-manhaj fī taqwīm al-turāth [Renewing the Method of Assessing the Tradition] (Al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-ʿArabī, 1994).
Taha Abderrahmane identifies the spirit of modernity with universal ethical values—justice, truthfulness, trust, dignity, mercy—that constitute the moral telos of all human civilization. Any particular historical application inflects these values through its own traditions and cultures. The defining principles of secular Western modernity, for instance, are identified as maturity (rushd), criticism (naqd), and universality (shumūliyya). These are procedural principles that in origin are motivated by, and aim at, the universal values. However, western modernity becomes ethically distorted when these principles are detached from their value foundations, leading to autonomy without justice, critique without truth, and universality without mercy. Islamic modernity, in turn, involves recovering the universal ethical values inflected through Islamic revelation and tradition. It is not a replication of Western models, but a renewal (tajdīd) rooted in the ethical and spiritual foundations of Islam, developing indigenous concepts and practices, and realizing a rationality that serves ethical action rather than dominating it. See Rūḥ al-ḥadātha: naḥwa al-yaʾsīs li-ḥadātha islāmiyya [The Spirit of Modernity: Introduction to Founding Islamic Modernity] (Al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-ʿArabī, 2006).
Taha Abderrahmane gives the example of Heidegger here: “Heidegger’s writings, especially his later work on language and spiritual purity, are imbued with meanings inherited from religious and mystical traditions. In fact, when reading his philosophy of language, one notices that he uses expressions and concepts nearly identical to those found among the ṣūfīs. In my view, Heidegger was a believer without openly admitting it—at least outwardly. I even suspect that he knew this inwardly but chose not to declare it, given how clearly his thought reflects spiritual intuitions.”
Dīn al-ḥayāʾ: min al-naqd al-iʾtimārī ilā al-naqd al-iʾtimānī, Vol. 2/3: al-Taḥaddiyāt al-akhlāqiyya li-thawrat al-iʿlām wa-l-ittiṣāl [The Religion of Testimony and Sight: From Imperative Thought to Trusteeship, Vol. 2/3: Ethical Challenges to the Revolution of Media and Communication] ( Al-Muʾassasa al-ʿArabiyya lil-Fikr wa-l-Ibdāʿ, 2017).
Thughūr al-murābaṭa: Muqāraba iʾtimāniyya li-ṣirāʿāt al-umma al-ḥāliyya [Posts of Resistance: A Trusteeship Approach to the Current Struggles of the Umma] (Maghareb Center for Civilizational Studies, 2018). For an annotated English translation of the first chapter of this work, see Taha Abderrahmane, “The Jerusalemite Murābaṭa: On the Frontier of the Islamic-Israeli Conflict,” trans. Monir Birouk, ed. Mohammed El-Sayed Bushra, Ummatics, March 3, 2025, ummatics.org.
Sunan al-Bayhaqī, no. 20782; Musnad Aḥmad, no. 8952; Mustadrak Ḥākim, no. 4221.
Rūḥ al-dīn: min ḍīq al-ʿilmāniyya ilā saʿati al-iʾtimāniyya [The Spirit of Religion: From the Narrowness of Secularism to the Openness of Trusteeship] (Al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-ʿArabī, 2012).