Moroccan philosopher Taha Abdel Rahman saw the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, which was carried out by the Palestinian factions, as “a new resumption of civilization and a new revival of the nation.”
The professor of logic, philosophy of language and ethics – in an interview published by the “Center of Civilization for Studies and Research” on his website – described the event as “a new birth for man, through new values in which a person discovers himself, and new concepts in which he feels his freedom in light of the prevalence of values of enslavement to the Israeli will, and conditions… A new way in which he regains his nature in a reality in which misguided values are widespread.”
The Moroccan philosopher explained – in his conversation with his academic interlocutor, Mahmoud Al-Naffar – that “the Palestinian resistance today writes the history of the nation, and leads humanity towards the light with the minds that are opened by its own creation, and what has happened and will happen as a result of its dazzling action of self-reviews: individual and collective,” considering it “a rational appeal.” For continuous giving, and creative inheritance of renewable energy in the paths of Islamic and human history.”
“Existence is resistance”
The author of “The Question of Action – A Search for Practical Fundamentals of Thought and Science” (2012) considered that resistance “is not a partial action, but rather a comprehensive action,” and added, “I looked at resistance from an existential perspective, and I mean that there is no meaning to existence without resistance, because existence and life It is gained from the act of resistance itself.”
At dawn on October 7, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and other Palestinian factions launched Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” in response to “the continuing attacks by the Israeli army and settlers against the Palestinian people, their property, and their sanctities, especially Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.”
Al-Nafar quotes Abdul Rahman as saying that his awareness and political concern began with the defeat of 1967. At that time, he was a university student inclined towards writing poetry. This war caused a severe earthquake in him, and he was seized by a fateful question that said: “What is this mind that was able to defeat all the Arabs?” How can a nation so numerous and well-established in its history be defeated? He has always had this question and this wish: “When will we have a mind that will defeat the Zionist mind?”
Abdul Rahman continues, “I carried these questions, which are the questions of time and the nation’s questions, as personal concerns and cognitive stakes, and I directed my studies towards logic and thought, in order to discover the mental mechanisms by which the Zionist victory was achieved, and the defects and shortcomings due to which the Arab defeat occurred, and the echo of these continues.” The questions swelled in me as the days passed, until I saw the Palestinian fighter creating this flood. I saw with my own eyes how the Zionist mind was defeated. I felt for the first time the healing of my chest, and I obtained the answers to those questions that I searched for in my cognitive gap in order to find them.
“I wish I were young”
The author of “Religious Work and the Renewal of the Mind” (1989) believes that “the greatest manifestation of the Arab and Islamic mind in the modern era is what was embodied in the Al-Aqsa flood.”
The author of “Modernity and Resistance” (2007) said, “The vigilant Palestinian resistance man rose to carry this trust brilliantly, and he bore this responsibility with benevolence. He carried it in the best way, and carried it out in the best way.”
The Moroccan philosopher – author of “The Arab Right to Philosophical Difference” (2002) and “The Islamic Right to Intellectual Difference” (2005) – went on to say: “I wish I were a young man fighting with them. This is the time that deserves to live, and these are the moments that should be seized.” “.
In this context, Abdel Rahman expressed his sadness about the regional situation, saying, “The nation’s failure is heartbreaking, especially the failure of intellectuals. Had it not been for normalization, the occupying state would not have done what it did, and if the normalized countries had taken a stance, these criminal attacks would have stopped,” as he put it. .
Renewing the mind and criticizing modernity
Abdul Rahman (79 years old) wrote many books whose topics varied between logic, philosophy, renewal of the mind, and criticism of modernity. His philosophical project is summarized in…He worked to separate philosophy and the concept of modernity from Western thought as well, to confirm that every culture and civilization has its own philosophy and modernity, making theoretical thought and moral action two sides of the same coin, thus opposing modern Western thought that excludes ethics in its practical aspect.
The Moroccan philosopher raised the slogan “Ethics is the solution,” or what he called “the work of purification” in some of his books, such as “The Spirit of Religion” and “The Question of Action,” and he considered that the duality in Arab Islamic thought paralyzed the ability of its people to be philosophically creative, to use concepts in Islamic practice. Arabic follows the example of the Western philosophical tradition, the sandal for the sandal.
He criticized the transfer of Western modernity to the Arab and Islamic world without innovation and discrimination, and without distinguishing between the reality of things and their spirit, considering that the spirit means in this context the set of values and the set of principles of which reality is an embodiment, and therefore there is a need to examine modernity as values and principles, not as reality.
He noted that the Arab and Islamic world has known what he called “religious awakening” or “doctrinal awakening” for more than 3 decades, and according to what he mentioned in his book “Religious Work and the Renewal of the Mind,” it requires “intellectual support written on the conditions of rational approaches and emerging scientific standards.” We are almost unable to prevail with its people, neither through a solid methodological framework, nor through productive scientific theorizing, nor through established philosophical insight.”
