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Reforming Modernity: Ethics and the New Human in the Philosophy of Abdurrahman Taha
Reforming Modernity is a sweeping intellectual history and philosophical reflection built around the work of the Morocco-based philosopher Abdurrahman Taha, one of the most significant philosophers in the Islamic world since the colonial era. Wael B. Hallaq contends that Taha is at the forefront of forging a new, non-Western-centric philosophical tradition. He explores how Taha's philosophical project sheds light on recent intellectual currents in the Islamic world and puts forth a formidable critique of Western and Islamic modernities.
Hallaq argues that Taha's project departs from--but leaves behind--the epistemological grounds in which most modern Muslim intellectuals have anchored their programs. He systematically rejects the modes of thought that have dominated the Muslim intellectual scene since the beginning of the twentieth century--nationalism, Marxism, secularism, political Islamism, and liberalism. Instead, he provides alternative ways of thinking, forcefully and virtuosically developing an ethical system with a view toward reforming existing modernities. Hallaq analyzes the ethical thread that runs throughout Taha's oeuvre, illuminating how Taha weaves it into a discursive engagement with the central questions that plague modernity in both the West and the Muslim world. The first introduction to Taha's ethical philosophy for Western audiences, Reforming Modernity presents his complex thought in an accessible way while engaging with it critically. Hallaq's conversation with Taha's work both proffers a cogent critique of modernity and points toward answers for its endemic and seemingly insoluble problems.
Hallaq argues that Taha's project departs from--but leaves behind--the epistemological grounds in which most modern Muslim intellectuals have anchored their programs. He systematically rejects the modes of thought that have dominated the Muslim intellectual scene since the beginning of the twentieth century--nationalism, Marxism, secularism, political Islamism, and liberalism. Instead, he provides alternative ways of thinking, forcefully and virtuosically developing an ethical system with a view toward reforming existing modernities. Hallaq analyzes the ethical thread that runs throughout Taha's oeuvre, illuminating how Taha weaves it into a discursive engagement with the central questions that plague modernity in both the West and the Muslim world. The first introduction to Taha's ethical philosophy for Western audiences, Reforming Modernity presents his complex thought in an accessible way while engaging with it critically. Hallaq's conversation with Taha's work both proffers a cogent critique of modernity and points toward answers for its endemic and seemingly insoluble problems.
376 pages, Hardcover
Published November 12, 2019
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About the author
Wael B. Hallaq
35 books535 followersWael B. Hallaq is a scholar of Islamic law and Islamic intellectual history. His teaching and research deal with the problematic epistemic ruptures generated by the onset of modernity and the socio-politico-historical forces subsumed by it; with the intellectual history of Orientalism and the repercussions of Orientalist paradigms in later scholarship and in Islamic legal studies as a whole; and with the synchronic and diachronic development of Islamic traditions of logic, legal theory, and substantive law and the interdependent systems within these traditions.
Hallaq’s writings have explored the structural dynamics of legal change in pre-modern law, and have recently been examining the centrality of moral theory to understanding the history of Islamic law. His books include Ibn Taymiyya Against the Greek Logicians (1993); A History of Islamic Legal Theories An Introduction to Sunni Usul al-fiqh (1997); Authority Continuity and Change in Islamic Law (2001); and An Introduction to Islamic Law (2009). Shari‘a: Theory, Practice, Transformations (2009) examines the doctrines and practices of Islamic law within the context of its history, from its beginnings in seventh-century Arabia, through its development and transformation under the Ottomans, and across lands as diverse as India, Africa and South-East Asia, to the present. Hallaq’s work has been widely read, and translated into Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Japanese, Indonesian and Hebrew.
Hallaq’s writings have explored the structural dynamics of legal change in pre-modern law, and have recently been examining the centrality of moral theory to understanding the history of Islamic law. His books include Ibn Taymiyya Against the Greek Logicians (1993); A History of Islamic Legal Theories An Introduction to Sunni Usul al-fiqh (1997); Authority Continuity and Change in Islamic Law (2001); and An Introduction to Islamic Law (2009). Shari‘a: Theory, Practice, Transformations (2009) examines the doctrines and practices of Islamic law within the context of its history, from its beginnings in seventh-century Arabia, through its development and transformation under the Ottomans, and across lands as diverse as India, Africa and South-East Asia, to the present. Hallaq’s work has been widely read, and translated into Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Japanese, Indonesian and Hebrew.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 17, 2021
كتاب متعب جداً ....و غزير جداً جولة عميقة في فكر الفيلسوف طه عبدالرحمن ...
تمنياتي لمن ينوي قرائته بكامل التوفيق و السداد
تمنياتي لمن ينوي قرائته بكامل التوفيق و السداد
June 25, 2024
An excellent introduction to the philosophy and ideas of Abdurrahman Taha
December 20, 2025
Reforming Modernity: Ethics and the New Human in the Philosophy of Abdulrahman Taha is one of the greatest work for those who want to work on ethic philosophy. This is my 2nd Wael Hallaq books that I had read, which is 1st Impossible state, and this is the 2nd. I completed this book within 37 day while try to read it consistently.
From my point of view, by posit a place contrast with Modernist Muslim that dominated the 20th centuries discourse, this book (Hallaq works and Abdulrahman Taha philosophical thoughts) give us a new path which is to depart from the general trend with a systematic rejection of their epistemologies and modest of thought. While the work of Tajdid always deal with the philosophical ideas, or what Hallaq used to said paradigm, the Islah then is the ethical thread of discourse.
I don't think this book is accessible with undergraduate student understanding because they we're not build to be familiar with this kind of advanced discourse (in Malaysia).
If I want to write an advise for my future self, this book is not meant to read and then move on with another highly advanced scholarship. The very meaning of praxis that Taha insist is for you to work with your own contextual experience on his well established ethical philosophy. Keep writing and try contribute the discourse that can create a better future for humankind knowledge.
From my point of view, by posit a place contrast with Modernist Muslim that dominated the 20th centuries discourse, this book (Hallaq works and Abdulrahman Taha philosophical thoughts) give us a new path which is to depart from the general trend with a systematic rejection of their epistemologies and modest of thought. While the work of Tajdid always deal with the philosophical ideas, or what Hallaq used to said paradigm, the Islah then is the ethical thread of discourse.
I don't think this book is accessible with undergraduate student understanding because they we're not build to be familiar with this kind of advanced discourse (in Malaysia).
If I want to write an advise for my future self, this book is not meant to read and then move on with another highly advanced scholarship. The very meaning of praxis that Taha insist is for you to work with your own contextual experience on his well established ethical philosophy. Keep writing and try contribute the discourse that can create a better future for humankind knowledge.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews