From the Classification of Religions to the Religious Experience: A Study in Mohammed Khalifa Hassan’s Efforts to study the religious Phenomenon

Abstract

This paper examines the efforts of Dr. Muhammad Khalifa Hassan in studying the religious phenomenon, using the classification of religions and the religious experience. To achieve its objectives, this paper undertakes content analysis relying on his relevant books.

The finds that Dr. Muhammad Khalifa Hassan had set the classification of religions as a necessary methodological condition for the study of religious experience. He applied this methodological condition in his study of the religious experience in Islam. He was of the view that Islam has not been studied objectively by students of religions, because of the Orientalist backgrounds, which dominated the field of the history of religions in the modern era. The study also found that using the classification of religions, as a condition of the study of religious phenomena was one of his innovations. Therefore, he is a pioneer in relying on the hadith of Gabriel to study the religious experience in Islam. Thus, he was able to derive the three stages of Islam Iman and Ihsan, and their interrelationship.