Quest for Divinity: A Critical Examination of the Thought of Mahmud Muhammad Taha

330 Pages·2007·3.51 MB·English

by  Mohamed A. Mahmoud, Mehrzad Boroujerdi

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Quest for Divinity
Modern Intellectual and Political
History ofthe Middle East
Mehrzad Boroujerdi,Series Editor
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Muhammad,riding his horse Buraq and accompanied by the angel Gabriel,
ascends to heaven and comes before the angel glorifying God with seventy heads
and seventy tongues.Courtesy ofthe Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
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Quest
for
Divinity
A Critical Examination of the Thought
of Mahmud Muhammad Taha
l
mohamed a. m ahmoud
Syracuse University Press
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Copyright © 2007 by Syracuse University Press
Syracuse,New York 13244–5160
All Rights Reserved
First Edition 2007
07 08 09 10 11 12 6 5 4 3 2 1
Permission to reprint text from Arthur J.Arberry’s The Koran Interpretedis gratefully acknowledged.
Reprinted by permission ofHarperCollins Publishers Ltd.© A.J.Arberry 1955.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements ofAmerican National Standard for
Information Sciences—Permanence ofPaper for Printed Library Materials,ANSI Z39.48–1984.∞™
For a listing ofbooks published and distributed by Syracuse University Press,
visit our Web site at SyracuseUniversityPress.syr.edu.
ISBN-13:978-0-8156-3100-2
ISBN-10:0-8156-3100-6
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mahmoud,Mohamed.
Quest for divinity :a critical examination ofthe thought of
Mahmud Muhammad Taha / Mohamed A.Mahmoud.—1st ed.
p.cm.—(Modern intellectual and political history ofthe Middle East)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–8156–3100–6 (hardcover :alk.paper)
1.Taha,Mahmud Muhammad.2.Scholars,Muslim—Sudan—Biography.
3.Islamic renewal—Sudan.4.Islam and politics—Sudan.I.Title.
BP80.T224M34 2006
297.2092—dc22 2006031486
Manufactured in the United States ofAmerica
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To my mother,
my father,
my sisters,
and my brothers
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Mohamed A.Mahmoudtaught at the Faculty of Arts at the University of
Khartoum and at the Oriental Institute at the University of Oxford.
Currently,he teaches at the Department of Comparative Religion at Tufts
University.
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Contents
Muhammad,riding his horse Buraq,ascends
to heaven with the angel Gabriel frontispiece
Abbreviations ix
Preface xi
Background 1
1. The Context,the Man,and the Movement 12
2. Theory ofPrayer
Worship,Individualism,and Authenticity 41
3. The Qur’an and the Hermeneutics ofSemantic Fluidity 76
4. Determinism,Free Will,and Divine Punishment 105
5. From the First to the Second Message ofIslam 132
6. Evolution,Shari‘a,and Art 179
Conclusion 215
Notes 225
Bibliography 279
Index 299
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Abbreviations
in citing Mahmud Muhammad Taha’s works,the following abbreviations are
used:
AJi As’ila wa ajwiba,Part I
AJii As’ila wa ajwiba,Part II
AS Adwa’‘ala shari‘at ’l-ahwal ’l-shakhsiyya
DH Min daqa’iq haqa’iq ’l-din
DJ Al-Da‘wa ’l-Islamiyya ’l-jadida
DI Al-Dustur ’l-Islami: Na‘am wa la
DT Al-Din wa ’l-tanmiyya ’l-ijtima‘iyya
IF Al-Islam wa ’l-funun
IQ Al-Islam wa insaniyyat ’l-qarn ’l-‘ishrin
IS Al-Islam
LL La Ilaha Illa ’Llah
MM Al-Markisiyya fi’l-mizan
MS Mushkilat ’l-sharq ’l-awsat
QF Al-Qur’an wa Mustafa Mahmud
RMi Rasa’il wa maqalat,Part I
RMii Rasa’il wa maqalat,Part II
RS Risalat ’l-salat
RT Al-Risala ’l-thaniya min ’l-Islam
RU Al-Islam bi-risalatihi ’l-ula la yasluh li-insaniyyat ’l-qarn ’l-‘ishrin
SA Al-Sifr ’l-awwal
SM The Second Message ofIslam
TK Ta‘allamu kaifa tusallun
TM Tariq Muhammad
TS Tatwir shari‘at ’l-ahwal ’l-shakhsiyya
TT Al-Thawra ’l-thaqafiyya
UD Usus dustur ’l-Sudan
ZJ Za‘im jabhat ’l-mithaq fi’l-mizan
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