Razionalità e religione: dalla diatriba tra Faraḥ Anṭūn e lo šayḫ Muḥammad ‘Abduh alla mediazione di Aḥmad Amīn

The debate between Faraḥ Anṭūn (1874-1922) and the šayḫ Muḥammad ‘Abduh (1849-1905) in 1902 highlighted two different conceptions of religion – specifically Christianity and Islam – and their relationship to science, along with the political implications stemming from these views. In this contribution I analyse how Aḥmad Amīn raises the question, clarifying his conception of the role of reason, and consequently of philosophy and theology, in Islam. To do so, I first focus on the two works in which the Anṭūn-‘Abduh debate is explicitly mentioned: Zu‘amā’ al-islāḥ fī ʼl-‘aṣr al-ḥadīṯ (1948) and the third volume of Ẓuhr al-Islām (1953). I then compare the relevant passages in these works with other texts that, while not directly mentioning the debate, implicitly refer to it or contain similar themes pertinent to my analysis. In particular, I take into consideration all the volumes of Amīn’s impressive trilogy: Faǧr al-Islām (1929), Ḍuḥà al-Islām (3 volumes, 1933-1936), and Ẓuhr al-Islām (4 volumes, 1945-1955). Furthermore, I analyse key passages from these texts in comparison with Yawm al-Islām (1952), in an attempt to clarify similarities and differences between this work and the trilogy, by also making use of the fundamental information contained in Amīn’s famous autobiography, Ḥayātī (1952).