Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah

{{Short description|Egyptian Islamic modernist thinker and writer (1916–1998)}}

Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah ({{Langx|ar|محمد أحمد خلف الله}}, 1916-1998) was an Egyptian Islamic modernist thinker and writer.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mINcDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA19 |title=أشهر مناظرات القرن العشرين. الجزء الأول، مصر بين الدولة المدنية والدينية|last=عمارة|first=محمد|date=2011-01-01|publisher=Al Manhal|isbn=9796500078472|language=ar}}[https://web.archive.org/web/20150130212314/http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e1258?_hi=0&_pos=3 Khalafallah, Muhammad Ahmad], Oxford Islamic Studies On-line, citing The Oxford Dictionary of Islam (page visited on 30 January 2015). He is known for advancing the

literary interpretation of the Quran.

Biography

=Early life and education=

Khalafallah was born in 1916 in Sharqīyah Province, Lower Egypt.Shepard, William E. (2009) "Khalafallāh, Muḥammad Aḥmad." The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. : Oxford University Press, Oxford Reference. His early education included traditional Islamic schools and a government school. He then studied at Dār al-ʿUlūm. He later attended the Faculty of Arts at Egyptian University, which eventually became Cairo University, graduating in 1939. He earned his M.A. in 1942, presenting a thesis on “Al-jadal fīal-Qurʿān” (Polemic in the Qurʿān). This work was published as Muḥammad wa-al-quwā al-muḍāddah (Muḥammad and the Forces of Opposition). Afterward, he took up a position as a tutor at the university.

=Thesis controversy=

In 1947, Cairo University refused his doctoral dissertation presented to the Department of Arabic entitled The Narrative Art in the Holy Qur'an (al-Fann al-qasasi fi al-Qurʾan al-karim), as he suggested that holy texts are allegoric and that they should not be seen as something fixed, but as a moral direction.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t6e6mnSuzE0C&pg=PA53 |title=Voice of an Exile: Reflections on Islam|last1=Zeid|first1=Nasr Hamid Abou|last2=Zayd|first2=Nasr Hamid Abu|last3=Zayd|first3=Naṣr Ḥāmid Abū|last4=Zaid|first4=Nasr Abu|last5=Nelson|first5=Esther R.|date=2004|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-275-98250-8|language=en}} As a pupil of Amin al-Khuli, he stated that one can study the Qur'an from a literary point of view.{{Cite book |last=Benzine |first=Rachid |title=Les nouveaux penseurs de l'islam |publisher=Albin Michel |year=2008 |isbn=978-2-226-17858-9 |pages=163 |language=fr}} The Qur'an uses all rhetorical ways at its disposal, which includes metaphors, biblical and pre-islamic narratives to convince people. In Khalafallah's opinion, historical truth is not the main goal, but rather the religious and ethic sense conveyed by these stories.{{Cite web |last=Chartier |first=Marc |date=1974 |title=Exégèse coranique |url=https://www.pisai.it/media/408125/sau_127-octobre-1974.pdf |access-date=2022-11-25 |website=Comprendre n° 99 |language=fr}} Khalafallah has been accused to treat the Speech of God as if it was a human product. Yet, he does not question the authenticity of the revelation.Chartier, Marc, p. 3. He takes up a traditional theme, that of the inimitability (iʿjaz) of the Qur'an - the first title of his thesis was Min asrar al-iʿjaz, ("On the Secrets of the Qurʾan’s inimitability").{{Cite web |last=Reynolds |first=Gabriel Said |date=2017-07-10 |title=Psychological Readings of the Qurʾan |url=https://iqsaweb.wordpress.com/2017/07/10/psychological-readings-of-the-qur%ca%bean/ |access-date=2022-11-25 |website=International Qur'anic Studies Association |language=en}} He was fired from his teaching position and transferred to the Ministry of Culture.

Afterwards, he started a thesis on a non-religious subject and received his doctorate in 1952. He ended his career at the Egyptian Ministry of Culture.

His doctoral thesis was finally published in 1954.{{Cite book |last=Chebel |first=Malek |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qcSMJJ-yiJMC&pg=PT109 |title=Changer l'islam: Dictionnaire des réformateurs musulmans des origines à nos jours |date=2013-02-05 |publisher=Albin Michel |isbn=978-2-226-28620-8 |pages=109 |language=fr}}

=Later life=

Khalafallah had a long tenure at the Ministry of Culture, where he eventually became undersecretary for planning. After retiring, he became engaged with the Egyptian Committee for Asian-African Solidarity and took on the role of vice president of the National Progressive Unionist (Tajammuʿ) party. He also served as the chief editor of the magazine Al-yaqzah al-ʿArabīyah (Arab Awakening). He died in 1998.

Works

He wrote Mafāhīm Qurʼānīyah ( "Quranic concepts"), published in arabic in 1984,{{Cite web |title=مفاهيم قرآنية {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/934433407 |access-date=2022-11-25 |website=www.worldcat.org |language=}} al-Qur'ân-wa mushkilat hayâti-nâ l-mu'âsira ("The Qur'an and our contemporary problems"), al-Qur'ân wa l-dawla ("The Qur'an and the State"),Chartier, Marc, p. 8. and Al-Islām wa-al-ʿurūbah (Islam and Arabism).

Notes and references

External links

al-Fann al-qasasi fi al-Qurʾan al-karim on archive.org (in arabic).