WATANI International
11 July 2010
Nasr Hamed Abu-Zeid (1943 – 2010)
Nasr Hamed Abu-Zeid was born in the mid-Delta village of Qufaha in July 1943. At the age of 12, he was imprisoned for allegedly sympathising with the Muslim Brotherhood. In 1960 he earned a technical diploma in wireless communications, then worked a few years for the National Communications Organisation in Cairo till he was able to secure an opportunity to study at Cairo University. He obtained a degree in Arabic Studies in 1972, and later a Master’s degree in 1977 and a doctoral degree in Islamic Studies in 1981 with works concerning the interpretation of the Qur’an.
In 1982, Abu-Zeid joined the faculty of the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at Cairo University as assistant professor, and became associate professor in 1987.
Promotion denied
The notorious Nasr Abu-Zeid case began when he was refused a promotion for the post of full professor. In May 1992, Dr Abu-Zeid presented his academic publications to the Standing Committee of Academic Tenure and Promotion for advancement. Among the thirteen works that he presented in Arabic and other languages were Imam Shafei and the Founding of Medieval Ideology and The Critique of Religious Discourse. The committee presented three reports; two were in favor of the promotion of Dr Abu-Zeid. But the third, written by Abdel-Sabour Shahin, a professor of Arabic linguistics and a committee member, accused Dr Abu-Zeid of “clear affronts to the Islamic faith” and rejected the promotion. The report declared Dr Abu-Zeid was guilty of “displaying a severe dislike of Qur’anic and Sunna texts, and calling for their rejection; attacking the Sahaba (followers of the Prophet Mohamed); denying the Divine source of the Qur’an; and defending Marxism, secularism, and Salman Rushdy and his novel Satanic Verses”.
Despite the two positive reports, the Tenure and Promotion Committee voted against the promotion (seven votes to six), arguing that his works did not justify a promotion. The Council of the Arabic Department stated against the committee’s decision, and the Council of the Faculty of Arts criticised the committee report. In 18 March 1993, the Council of Cairo University confirmed the decision of the committee report.
Null and void
Following that, a lawyer filed a hisba lawsuit demanding for the divorce of Dr Abu-Zeid from his wife Ibthal Yunis, herself a lecturer on French Literature at Cairo University’s Faculty of Arts. The case was filed on the grounds that a Muslim woman cannot be married to an apostate. But, in January 1994, the court rejected the demand because the plaintiff had no direct, personal interest in the matter.
However, the Cairo Appeals Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff and declared null and void the marriage of Abu-Zeid and Ibtihal Yunis in 1995. The irony of the story occurred when Cairo University promoted Abu-Zeid to full professor.
The principle behind hisba gives all Muslims the right to file lawsuits in cases where an exalted right of God has been violated. In 1998, however, the Egyptian government made it impossible for individuals to file lawsuits accusing someone of apostasy, leaving the issue to the prerogative of the prosecution office.
After the verdict, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organisation (which assassinated Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981) said the professor should be killed because of ridda (abandoning the Islamic religion, a charge equivalent to desertion and punishable by death). Dr Abu-Zeid was protected by the police, but soon rejected it. On 23 July 1995, the couple flew to Madrid, then decided to go from Spain to the Netherlands, where he was invited to teach as a Visiting Professor at the Leiden University. On 8 November 1999, he filed a suit against the Egyptian justice minister, demanding that the 1996 ruling which annulled the marriage be declared illegal.
Liberal theologian
Dr Abu-Zeid and Dr Yunis spent some 15 years in the Netherlands in self-imposed exile. He held the Ibn Rushd Chair of Humanism and Islam at the University for Humanistics, Utrecht, The Netherlands, while he supervised MA and PhD students at the University of Leiden as well. He participated in a research project on Jewish and Islamic Hermeneutics as Cultural Critique in the Working Group on Islam and Modernity at the Institute of Advanced Studies of Berlin (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin). In 2005, he received the Ibn Rushd Prize for Freedom of Thought, Berlin.
Instead of the traditional literal interpretation of the Qur’an, Abu-Zeid used contemporary methodology, including linguistics, to interpret Islam’s holy texts. He is famous for his project of a humanistic Qur##anic hermeneutics. Among his best known works are The Founding of Medieval Ideology and A Critique of Religious Discourse. His books were translated into several languages including German, French, Dutch, and Turkish. He wrote in both Arabic and English.
During the last few years Dr Abu-Zeid visited Egypt sporadically, taking part in several seminars and events. Three weeks ago he came home to Egypt following a visit to Indonesia where he is said to have contracted a “rare infection” which crept to the brain. He was moved to the intensive care unit of a Cairo hospital, but it was said his condition was critical and he slipped into a coma. Last Monday, Dr Abu-Zeid breathed his last.
He was buried in his home village, and is survived by his wife.