KHALID, KHALID MUHAMMAD Egyptian writer and essayist. Born in Shargiyah ince, he graduated from al-Azhar in 1947 with miyah degree from the Faculty of Shari`ah gained a teaching certificate, also from al-Azhar. He worked as an Arabic language teacher and the Cultural Bureau (Idarat al-Thaqafah) of the Ministry of Education and with the Writers’ Committee (F Kuttab) connected to the Ministry of Culture. became a supervisor in the Department for the tion of the Heritage (Al-Ishraf `ala Idarat Ta Turath). He has written more than thirty books as political and religious articles in newspapers a: azines, such as Al-sharq al-awsat (London), limun, Al-musawwar, Al-ahram, and Al-wafd.
His first book, Min hund nabda’ (From Here gin, 1950), was confiscated because of objectioi al-Azhar and then released by order of the Cairo court. In this book he mounted a forceful att “priesthood,” clearly having al-Azhar or at least i servative elements in view, and called for separa religion and state, using arguments reminiscent o made in the 1920s by ‘Ali `Abd al-RAziq. He alsc for a moderate and democratic socialism, effectiv control, and furtherance of the rights of women. pressed similar views in other passionately books in the 1950s and early 1960s, such as Muz . . . la ra’aya (Citizens . . . not Subjects, c. which was also confiscated for a time, Ma’an, ` tariq . . . Muhammad wa-al-Masih (Together Road-Muhammad and Christ, 1958), in which 1 sented both prophets as standing for the same va humanity, life, love, and peace, Al-dimugratiyah (Democracy Forever, 1953), and many others. S the suggestions in these books were enacted into the post-1952 government, although he did no Nasser’s one-party system.
Beginning in the early 1960s, Khalid turned hi, tion to more specifically Islamic topics, including books on Muhammad and other early Islamic her Al-dawlah fi al-Islam (The State in Islam, 1981), vised the secularist position of his first book, des it as “exaggerated,” and he argued that, althougl does not prescribe the sort of “religious govern attacked there, it does have a civil as well as a religious mission and does call for the state to apply Islamic principles. He maintained that an Islamic state aims at liberty and opposes despotism and that the divine command of shura (consultation) today takes the form of parliamentary democracy.
In the development of his thinking, Khalid Muhammad Khalid appears to illustrate the shift of much Egyptian and Muslim thinking over the same time period, from the strong emphasis on social justice and reform, or even revolution, of the 1950s to the greater concern for Islamic authenticity in the 1980s. He has come closer to the position of his friend, Muhammad alGhazal! (b. 1917). who criticized his first work from an Islamic point of view.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abdel-Malek, Anouar, ed. Contemporary Arab Political Thought. Translated by Michael Pallis. London, 1983. Includes translation of a few passages of Khalid Muhammad Khalid’s work. See pages 116-119.
Branca, Paolo. “Riformismo e identity islamica net pensiero di Khalid Muhammad Khalid.” Isldm: Storia e Civilta 5 (1986): 85-95. Useful recent account.
Cragg, Kenneth. Counsels in Contemporary Islam. Edinburgh, 1965. See pages 100-102.
Ghazali, Muhammad al-. Our Beginning in Wisdom (Min hund na’lam). Translated by Isma’il R. al-Faruqi. Washington, D.C., 1951; reprint, New York, 1975. Written as a rebuttal to From Here We Start by a friend of Khalid Muhammad Khalid.
Khalid, Khalid Muhammad. From Here We Start (Min hund nabda’). 3d ed. Translated by Isma’il R. al-Faruqi. Washington, D.C., 1953 Translation of Khalid Muhammad Khalid’s first book. Includes an account of the efforts to ban it and the court decision favoring it.
Tafahum, `Abd al-. “A Cairo Debate on Islam and Some Christian Implications.” Muslim World 44 (1954): 236-252. Discusses Khalid Muhammad Khalid along with Muhammad al-Ghazali and Sayyid Qutb.
WILLIAM E. SHEPARD