Dr. Ali Mohammed Yassin / College of Islamic Sciences – University of Karbala
A well-known saying has long circulated within the academic circles concerned with Arabic literature and its branches: “Arabic rhetoric is a science that has burned until it is ripe!” It is believed that there is no way to renew the various aspects of this science, which has been thoroughly studied and analyzed by the early rhetorical scholars, who left no detail, no small or large matter, no obscure or obvious issue in this field unexamined, as did Al-Jurjani in his Asrar and Dalail, and as did Al-Sakkaki in Miftah al-Uloom when he attempted to formalize the science of rhetoric with a school-based educational approach.
However, the reality, supported by the theories of modern linguistic and critical sciences, has proven the falsity of this saying, which has echoed repeatedly, showing that rhetoric is capable of transcending the classroom and reaching society. The dream of developing Arabic rhetoric has been a long-standing pursuit for scholars, both old and new. The gap between the ancients and modernists, despite their differences and conflicts, provides a vast space for any new knowledge to enhance the understanding of the old and make it meaningful, even if it comes from other cultures and languages outside the Arab world.
With the Arab Renaissance in the modern era, calls to re-read Arabic rhetoric and utilize its fruitful approaches emerged, in a way that neither denies the spirit of the time nor discards the rich Arab heritage that extends across many centuries. The attempt to revive Arabic rhetoric and restore its spirit, which had faded during the decline and the Ottoman rule, began with scholars from Al-Azhar, particularly Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905), who simplified rhetorical applications for his students more than a century ago. Later attempts focused on the need to update the issues of this science and renew its concepts and perspectives by a generation of scholars familiar with Western thought and languages, such as Jibran Dumeit, Ahmed Amin, Ahmed Al-Shayeb, Taha Hussein, Ali Al-Jarim, Ahmed Matloub, and Sheikh Amin Al-Khuli.
Amin Ibrahim Abdul-Baqi Al-Khuli, born on June 1, 1895, in the village of Shushay in the Monufia Governorate to a middle-class Egyptian family, was one of the pioneers in the renewal of rhetorical studies in the modern era. Al-Khuli memorized the Quran at the age of ten and joined the Lafisoni Primary School in Cairo, then entered the School of Islamic Jurisprudence, graduating with honors in 1920. He was rewarded with a teaching position due to his excellence in his studies.
By chance, this brilliant scholar moved to Rome as the head of the Egyptian student delegation and then to Berlin at the Egyptian mission, where he took the opportunity to learn Italian and German, becoming familiar with the writings of Orientalists interested in Islamic studies in their original languages. In 1928, Al-Khuli was chosen to teach Arabic and its literature at Fouad I University, despite not holding a higher academic degree, and in 1946, he was honored by being appointed head of the department. Thus, Al-Khuli became one of the early contributors to the development of universities in the Arab world and a proponent of nurturing minds within their halls.
Al-Khuli was active in public life and contributed to Egyptian cultural life in the mid-20th century. In the 1940s, he, along with some of his students, founded a literary club called Al-Amin to promote literature and art theoretically and practically. Through this club, he published two of his many books advocating for renewal in art, creativity, and critical, rhetorical, and stylistic works that analyze and evaluate literary expression. These two books were Methods of Renewal in Syntax, Rhetoric, and Interpretation and From the Guidance of the Quran. In recognition of his active role, he was elected in 1953 as a consultant to the Dar Al-Kutub and later served as the Director-General of Egyptian Culture. After his retirement in 1955, he was appointed as a member of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo.
Al-Khuli’s view on renewal can be summarized as follows: The process of renewal begins by critically examining and studying the old. However, if the reformer embarks on the journey with an unclear desire for renewal—destroying, mocking, and ridiculing—that is not renewal, but waste. From this standpoint, Al-Khuli’s efforts culminated in reshaping Arabic rhetoric, softening and refining it, so that it could become a science of speech, through which one could grasp the value of expressing beautiful rhetorical feelings and the subtleties of those feelings, as well as understanding human experiences from which those feelings arise.
Since Quranic studies are the natural foundation from which all branches of linguistic and rhetorical studies arose, the Quranic text, with its unique expressions, was the basis upon which Al-Khuli built his method of renewal, which he called the interpretive rhetoric of the Quran, aiming to demonstrate the rhetorical miracle of the Quran and uncover its deep and surface meanings. He noted that much of what earlier scholars wrote about interpreting the Quran was driven by doctrinal and historical considerations, which often burdened their interpretations with a defensive agenda, ignoring the linguistic and rhetorical aspects of the Quran, one of its greatest miracles.
Al-Khuli described his new approach to Arabic rhetoric, which he sought to connect to the sciences of aesthetics and psychology, as follows: “I know through this method the features of modern artistic studies, particularly literary studies, and refer to all that is beneficial in that, from Western works, and compare it with the contributions of our ancestors and our contemporaries. My view of the old—this non-desperate view—drives me to critically contemplate it and to focus on the history of this rhetoric. I inquire about the steps of its path and its obstacles, so that I can identify its knots and understand its problems, and see where reform is needed. I compare the old with the new, criticize the old, reject its weak points, and take its best to add to the new. Thus, I came close to completing the study of the old, after I merged its best with the new, creating a complete system that I hope will become the foundation of rhetoric in its study.”
Thus, Al-Khuli’s scholarly endeavors remained relentless, as did his concern for connecting to the cultural reality and his love for life, themes that permeated his writings. These ideas remained dominant in his work until he passed away in 1966 and was laid to rest in his small village, Shushay.
