A Confessional Scholar: Fazlur Rahman and

the Origins of his “Major Themes of the

Qur’an”
BY YOUNUS Y. MIRZA // AUGUST 19, 2019

This summer I had the opportunity to visit the library at the International Institute
of Islamic Thought and Civilization, or to cite its better known acronym, ISTAC, in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[1] The ISTAC building stands as a “castle-like” structure
on top of a hill in one of Kuala Lumpur’s posh areas, where many diplomats and
politicians live.[2]

ISTAC, the “castle like” structure on a hill in a posh district of Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
The founder of the Institute, Syed Naquib al-Attas, designed every detail of the
building. Here is a picture of him examining the various blueprints.

The library and the building as a whole was the brainchild of the famous Malay
thinker Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, who designed and oversaw every
detail. Al-Attas, one of “the most celebrated Muslim thinkers in the contemporary
Malay world” and famously known for his work Islam and Secularism,[3] modeled
the building after the Alhambra in Spain and sought to create a world-class library
that would rival top-tier research libraries in Europe and the US. He spent lavishly
on acquiring manuscript collections of Western scholars with whom he studied or
encountered, such as Bertold Spuler[4] and Fazlur Rahman.[5] Through his
efforts, al-Attas was able to make the ISTAC library among the most important
Islamic collections in all of Southeast Asia.[6]
The Library at ISTAC is named after Syed Naquib al-Attas, the founder of the
Institute and one of the most celebrated Malay intellectuals.
The Fazlur Rahman Collection at ISTAC

During my stay at the ISTAC Library, I scanned through the Arabic manuscripts
but was drawn time and time again to Fazlur Rahman’s collection, which included
personal letters that dealt with everything from his salary changes to
correspondences with other scholars. The collection seems to be relatively
unknown, as a recent book on the scholar The Theological Thought of Fazlur
Rahman does not reference it.[7] Rahman, in particular, has had an important
influence on Islam in Southeast Asia, so it is no wonder al-Attas would be
interested in purchasing his collection. In his comparison of the influence of
Isma‘il al-Faruqi, Fazlur Rahman and Seyyed Hossein Nasr on Southeast Asia,
Osman Bakar (who is now the Director of ISTAC) states that “Rahman is
currently the best known and most influential of the three scholars in Indonesia”
even though Nasr’s influence is growing and al-Faruqi’s impact is greater in
Malaysia.[8]
Intellectual Foundations of Major Themes of the Qur’an

As a scholar of the Qur’an and its exegesis (tafsir), I was interested in the
intellectual foundations of Rahman’s Major Themes of the Qur’an, which has
been translated into numerous languages and has had a strong influence on
academic study of the Qur’an in the West.[9][10] Rahman’s Major Themes of the
Qur’an is part of larger modern trend of thematic Qur’anic exegesis (al-tafsir al-
mawdu‘i).[11] Instead of analyzing Qur’anic verses one-by-one or in sections, as
classical tafsir do, these works are interested in particular themes of the
Qur’an.[12] In regards to Major Themes, Tamara Sonn explains that, “In order to
make Islam relevant to its specific circumstances, [Rahman] believed each
generation must go beyond traditional or literalist interpretations of the Qurʾān to
an understanding of its spirit.” Rahman advocated for a “holistic understanding of
the Qur’an,” one that was compatible with “modern” life.[13] Similarly, Ebrahim
Moosa, in his preface to the second edition of the book, argues that Rahman
“saw Major Themes as the groundwork for a new theology, which was rooted in
the ethos of the Qur’an.”[14]
Here appears to be the final proofs of Rahman’s Major Themes of the Qur’an. On
the front cover, you can read the slanted words “Forthcoming” written in faded
cursive. Throughout the proofs are Rahman’s hand written comments and edits.
Lack of Classical Tafsir in the Collection

Specifically, I was interested to see what classical works may have influenced
Rahman in writing his famous commentary; however, I was surprised to find that
his personal collection did not include any books of tafsir or Qur’anic sciences
and contained only a few copied pages from the tafsir of al-Qurtubi (d. 671/1273).
In certain ways, the finding should not come as a surprise since Rahman
famously categorized classical tafsir as “atomistic” and argued that it missed
larger themes and structures.[15] Alparslan Açıkgenç explains that in the
University of Chicago, “[Rahman] achieved, for the first time, his longstanding
goal of teaching the Qurʾān without the use of any of the traditional commentaries
used in classical Islamic education, applying his own Qurʾānic hermeneutics.”[16]

