Muhammad Rashid Rida

Muhammad Rashid ibn Ali Rida al-Qalmuni (1282-1354 AH / 1865-1935 CE) was a Syrian Islamic scholar, reformer, and public intellectual who became one of the most influential Muslim thinkers of the early 20th century. Born in Qalamoun near Tripoli, Lebanon, he was deeply influenced by the reformist writings of Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh, whose student and most devoted disciple he became.

Rashid Rida emigrated to Cairo in 1897 and founded the journal al-Manar (The Lighthouse) in 1898, which he edited until his death. Al-Manar became the most influential Islamic reform journal of its era, circulating across the Muslim world and shaping the discourse of Islamic intellectual life for decades. It addressed theology, jurisprudence, social issues, and political questions from a reformist perspective, calling for the renewal of independent reasoning (ijtihad) and the reform of Islamic education.

His most important scholarly work is Tafsir al-Manar (the Manar Commentary), a continuation and completion of Muhammad Abduh's Quranic commentary, which is the most important exegetical product of the Islamic modernist movement.

He also authored al-Khilafah aw al-Imamah al-Uzma on the Islamic caliphate, Yusr al-Islam (The Ease of Islam), and numerous other works. Rashid Rida's thought evolved over his career, moving from pure Islamic modernism toward engagement with Salafi and Wahhabi thought in his later years. He passed away in Cairo in 1935, having been one of the central figures in modern Islamic intellectual history.