THE FORMATION AND SOURCES OF FAZLUR RAHMAN’S MORAL THOUGHT

MUHAMMAD SYAFIQ BORHANNUDDIN

ABSTRACT

Tis article examines the formation and sources of the moral thought of the renowned
and controversial 20th-century scholar Fazlur Rahman (1911-1988)—who held the
Harold H. Swif Distinguished Service Professor of Islamic Tought at the University
of Chicago until his passing—which hitherto has not been scrutinized. Drawing from
published and unpublished materials from various sources, including the Fazlur
Rahman Collection at the library of ISTAC Malaysia, as well as accounts from his
former students and contemporaries, this article fnds that the emphasis on ethics in
Fazlur Rahman’s works appears to be due to certain peculiar features in his intellectual
journey. Tese features include his exposure to Western philosophical methods
and epistemic framework leading to his acute skepticism early on in his career,
inner dialectics and tensions dealing with conflicting postures of traditionalists or
conservatives, and the reformists or modernists, as well as his encounters with secular
thought and ideas. Te various ethical concerns and arguments on ethics in the life
and career of Fazlur Rahman are also presented for the frst time with further scrutiny.
It is found that Fazlur Rahman was inclined towards the views—and to some extent
draws from—Ibn Taymiyyah, Shāh Walī Allāh, Ahmad Sirhindi, and Muhammad
Iqbal but based on his method in light of the Qur’an. Moreover, an examination of his
life and career reveals that unlike many of his contemporary Western counterparts,
he did not merely theorize or philosophize about ethics but strove to live according
to it. Tus, this indicates that the formation of his moral thought was not influenced
by secularization as a philosophical program and that he was actively attempting to
contradict what he perceived to be the shortcomings of the secularized outlook.