It is a wonderful presentation and the way in which the modernity has been criticised is highly academic

5:13 - Beginning, introductory remarks. 5:44 - Talking about the book (“Reforming Modernity”) on a high-level, not about its specifics. 6:32 - Taha AbdurRahman’s thought should not be studied on its own. His works, until recently, had evolved as a response to Muhammad A’abid al-Jaabiri. Nevertheless, the two intellectuals took account of each other. 9:34 - Jaabiri’s work as a representative of the history of internal self-questioning and struggle of Arab-Islamic Revival Movement, from its initiation by Abduh and Rashid Rida to the early 21st century. In other words, his work is representative of archaic liberalism of Arab-Islamic Revival/Reformist Movement. 10:32 - Taha’s work, when contrasted with Jaabiri’s, is representative of a new dynamic of thought, a critique of (present form of) modernity itself, rather than only harkening back to traditional Sufism (as Jaabiri’s work is like). So, Taha’s work is an analogy to that tradition of critique beginning with (even) Søren Kierkegaard and more recently Pierre Hadot and M. Foucault and presently Charles Taylor and Alasdair McIntyre. 11:35 - Jaabiri’s work represents mainstream liberal tradition based on instrumentalist rationality, this is exactly what Taha is fighting against (like Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno did). 13:00 - Taha is putting together an entire range of these Western critiques of modernity in one highly consistent and systematic framework both for and on behalf of the Muslim world. Comparison of Taha and Emmanuel Levinas. 14:06 - Nevertheless, Taha’s work is as much post-modernist and in line with all the above-mentioned people as it is harkening back to Islamic/Sufi tradition. Praxis - a particular technology of conducting mind and body so as to make discourse and act harmonious. 15:22 - Intellectual history: praxis does not only belong to Islam/Sufism. It originates from a very ancient practice which, W. Hallaq hypothesizes, even ancient Greeks imported from Phoenicians and ancient Egyptians, which in turn raises “Black Athena” controversy. 16:42 - Taha is asking the question which M. Foucault previously asked on behalf of Immanuel Kant: “What are we missing today? What has gone wrong? Who are we now?” 18:32 - Although Taha is precisely articulating the same critical inquiry, he is not imitating Foucault. Jaabiri’s method of argumentation, despite his erudition, was highly inconsistent and problematic. 20:11 - Taha does not only quote and reproduce the ideas of Sufis, he uses his own language; sound interrupted: possibly W. Hallaq meant next something like: “while at the same time drawing on Sufi’s ideas and operating autonomously”. 21:15 - Despite the involvement of Taha in the current philosophical discourse, he does not replicate, imitate or reproduce and put in a different form his work all the while adopting the same substance of thought of the above-mentioned philosophers. He does not do it. In fact, Taha rarely draws on the substance of any philosophers’ idea. He always works with his own tools and navigates through on his own. This is where he is in a sharp contrast to Jaabiri, who draws and reproduces materials from all sources. 22:35 - Taha should be seen in the company of those above-mentioned Western critics of modernity but operating with his own Islamic tools. 22:49 - M. Foucault’s fear of the juridification of Ethics. 23:37 - Taha is much more comfortably drawing on Islamic tradition invoking its intellectual capital in the critique of modernity. Comparison of Taha and E. Levinas. 24:11 - How Taha and E. Levinas’ concepts of reason represent the current situation in modernity. 24:38 - Liberalism and capitalism’s wishful thinking due to the theory of progress (i.e. the belief that current pace of progress in technology will solve all problems). Even Nietzsche was against it, not to mention S. Kierkegaard and other earlier critics of mainstream modernity. All of these critics have some level of affinity with Taha. 25:30 - (the hardest part to understand, I hope I got it correctly) 3 forms of reason incorrectly classified by Jaabiri. Jaabiri’s mistake of calling demonstrative reasoning as Burhaniyy and incorrectly adopting it as a highest form of reasoning and his, again incorrectly, accusing Bayaaniyy reason (i.e. juristic/shar’iy reasoning) of being “contaminated by outside influences” and his lambasting Irfaniyy (Sufi/gnostic) reason as “mythical, fanciful, legendary”. Instead, it wasn’t demonstrative reasoning but a particular kind of reasoning that Islamic intellectuals found problematic and insufficient for purposes of intellectual endeavors. 27:20 - Empiricism arose firstly in Islam before David Hume and other British empiricists. Ibn Taymiyyah as one of the ultimate empiricists. 31:12 - Sufism not just Islamic but as an Asian experience (not excluding ancient Rome and Greeks from Asians), as a variation of a very long tradition going back to the time of Phoenicians and Pharaohs. 32:54 - Taha’s reversal of Jaabiri’s classification of reason and his modifying and rebuilding what Jaabiri called Irfaniyy (Sufi/religious reasoning) and taking it as the most convincing and logical form of reasoning. 34:46 - Taha’s restructuring of religious spirituality (condemned by the secularist project of modernity) and thus leaving the mainstream modern project trapped in promises of pleasures of progress. 36:12 - Connection between the crisis of environment and modern project. 37:07 - Environmental problems not only as physical problems but more importantly as epistemic manifestations of our deeper problems. 38:26 - The need for reexamining the world we are living in is, at the end of the day, a summation of the works of philosophers like Taha, M. Foucault and even I. Kant.

