Hisham al-Ghazzi ( Arabic: هشام الغزي) (born 1923) is a Syrian lawyer, former deputy minister, and reformist Islamic thinker.

Family

The Al-Ghazzi family has lived in

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

since the fourteenth century and is noted for a long line of scholars and

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

Biography

Born in 1923, Al-Ghazzi attended and graduated from the Arab Institute of Law (currently the Faculty of Law of Damascus University). Following a spell in legal practice, he worked at the Syrian Ministry of Finance, (1947–1986) occupying such positions as Director of Public Revenues, Deputy Minister, and Head of the Special Petroleum Board, establishing a reputation for scrutiny, discipline, and incorruptibility.

Thought and Ideology

In a series of books on modern and traditional

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

, Al-Ghazzi challenged conventional interpretations of key Qur'anic verses and the legitimacy and coherence of much of the Hadith. He revitalized and redefined concepts like al-ghā’iyyah (the purpose and benefit to be discovered behind creation and the making of laws), īlāf (human fellowship and the exchange of mutual support and benefits as a fundamental human institution), tahāfut al-turāth (the incoherence of traditionalism), and al-insān al-dhamīr (the human being as defined and informed by

Conscience Conscience is a cognitive process that elicits emotion and rational associations based on an individual's moral philosophy or value system. Conscience stands in contrast to elicited emotion or thought due to associations based on immediate sens ...

). These he used in arguments against doctrinal and institutional oppression, blind imitation, and

nihilism Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by Ivan ...

and in defence of the freedom of human thought and action. His legal training and economic know-how as well as his early socialist sympathies and knowledge of Western authors give a distinctive flavour (but also tension) to his writings, increasingly dealing with a broader human rather than exclusively Islamic condition.

Main publications

He is the author of several books Worldcat
/ref> *''Buna al-Islām'' (The structures and institutions of Islam), Dar Usama, Damascus, 1992 *''Al-Mithāq al-Islāmi bi-l‘awdah ila-l-Qur’ān'' (The Islamic Charter based on the Qur'an), Al-Dar al-Wataniyyah al-Jadidah, Damascus, 2004 *''Al-Insān man Yakūn?'' (What makes Man human?), Dar Tlas, Damascus, 2008

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghazzi, Hisham Al- 1923 births Possibly living people Syrian Muslim scholars of Islam