Harun Nasution
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Harun Nasution (1919 – 18 September 1998) was an Indonesian scholar whose work was part of a small but significant trend within Islamic thought to champion rationalist and
humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "human ...
principles.


Biography

Nasution spent much of his youth outside of Indonesia, living in Arabia and Egypt before moving to Europe and eventually Canada. His father had been a traditional religious scholar, who despite his own immersion in Arabic and Islamic culture sent his son to a Dutch primary school. Nasution did, however, attend an Islamic secondary school, although one that taught secular as well as religious subjects. After an unhappy period of further study in Mecca, he went to Egypt, where he attended lectures at al-Azhar University in Cairo. In 1962 he began studying at the Institute of Islamic Studies at
McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...
in Montreal. His doctoral studies were on the theology of Muhammad Abduh, focusing on the extent to which Abduh had been influenced by
Mu'tazila Muʿtazila ( ar, المعتزلة ', English: "Those Who Withdraw, or Stand Apart", and who called themselves ''Ahl al-ʿAdl wa al-Tawḥīd'', English: "Party of ivineJustice and Oneness f God); was an Islamic group that appeared in early Islami ...
teachings. Nasution completed his PhD in 1969 and then returned to Indonesia, where he took up a position at IAIN in Jakarta. It was there that he first suggested that the technological and economic decline of the Muslim world was partly due to its embrace of the Ash'arite school of theology, which he regarded as fatalistic. He was particularly hostile to the
occasionalism Occasionalism is a philosophical doctrine about causation which says that created substances cannot be efficient causes of events. Instead, all events are taken to be caused directly by God. (A related concept, which has been called "occasional c ...
that became dominant in medieval Muslim thought, holding that its denial of the existence of secondary (created) causes hindered scientific enquiry. Nasution's solution was to defend a revival of the Mutazila view, which was (and still is) widely regarded by Muslims as a heresy. What Nasution admires in Mutazila thought is its emphasis on human reason in matters religious. In the basic teachings of the Mutazila, he writes,
it is possible to discern a form of rationalism, but not a rationalism that opposes religion or rejects the absolute truth of revelation... It is also possible to discern a form of naturalism, but not an atheistic naturalism that denies the existence and greatness of God... There is also human freedom and dynamism, but not absolute freedom from the design established by God... The doctrines of dynamism, human freedom and accountability, rationalism and naturalism taught by the Mu'tazila contributed significantly to the development of philosophy and the religious and secular sciences during the Classical Period of Islamic civilization.
Nasution's influence on his fellow Indonesia thinkers is significant. His fellow Indonesian thinker
Nurcholish Madjid Nurcholish Madjid (March 17, 1939 – August 29, 2005), in Indonesia affectionately known as Cak Nur, was a prominent Indonesian Muslim intellectual. Early in his academic career, Nurcholish was a leader in various student organizations. He soon ...
argues that Nasution was an important influence in the development of modern Indonesian religious thought, particularly through his influence on students at IAIN.Saleh, ''Modern Trends in Islamic Theological Discourse in 20th Century Indonesia'' pp.230,233 He is less known outside that country but he forms part of a significant movement that includes other "modernist" thinkers such as
Mohammed Arkoun Mohammed Arkoun ( ar, محمد أركون; 1 February 1928 – 14 September 2010) was an Algerian scholar and thinker. He was considered to have been one of the most influential secular scholars in Islamic studies contributing to contemporary inte ...
and Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nasution, Harun 1919 births 1998 deaths 20th-century Muslim scholars of Islam Indonesian Muslim scholars of Islam Al-Azhar University alumni McGill University Institute of Islamic Studies alumni Muslim reformers