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Press Release Arab
Thought in Need of Revival The
Moroccan Philosopher Mohammed Abed al-Jabri wins Ibn Rushd
Prize for Freedom of Thought 2008 “An under-developed country
can only pursue the path of real development, if education is made prevalent
on a wide scale: ‘If we allow a hundred roses to bloom, we shall reap more of
its fruits than we ever hoped for’“ M. Abed al-Jabri ( Mohammed Abed al-Jabri is a lecturer in Philosophy and Islamic Thought at
the The
Ibn Rushd Fund, named after the philosopher
Ibn Rushd/Averroes (1126-1198), supports freedom of speech and democracy in
the Arab world by annually awarding the Ibn Rushd Prize. The focus of the
theme varies every year: So far, the prizes covered the fields of journalism,
women's rights, criticism, politics, philosophy, literature, reform of Islam,
human rights and film. This will be the tenth time the Ibn Rushd Prize is
awarded. Within 50 years al-Jabri
enriched the Arabic library with several distinguished theses, scholarly
works and studies on new interpretations of the Arab cultural heritage as the
first necessary steps towards cultural development. Al-Jabri believes that
the past must be re-examined and assimilated into the present within a deeper
understanding of world culture. The complex questions that
al-Jabri was occupied with all the time were: Why
did the development of knowledge in the Arab Islamic culture come to a halt
after the Medieval Golden Age? Can a modern renaissance be initiated without
enlightening the mind? Al-Jabri’s approach to these
questions was a critical, rational and epistemological methodology. Al-Jabri refuses an interpretation of history which is based
on what he calls ”antiquated understanding of cultural heritage”. According
to al-Jabri we should try to build our future out
of a conscious understanding of the present circumstances and peculiarities
of our history and its characteristics. Al-Jabri’s
work on the enlightenment of the mind began in 1980, when al-Jabri wrote several books on this subject. His ideas
spread all over the Arab world and were publicly criticized and discussed. In his publication series Naqd al-fikr al-arabi (Critique of Arab Thought) al-Jabri analyses Arab thought by studying the cultural and
linguistic structures from the beginning of literature until today and
examining the development of political and ethical patterns of thought over
time. Al-Jabri coined the expression ”the resigned mind “ (al-aql al-mustaqil), by which he refers to the conventional
ways of thinking in the Arab world that hinder independent thought and shy
away from discussing important cultural issues. Al-Jabri
concludes that Arab thought is in need of a revival. In that context some of
al-Jabri’s most important works were published in
the 1980s, beginning with Nahnu wa-t-turath (Our Cultural Heritage and Us) 1980,
which can be regarded as an introduction to his book series Naqd al-aql al-arabi (Critique of Arab Reason), which appeared in
four parts (books): Takwin al-aql al-arabi 1984 (The
Genesis of Arab Thought), Bunyat al-aql al-arabi 1986 (The
Structure of the Arab Mind), al-Aql as-syiyasi al-arabi 1990 (The Arab
Political Mind), al-Aql al-akhlaqi
al-arabi 2001 (The Arab Moral Mind). In their famous dialogues
collected in the book Hiwar al-mashriq wa-l-maghrib
(Dialogue of East and West) al-Jabri and the
Egyptian philosopher Hassan Hanafi
discuss important current political and social issues. These dialogues, later
known as “dialogue of the eighties” aroused controversial reactions in the
Arab world and had far-reaching influence in political circles. In the 1990’s al-Jabri more extensively dealt with the problems of modern
Arab thought. In a series of short expositions he substantiated his critique
of Arab reasoning: “Democracy and Human Rights“ 1994, “The Question of
Culture in the Arab World“ 1994, “Religion, State and Applying Islamic Law (Shari’a)“ 1996, „The Intellectuals of Arab Civilization“
1996, “Problems of Modern Arab Thought“ 1997. One of al-Jabri’s
main aims in writing his book “The Intellectuals of Arab Civilization” was to
limit the alienation of Arab intellectuals from their own history. He also
wanted to stress upon the exploitation of religion for political ends and the
importance of having an independent understanding of history. As an example
he mentions the conflicts Ibn Hanbal faced in the
Eastern part of the Arab world (Mashreq) and Ibn
Rushd (Averroes) in the Western part of it ( In this context it should
be pointed out that al-Jabri has intensively dealt
with Ibn Rushd (Averroes) by supervising the publishing and providing the
introduction and commentaries for critical editions of numerous original
manuscripts (excluding Ibn Rushd’s commentary works on Aristotle). Ad-Daruri fi s-siyasa
(The Essentials in Politics), in which Ibn Rushd summarizes and comments
on Aristotle’s’ Politica, has survived only
in its Hebrew translation. Together with a scholar colleague, al-Jabri translated it back into Arabic and took care to
bring it over into the idiom and linguistic style contemporary to Ibn Rushd. Al-Jabri’s
most recent publications is his introduction to the Koran (Madkhal ila al-qur’an al-karim: at-ta’rif bi-l-qur’an 2006)
and the first two parts of an interpretation of the Koran, in which he
arranges the verses in chronological order of revelation: Fahm
al-qur’an al-hakim
2007 at-Tafsir al-wadih
hasab tartib an-nuzul 2008. Unfortunately, for health
reasons al-Jabri will not be able to travel to Short biographies of members of
the jury Ibn Rushd Fund for Freedom of Thought Christofstr.
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