“Specifically, I was interested to see what classical works may have

influenced Rahman in writing his famous commentary; however, I was
surprised to find that his personal collection did not include any books
of tafsir or Qur’anic sciences and contained only a few copied pages from
the tafsir of al-Qurtubi (d. 671/1273). In certain ways, the finding should
not come as a surprise since…”
Nonetheless, the collection did include other writings that were important to the
publication of Major Themes such as the final proofs of the book and
correspondences with editors of journals from whom he sought permission to
include previously published works.[17]

A 1970 Sermon at University of Chicago and Taqwa

One particular document caught my attention: a sermon (khutba) entitled “Moral

Tension and Human Conduct in the Qur’an” delivered at the University of
Chicago Rockefeller Memorial Chapel on November 8, 1970. The date signals
that Rahman was only at the University for a year and was already beginning to
contribute to its religious life.[18] The sermon was written on a typewriter and
must have been a final draft since there are no crossed out characters. After the
recitation of several Qur’anic verses, Rahman begins the khutba explaining what
he is about to do, suggesting that there were non-Muslims in the audience
observing his speech. Moreover, the way he describes the service, with a
second khutba delivered in Arabic, alludes to a Hanafi prayer indicating
Rahman’s South Asian background, which was most likely shared by members of
the audience.
The first page of Rahman’s sermon (khutba) delivered on November 8th, 1970 in
the University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. The sermon
demonstrates that Rahman was not only an ivory tower academic but rather one
who engaged Muslim communities in confessional settings. Many of the themes
within the sermon would later appear in Major Themes of the Qur’an..
Rahman’s main point in the sermon is that “moral tension” is a natural part of life
and that the Qur’an is “absolutely emphatic that the tensions that have been
created in man be kept alive.” To make his point, Rahman cites the story of Adam
and Satan which demonstrates that the tension between good and evil starts
from the beginning.[19] Man and Satan are thus “coevals” in that they represent
different sides of the tensions. For Rahman, acting rightly is connected to
knowledge, to the fact that “man must know.” However, knowledge is something
that should not be only “had” but rather is tied to perception and is “the fruit of
struggle, of an intellectual struggle.” In his knowledge paradigm, intellectual and
moral struggles are intimately tied together and build off one another.

This “moral tension” and “intellectual struggle” are connected to the key Qur’anic
concept of taqwa, a word that Rahman would continue to define throughout the
remainder of his life. Rahman is critical of the term being translated as “fear” and
simply about “no” or negation. Rather the term is about getting to “yes” and has a
forward-looking dimension. Once one says “no” to certain elements then they
have the ability to say “yes” to others. As Rahman explains, when you “exercise
your choice under a clear, fully aware sense of responsibility, then God comes
and meets you there.” Taqwa is essentially about maintaining a balance in the
moral tension and keeping the intellectual struggle in the right direction.
In the early part of 1979, Rahman began to ask journals for permissions to
include previously published works into his forthcoming Major Themes of the
Qur’an. Here he receives permissions from the Journals Islamic Studies and
Studia Islamica. He thanks both Journals for allowing him to include the
previously published works in the beginning of Major Themes.
Here appears to be an early draft of Rahman’s last published article “Translating
the Qur’an”. We can see that the drafts were originally typed and then edited by
Rahman by hand. At the end of the article, he signs his name “Fazlur Rahman,
The University of Chicago”. Rahman increasingly began to write about the Qur’an
towards the end of his life.

