Islam in the thought of the Tunisian sociologist Abdel Wahab Bouhediba and his book Islam: Openness and Transcendence (Islām Infitāḥ wa Tajāwuz)

Abstract

This article explores Abdel Wahab Bouhediba’s book, Islam: Openness and Transcendence as the pinnacle of a research process that has surpassed half a century on issues of religious awareness and how Muslims throughout their history pursue Muhammad’s message. It also treats the book as the last installment of a trilogy dealing with the relationship between the Muslim and the Other and the status of the human in Islam. Bouhediba addressed the dichotomy lived by Muslims between the fulfillment of the right of difference and the virtue of tolerance in Muhammad’s message and moments of extremism and violence. Bouhediba does not hide his distress at the rise of Islamist movements and terrorist attacks and their negative effects on Islam. He calls for the reinvigoration or recreation of Islamic humanism which has already migrated to the West.