Outstanding presentation. The Q&A section has revealed a lot behind Hallaq's thoughts and passions. Perhaps what he referred to as technologies of the self or self care is called tazikiat alnafs تزكية النفس.

@alimas21

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you, Ammar. The presentation was devised to address his latest book and to present his own intellectual venues in the field. Indeed, this could be called tazkiyyat al-nafs that entails also the purification of the heart (taharat al-qalb). Hallaq is to an extant taking stock in Foucault's thought but claims that the pre-moderns knew well these types of technologies.

@mohamed-fp3wl

Жыл бұрын

@@alimas21 Are they really talking about the same things. Foucault sees the self as an aesthetic subject with no inherent telos towards an end. Cultivation of the self is just an extension of value of freedom in which, as with the moderns, the self (ideas) is primary and man can be infinitely re-created. This is not, in essence, post-modern but as some of the Thomists state, hyper-modernity. As for Taha, the self has a human nature (fitra) and can know objective truth. Cultivation of the self is the means to realising this nature (humanity) through praxis that orders the psyche (passions brought under reason etc) and allows the objective essences of things to be seen (things as manifestations of Divine Attributes and Actions).

@mohamed-fp3wl

Жыл бұрын

Best to try and locate and understand Taha in relation to the pre-moderns (such as Ibn Arabiy and as far back as Plato) and their discussion of the self, its ordering and objective truth. Taha's discussion of praxis and cultivating self (and, consequently, realising higher levels of rationality) has nothing to do with Foucault. This is probably Hallaq's own modern decolonial background being squeezed into how to frame and understand Taha

Absolutely fascinating conversation, keep the content coming 🙌🏾

19:31 "There are a lot of intellectual bloodbaths that can happen in that exercise." hahaha I love the way Wael Hallaq explains. He is very eloquent.

Salam, Dr Daghistani. I am a Muslim economic historian from the UK who would love to get in touch with you. How would I contact you?

@alimas21

2 жыл бұрын

Aleikumu salam, Karima. You can reach out to me either via Academia.edu or LinkedIn. Looking forward to hearing from you, and all the best.

الشيخ وائل

@46:30 - in terms of taking care of the self, I think Prof. Hallaq neglects the agency/praxis of the 5 daily prayers \ Salah and continuous maintenance of God consciousness.

ليت المحاضرة تترجم

please tell me critical doesn't have anything to do with critical theory.

Could Zionism be the reason why the West is not using Islam as just another source of knowledge?

They are using pubs to pure their souls