In Major Themes, we see a development of Rahman’s understanding

of taqwa when he writes that taqwa is an “inner torch” that helps one “discern
between right and wrong”.[20] As he further elaborates, “This unique balance of
integrative moral action is what the Qur’ān terms taqwa, perhaps the most
important single term in the Qur’ān…Taqwa, then, in the context of our argument,
means to be squarely anchored within the moral tensions, the ‘limits of God,’ and
not to ‘transgress’ or violate the balance of those tensions or limits.”[21] Here
Rahman uses the terms “moral tension” and “balance,” echoing
his khutba composed ten years earlier. In his later article “Some Key Ethical
Concepts in the Qur’an,” Rahman once again returns to defining taqwa and
articulates that it is equally comprised of both faith (iman) and surrender
(islam).[22] Taqwa ultimately has an inner and positive dimension that allows a
person “to correctly examine himself and to see the right from the wrong.”[23]
Rahman would advise numerous students during his time at the University of
Chicago (1969-1988) who would go on to become professors and take up various
academic posts. Here is the dissertation of Tamara Sonn who is now the Director
of Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian
Understanding (ACMCU). Sonn would later write about Rahman and his Qur’anic
hermeneutic.
For a khutba, the language is dense and complicated; there is no doubt that it
would have gone over the heads of many in the congregation. Nonetheless, you
can feel Rahman’s sincerity and confessionalism throughout the speech. You can
tell that he is addressing other Muslims and encouraging them to have a more
complex understanding of their faith, connected to a moral and intellectual
understanding of the Qur’an. Rahman’s confessionalism may be most clearly
seen at the end of his sermon, where he concludes with the prayer: “O Lord, let
us see things as they are, let us have a genuine and true knowledge of things,
and having got this knowledge, give us the capacity, the strength and the power
to go ahead with this struggle and come into your kingdom of mercy. Amen.”

Rahman’s Engagement in Confessional Settings

In summary, the manuscript both confirmed and modified my existing views on

Rahman. First, the sermon further establishes that Rahman was deeply
connected to and motivated by the Qur’an.[24] He was drawn to its moral
debates and was interested in learning how it was connected to modern life and
the average believer. Rahman does not cite any other external sources, no
Qur’anic commentaries for instance, and seems to rely on his own interpretation
and insights. Moreover, his writing takes a more philosophical tone, with long
sentences and complex moral claims.[25] Accordingly, much of his scholarship
continues to be influential among intellectuals but not necessarily the masses.
However, the sermon did change my view of Rahman as an ivory tower figure
who wrote and spoke solely from his position as a professor. As somebody who
never met Rahman and only knew him through his writings, I was under the
impression that he was a theoretician and interested in larger ideas of reform and
modernism. Here, however, we see Rahman in a chapel addressing Muslims and
non-Muslims regarding spirituality, faith and practice. His sincerity towards
acquiring knowledge and entering God’s mercy is evident.

“Accordingly, much of his scholarship continues to be influential among

intellectuals but not necessarily the masses. However, the sermon did
change my view of Rahman as an ivory tower figure who wrote and spoke
solely from his position as professor.”
In conclusion, the trip to ISTAC and the chance to examine Rahman’s collection
allowed me to see the interconnected ideas across regions and cultures. I would
never have thought that a University of Chicago professor’s private collection
would be in Southeast Asia, preserved in this remarkable library. It also made me
realize that we cannot continue to marginalize the contributions of Southeast Asia
to the study of Islam. Southeast Asia has its own history and culture of Islamic
studies that must be appreciated on its own terms and inform our understanding
of Islam as a whole.[26]

Younus Y. Mirza is a Visiting Researcher at Georgetown University and Scholar in

Residence at Shenandoah University where he directs the Barzinji Global Exchange
Project. To learn more about his scholarship, teaching and speaking, please visit his
website http://dryounusmirza.com

[1] For a discussion of the term “Islamic Civilization” in Malaysia see Carl Ernst,
“The Perils of Civilizational Islam in Malaysia,” in Rethinking Islamic Studies:
From Orientalism to Cosmopolitanism, eds. Carl W. Ernst and Richard C. Martin
(Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 2010), 266-280.

[2] Witkam’s full description is “High on a hill in Taman Duta, Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, with a commanding view over the surroundings, overlooking an affluent
neighbourhood of villas set in lush gardens, stands a castle-like compound, built
as if inspired by an Orientalist fairy tale”;Jan Just Witkam, “The Former ISTAC
Library in Kuala Lumpur and Its Islamic Manuscripts. Travel Notes,” Journal of
Islamic Manuscripts 8 (2017): 282;For more on the relationship between Malay
intellectuals, politics and ISTAC see Mona Abaza, “Intellectuals, Power and Islam
in Malaysia: S.N. al-Attas or the Beacon on the Crest of a Hill,” Archipel 58
(1999): 189–217. For more on Islamic Studies in Malaysia more generally, see
Ibrahim Abu Bakar, “A History of Islamic Studies in Malaysia,” in Oriente
Moderno 19, no. 2 (2000): 371-393.

