Cairo -

“The Arabs spoke, and the advocates of reconciliation spoke, then Sheikh Muhammad Abdo spoke, and he insisted on his opinion that the Arabs, with their rush, would drag the foreign occupation on the country, so the efforts for peace and reconciliation failed. He was afraid that it had already happened, and he could not help but be with his people - even if they were wrong - against the stranger.

This is how the late Egyptian writer Abbas Mahmoud al-Akkad conveys the details of what happened during the Urabi Revolution (1879-1882) and how circumstances imposed on Sheikh Muhammad Abdo - whose death anniversary falls today, July 11 - to join it after he was in opposition.

In his book on Imam Muhammad Abdo entitled “The Genius of Reform and Education,” Al-Akkad says that Muhammad Abdo was a rebel, but he was not a supporter of the leader Ahmed Orabi, but was at odds with him in his practical program, and resorted to the support of the Orabis only in order to unite the ranks against the foreign occupier, Especially after Khedive Tawfiq resorted to the English.

Occupation and trial

Events continued, and the British struck the city of Alexandria, and the Khedive sided with the occupier, and the battle took place between the Egyptians and the English in the Great Hill, and soon after the British entered Cairo in September 1882, Orabi and his companions, and those who helped him, including Sheikh Muhammad Abdo, were charged with conspiracy and exiled abroad. The country, so he chose Beirut as a refuge for exile, and traveled to it in 1883.

His lawyer wrote, describing Abdo's departure from Egypt, "She called in the darkness Muhammad Abdo, who had finally gone exiled from the Egyptian country for 3 years, and if Egypt is permitted to go alone or have a better beginning one day, it is not easy for it to dispense with the likes of Sheikh Muhammad Abdo Al-Alam." editor".

in exile

The imam stayed in Beirut for about a year, until he sent his teacher Jamal al-Din al-Afghani to ask him to travel to him in Paris.

The magazine annoyed the English, even though it was issued from a modest room above a house in the French capital, especially with the succession of articles by the imam calling on the Islamic world to combat colonialism.

But after the issuance of 18 issues, the colonizer was able to silence their voice to obscure the "most trustworthy hand" and for the imam to return to Beirut again.

Mediation to return

In his book “The Reformist Approach of the Imam,” the Islamic thinker Muhammad Emara says that Abdo sought his friends to help him return to Egypt, and his student Saad Zaghloul was urging Queen Nazli to use her influence with Lord Cromer to pardon him, until Cromer was convinced that the imam would not engage in politics and his activity would be limited. On educational, advocacy, cultural and intellectual work, he used his influence to issue a pardon from Khedive Tawfiq, and the imam returned to Egypt in 1889.

Mufti of Egypt

Khedive Tawfiq refused his work in education, and when he died, the imam persuaded his successor, Khedive Abbas Hilmi II, to help him in reforming the three educational and social institutions: Al-Azhar, the endowments, and the Sharia courts.

The imam was appointed Mufti of Egypt in 1899, and his fatwas tended to be tolerance, independence of opinion, distance from tradition and the compatibility between the spirit of Islam and the demands of modern life, and contributed to the renewal of religious discourse and his ideas sparked widespread controversy.

Among his fatwas is the permissibility of photography and allowing a Muslim to wear European dress, which caused a state of controversy among scholars.

The Imam believed that Muslims had reached a state of backwardness, decline and weakness that calls for grief and sadness, and that the reform attempts that preceded him to reform the situation of Muslims did not achieve complete success, and that political reform cannot alone carry the burden of advancement.

He also saw that liberating thought from imitation, adopting enlightened Salafism in understanding religion, and using reason to establish a close friendship between it and science, is the essence of politics and political reform, as he understood and advocated for it.

his departure

The Imam’s relationship with Khedive Abbas worsened day after day, and his image was distorted in the newspapers in front of the people, until he submitted his resignation from Al-Azhar in 1905.

On July 11, 1905, the imam passed away at the age of 56, "from a fertile intellectual life, efforts in education and reform, and attitudes - embodying the greatness and pride of the Egyptian Arab Muslim man - that cannot die," according to Dr. Emara's description.

They said about him

Because of his great pride in himself and the confidence imprinted on his face, al-Afghani used to say to his student Imam Muhammad Abdu: Tell me, by God.. Which sons of kings are you?!

In the introduction to his book “The Genius of Reform and Education,” Al-Akkad described him as “the first imams of the age to be followed by the Muqtada in the faithfulness of belief, thought, goodness, truth, and sincerity to creation and the Creator, in all that man undertakes - worthy of the name of man.” From intention and action, and from secret and open.

Ismail Serageldin, the former director of the Library of Alexandria, said about him that the imam was an outstanding pioneer of reform and enlightenment, and he learned from the flags calling for renewal on more than one level, not only in Egypt but in the Arab and Islamic world, and the majority of his ideas and judgments are still vibrant.