Encyclopedia of Islam

Funj Sultanate

---

sive, like those of m

Uhammad

 i

qbal

 (1877–1938) 

and a

bU

 

al

-k

alam

 a

zad

 (1888–1958), other major 

Indian Muslim intellectuals whom he admired. He 

acknowledged the eternal truth contained in the 

q

Uran

 but also maintained that the interpreta-

tion of the Quran and God’s law had to adapt 

to changing historical circumstances. Reflecting 

his secular Western education and the influence 

of  o

rientalism

, Fyzee argued for the construc-

tion of a modern Islam. Thus, he proposed that 

what he called the “reinterpretation” of Islam 

required not only knowledge of traditional Islamic 

sacred texts and the conditions in which they 

were produced but also the study of the history 

of religions, the comparative study of “Semitic” 

religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and 

languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic), and 

knowledge about modern 

science

. Islamic 

theol

-

ogy

 (kalam) should be reformed in light of con-

temporary European thought and even recognize 

the insights of Protestant theologians and Jewish 

thinkers. Moreover, Fyzee argued that reinter-

pretation of Islamic law involved making critical 

distinctions between essential moral principles 

and detailed laws that were suited only to limited 

historical circumstances. Among the areas where 

he felt that immediate reform was needed was that 

of women’s rights, where he pointed out the con-

tradictions between the rights given to them by 

the Quran in matters of marriage and inheritance, 

and the de facto denial of these rights to 

Women

in many Muslim-majority countries in the 20th 

century.

See also i

smaili

 s

hiism

; 

secUlarism

.