[3] Khalif Muammar, “Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas,” Oxford Islamic Studies
Online (New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2019).

[4] For more on his collection, see Ernest Wolf-Gazo, “On the Bertold Spuler
Collection Found in the Library of ISTAC,” al-Shajarah: Journal of the
International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC) 2, no. 2 (1997):
291-300.

[5] For more on how al-Attas acquired his collection see Witkam.

[6] For more on the content of the collection, see Mohd Zaid Abd Rahman, “The
Library of the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization
(ISTAC)”, Library Review 54, no. 1 (2005): 59-67; Sharifah Shifa Al-Attas and
Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, ISTAC illuminated: a Pictorial Tour of the
International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC) Kuala
Lumpur (Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization
(ISTAC), 1998).

[7] Ahad Ahmed, The Theological Thought of Fazlur Rahman (Kuala Lumpur:
Islamic Book Trust, 2017).

[8] Osman Bakar, “The Intellectual Impact of American Muslim Scholars on the
Muslim World, with Special Reference to Southeast Asia,” in Muslims in the
United States: Identity, Influence, Innovation, ed. Philippa Strum (Washington
D.C.; Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2005). See also
Bakar’s “Competing Visions of Islam in Southeast Asia: American Muslim
Scholarship as a Shaping Factor” which also appears in the same volume. For
more on Rahman’s influence in Indonesia see Ahmad Najib Burhani,
“Transmission of Islamic Reform from the United States to Indonesia,” Indonesia
and the Malay World 41, (2013): 29-47.

[9] Ahmed considers Major Themes of the Qur’an to be one of Rahman’s magnus
opuses, along with Islamic Methodology in History. See Bakar for more on
the Major Themes translation into Indonesian.

[10] For instance, Amina Wadud’s Qur’an and Women and Asma
Barlas’s “Believing Women” in Islam both cite Rahman and note him as a key
influence. Wadud mentions Rahman in the first several pages of her book: Amina
Wadud, Qurʼan and Woman Rereading the Sacred Text from
a Woman’s Perspective (New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999),
3. See also Asma Barlas, “Believing women” in Islam Unreading Patriarchal
Interpretations of the Qur’ān (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2002). In
her Feminist Edges to the Qur’an, Aysha Hidayatullah has a section devoted to
Rahman and begins it by explaining that, “The modernist work of Fazlur Rahman
deserves particular attention; it became highly influential in the development of
feminist Qur’anic interpretation, particularly by providing a model for
distinguishing the Qur’an’s universal moral values from its more specific
pronouncements aimed at its immediate seventh-century audience of
revelation”; Feminist Edges of the Qur’an (New York, NY: Oxford University
Press 2014). See also Tamara Sonn, “Fazlur Rahman and Islamic Feminism,”
in The Shaping of an American Islamic Discourse: a Memorial to Fazlur
Rahman (Atlanta, GA.: Scholars Press, 1998). In the article, Sonn focuses on the
connection between Azizah al-Hibri and Rahman. However, Rahman’s work was
not only limited to Islamic/Muslim feminists but appealed to a larger cadre of
“progressive reformers.” As Sonn states in another article, “[Rahman] continues
to be highly influential among progressive reformers, such as ʿAbd Allāh al-Naʿīm
of Sudan, Farid Esack of South Africa, and Ingrid Mattson and Amina Wadud of
North America”; “Fazlur Rahman,” The [Oxford] Encyclopedia of Islam and
Law (New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2019). Also, Safet Bektovic notes
that Rahman “initiated a new hermeneutic interpretation of the Qur’an and a
critical analytical study of the Sunnah which has come to inspire a number of
modern and contemporary intellectuals (including for instance Nurcholish Majid,
Amina Wadud, Mohammad Talbi, Ebrahim Moosa and Abdullah Saeed)”;
“Towards a neo-modernist Islam: Fazlur Rahman and the Rethinking of the
Islamic Tradition,” Studia Theologica – Nordic Journal of Theology 70, no 2.
(2016): 160.

