Liberal Side of Abu Zaid

This article was published previously in Indonesian at 27/9/2004

Some minor sides of Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid become visible when this Egyptian thinker visited Indonesia last August. Before discussing about liberalism and anti liberalism in the Modern Islamic Discourse in Teater Utan Kayu, Abu Zaid excused himself to go to the restroom. Ulil Abshar offered him the use of a more private toilet, but he politely denied and said he would go to the public toilet where without any reluctance he waited with the others in the queue.

To me, his attitude of denying privilege despite his position, is meaningful. Besides denying special treatment, he is an Arab thinker who does not merely look for controversy, a simple man who is empathetic toward non-Arabic society and tradition. In informal as well as formal discussion, he is appreciative of the audience and enthusiastic listens to their opinions. Briefly, when discussing religious discourse here, the image of Arabic superiority which usually appears, was absent from Abu Zayd’s personality. 

Above all, the most interesting thing about Abu Zaid is his liberal ethos which he had from the very beginning of his life. In discussion, he tells about the liberalism of thought he experienced. Since 14, he was burdened by being the head of family after the death of his father. His mother became a single parent who struggled hard to raise her children in a small town in Thanta, Egypt. From his mother’s experience, he knew that the verse arrijâl qawwâmun`alan nisâ (men are stronger than women) which is asserted in patriarchic culture can lose its context. “How come my mother was underestimated for being a woman? She was stronger than 10 men!” Through Abu Zaid’s experience, that normative text of the Koran had no empirical context. From here we can understand Abu Zaid’s affirmation about the importance of context in interpreting the Koran.

Another account of Abu Zaid affirmed the liberal spirit inside him. When a rich man proposed to his 17 year old sister, Abu Zaid, who was now the head of family, rejected him. It is because her sister was too young and had not yet finished her studies. Abu Zaid’s intuition told him that later on his sister would be subordinated in the family. An imbalanced relation between his young sister and the rich man was a possibility. Abu Zaid thought that in the beginning her sister might be a wife, but in time –due to the patriarchal culture in Egypt, she might become the slave of the family. Abu Zaid rebuffed the rich brother in law to be in order to fight for a balance relation for his sister: an effort of liberalization from the micro level. Their marriage had been postponed for seven years, until his sister graduated and could earn her own salary. It has a happy ending, since the man had been tolerantly waiting for her.

Those stories affirm that Abu Zaid fights for liberalization. He opposes the culture that prevents liberating. To him, being liberal must start from the micro level: family. Of course expects a liberal climate at the macro level despite the bitter experience of being considered an infidel and compelled to divorce in Egypt.  They migrated to Leiden, Holland where he has been teaching since 1996.

He truly expects political freedom at the level of the state. Nevertheless, he is not obsessive about it. That’s why his freedom of thinking is supported by the government. The Mubarak regime also offered him protection from the fundamentalist’s terror, but Abu Zaid preferred to live in a free culture, although in exile, instead of living under the protection of an undemocratic regime.

[Novriantoni]

(Translated by Lanny Octavia, edited by Jonathan Zilberg)