Zu Auffassung und Rolle von Offenbarung und Vernunft aus der Sicht Scheichs AAbdel-Halim Mahmud (1910-1978) Eine analytische Darstellung

The research examines an old topic which is nevertheless can be described as a modern one since it is relevant to today's reality. It is old because of its originality which is relating to the cornerstone of the Islamic, religious thought, that is, revelation. According to the Islamic Sharia, revelation is the main source of divine legislation, while intellect is the human tool that projects its ultimate objectives. This topic can also be described as modern out of the fact that there are different opinions on which of them has preceded the other in tackling religious issues and the other newly-emerged crises. Since this difference was of great danger, Sheikh Abd Al-Halim in his Al-Islam Wa Al-Aql (trans. Islam and Intellect) stated a clear-cut opinion on this topic, affirming that revelation should be given absolute precedence to intellect within a number of certain issues investigated within the research. In doing so, Sheikh Abd Al-Halim relied mainly on the a scientific approach called al-Ittiba (lit. following) in which he became fully convinced after he finished his thesis on Al-Harith Al-Muhasabi. The paper reached the conclusion that Sheikh Mahmoud has taken firm stance on the point that revelation should be given precedence on intellect, to the extent that he severely criticized the founders of the Schools of Rationalism, past and present.  For this reason, he views Mu'tazzlites as the main reason behind all the discord and contorvery over the Islamic Thought, and so did he criticize Sheikh Muhammad Abdo, his School of Thought, and his advocates. The research examined the reasons why Sheikh Mahmoud reached this conclusion, believing that the list of these reasons includes, among many others, the spiritual impact of the mainstream Sufism on him and also his influence with the Imam Al-Ghazali's spiritual School of Thought. The researcher applies the analytical and comparative approaches within this study for the following reasons; first: to be objective in examining the views of the Sheikh on this serious topic- these viewed described by others as radical; second: to highlight the point on Mahmoud's spiritual and intellectual influence with the opinions of Al-Ghazali on the relationship between revelation and intellect. It furthermore criticizes him in some points.