Entrustment Ethics and Secularism: Taha Abdurrahman’s Perspective

With an ethical-centered philosophy, Taha Abdurrahman remains one of the most significant and sophisticated Arab philosophers of today. This review article seeks to elaborate on two of his recent books, which builds on and compliments his vision of philosophical independence,, particularly his ‘Entrustment Ethics’ (Al-ʾtimāniya). Throughout two volumes, he aims to construct an ethical philosophy on the foundation of faith, as an alternative to Western ethics. In Volume I Abdurrahman establishes his ethical philosophy that is grounded in what he conceives as three Quranic Covenants: Testimony, establishing man’s responsibility before God, Entrustment, establishing man’s duties and responsibilities on earth, and Transmission, introducing an ideal form of conduct through the role model of God’s Prophets and Messengers. The second volume projects Abdurrahman’s theory on Western established ethical theories and Western ethical and political thought in a broader sense, wherein he both illustrates and critiques theories proposed by thinkers, including, inter alia, Christine Korsgaard, Robert Merrihew Adams, Annette Baier, and John Rawls.

Keywords:

Taha Abdurrahman, Entrustment Ethics, secularism and Islamic Philosophy,

PDF

___

References Abdurrahman, Taha. Al-Ḥaqq al-ʿarabī fil-Ikhtilāf al-Falsafī. [The Arab Right to Philosophical Difference]. 2nd ed. Casablanca: Al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-ʿarabī, 2006.
Abdurrahman, Taha. Al-Ḥaqq al-ʾislāmī fil-Ikhtilāf al-Fikrī. [The Islamic Right to Intellectual Difference]. Casablanca: Al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-ʿarabī, 2005.
Abdurrahman, Taha. Suʾāl al-ʾakhlāq: Musāhama fil-Naqd al-ʾakhlāqī lil-Ḥadātha al-Gharbiyya. [The Question of Ethics: A Contribution to an Ethical Critique of Western Modernity]. Casablanca: Al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-ʿarabī, 2000.
Abdurrahman, Taha. Al-Mafahim al-ʾkhlāqia bayn al-ʾtimāniya wal-ʿalmāniyya: al-Mafāhim al-ʾtimāniya. [Ethical Conceptions: Between Entrustment Ethics and Secularism: The Entrustment Ethical Concepts]. Vol. I. Beirut: Nohoudh Center for Studies and Publications, 2021.
Abdurrahman, Taha. Al-Mafahim al-ʾkhlāqia bayn al-ʾtimāniya wal-ʿalmāniyya: al-Mafāhim al-ʾtimāniya. [Ethical Conceptions: Between Entrustment Ethics and Secularism: The Entrustment Ethical Concepts]. Vol. II. Beirut: Nohoudh Center for Studies and Publications, 2021.
Abdurrahman, Taha. Rūḥ al-Ḥadātha: al-Madkhal ʾilā Ta’sīs al-Ḥadātha al- ʾislāmiyya. [The Spirit of Modernity: A Prolegomenon to Laying the Foundations of Islamic Modernity]. Casablanca: Al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-ʿarabī, 2006.
Hallaq, Wael, B. Reforming Modernity: Ethics and the New Human in the Philosophy of Abdurrahman Taha. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019.
Hashas, Mohammed, and Mutaz al-Khatib, eds. “A Bibliographical Sketch of Taha Abderrahmane” in Islamic Ethics and the Trusteeship Paradigm: Taha Abderrahmane’s Philosophy in Comparative Perspectives. Leiden, NL: Brill, 2021.