Al-Jabiri’s Method in Reading the Turāth

Author

Al-Azhar

Abstract

The dialectical relationship between turāth (Islamic intellectual heritage) and modernity has drawn significant attention from thinkers across both the Islamic and Western worlds. While the turāth, with its theological and philosophical content, constitutes a foundational point of reference for Muslim scholars and intellectuals, it has also been subjected to various attempts at reinterpretation, often under the banner of renewal (tajdīd), or more radically through a sweeping stream of modernist ideas that originated in the eighteenth century under particular conditions in the West, far removed from the historical and cultural realities of the Islamic world. Nonetheless, such currents have found proponents and advocates within Muslim contexts.
Modernism, in its most distinctive feature, marked a decisive rupture with religion, privileging reason as an alternative foundation. Among the modernist readings of the turāth is that of the Moroccan thinker Muhammad Abid al-Jabiri, who developed an alternative engagement with the tradition through a distinct philosophical and epistemological framework.
This study aims to explicate the concept of turāth, identify the critical tools employed by al-Jabiri, and examine the key concepts he introduced in his project for re-reading the Islamic intellectual tradition through a modernist lens. It further seeks to outline the levels at which he approached the tradition, ultimately assessing the coherence and implications of his reading.
The methodological approach adopted in this study is the analytical-critical method, deemed most suitable for presenting and evaluating al-Jabiri’s thought. This approach entails a textual analysis of his writings, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.
One of the key findings of this research is al-Jabiri’s reliance on a dual intellectual genealogy: part of his conceptual apparatus is drawn from Western historical developments, while another part remains rooted in Arab intellectual history. This duality leads to internal contradictions, especially evident in his appropriation of Western civilizational outcomes and his effort to recast the turāth within European intellectual paradigms. His methods and thought reflect a predominantly European epistemic orientation, even as he continues to draw on inherited Islamic concepts and presuppositions. Despite his stated rejection of ideological approaches, his attempt to analyze and critique the structure of Arab reason from the standpoint that it remains dominated by the legacy of the early generations leads him to characterize the critique and instrumentalization of the turāth as an ideological conflict rather than a purely historical inquiry.

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