[11] For more on this type of tafsir and modern tafsir in general see Johanna
Pink, Muslim Qurʼānic Interpretation Today: Media, Genealogies and Interpretive
Communities (Sheffield, South Yorkshire; Bristol, CT: Equinox, 2019), 153. Pink
states that Major Themes “was written in English and therefore especially widely
used by Muslims working in Western academic contexts, but influential far
beyond those.”

[12] Other famous works in this category would be Muhammad al-

Ghazali’s Thematic Commentary of the Qur’an. Muhammad al-Ghazali, Thematic
Commentary of the Qur’an, trans. A. A. Shamis (Herndon, VA: International
Institute of Islamic Thought, 1997).
[13] In an earlier work, Tamara Sonn writes about Rahman, “The Qur’an was
revealed as ‘guidance for mankind’ he was fond of saying. The same principles
which had produced the great strength of the early Islamic community are with us
today. They are a gift for all time. But obviously they are not being properly
implemented, because the entire world not just the Islamic world, is in moral and
political chaos”; The Muslim World 81, no. 3-4 (1991): 216.

[14] Ebrahim Moosa, preface to Major Themes of the Qur’an, by Fazlur Rahman,
2nded. (Chicago; University of Chicago Press, 2009), xi.

[15] I do not agree with Rahman’s statement here and believe that
numerous tafsir studies have proven this assertion to be incorrect. For instance,
see Walid Saleh, The Formation of the Classical Tafsīr Tradition: the Qurʼān
commentary of al-Thaʻlabī (d. 427/1035) (Boston: Brill, 2004).

[16] Alparslan Açıkgenç, “Fazlur Rahman,” The Oxford Encyclopedia of

Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam (New York, N.Y.: Oxford University
Press, 2019).

[17] Witkam describes numerous challenges that he faced accessing various

documents in 2012. However, in 2019, I did not face any challenges and the
ISTAC library staff was very helpful in getting me the materials of my interest.

[18] For a timeline on Rahman’s professional life and publications see,

Muhammad Khalid Masud, Ali Raza Naqvi and Seyyed Hossein Nasr, “In
Memorium: Dr. Fazlur Rahman (1919-1988),”Islamic Studies 27, no. 4 (1988),
390-400. For a biographical sketch see Ahmed, 1-14.

[19] For more on biblical figures in the Islamic tradition see my co-authored book
with John Kaltner, The Bible and the Qur’an: Biblical Figures in the Islamic
Tradition (London, UK ; New York, NY, USA: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2018).

[20] Fazlur Rahman, Major Themes of the Qurʼān (Minneapolis, MN : Bibliotheca

Islamica, 1980), 6.

[21] Rahman, Major Themes, 19.

[22] Fazlur Rahman, “Some Key Ethical Concepts in the Qur’an,” The Journal of
Religious Ethics 11, no. 2 (1983), 170-185.
[23] Rahman, “Some Key Ethical Concepts in the Qur’an,” 178.

[24] As Mumtaz Ahmad details, “Throughout his career, however, his first and
foremost loyalty and devotion had been to the Qur’an. He was a brilliant student
and an extraordinary perceptive commentator of the Qur’an. He lived, wrote, and
thought for most of his life within a framework that was defined by his love and
study of the Qur’an”; “In Memoriam: Professor Fazlur Rahman,” The American
Journal of Islamic Social Science 5, no. 1 (1988): 1.

[25] As Ali Raza Naqvi states, “Basically a scholar of philosophy, Dr. Fazlur
Rahman seemed influenced by the style of German philosophers. He used to
write long and complex sentences, and, like Macaulay, used a very difficult and
terse language which was mostly beyond the comprehension of ordinary readers;
Naqvi, 399.

[26] I want to thank the Center for Islam in the Contemporary World (CICW) for
the research grant that allowed me to visit ISTAC. This essay contributes to
its “Islam on the Edges” program.

TAGS
FAZLUR RAHMAN, ISTAC, MAJOR THEMES OF THE QUR’AN, SYED NAQUIB AL-ATTAS, TAMARA SONN