Reality and the Unseen in the Early Fatwas of al‐Manār

This article explores how discussions of the unseen in the fatwa section of Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā's journal, al‐Manār, related to larger processes of rationalization, epistemological boundary‐making, and modernization occurring at the turn of the twentieth century. A discursive analysis of a subset of fatwas published between 1903 and 1914 suggests that by treating some questions on the unseen as matters of superstition, rejecting their potential reality and distancing them from any relation to Islam, the fatwas represent a specific critique of the perceived irrationality of certain widespread societal practices and a general critique of the intellectual state of the Muslim world. In other cases, they rationalized certain practices by interpreting them using popular scientific and historical frameworks. The fatwas present an image of “proper” Islam along the lines of Enlightenment rationality, not by removing the role of the unseen, but by drawing strict boundaries around sanctioned practices and beliefs.