Ahmed Hasan Ali Al-Gubbanchi is an Iraqi liberal Muslim intellectual, who focuses on developing a "Civil Islam" which is consistent with human rights, justice and modern circumstances, addressing the problems of traditional Islamic thought as he thinks that the literal interpretation of Quran leads to the incapability of Islam to get use of modern development and achievements, which leads, in turn, to the end of Islam, he considers Sharia alterable depending on the society, time and place, one of the evidence to support that is the Quran verses themselves whose orders have been changed at the time of the prophet which is called Naskh.
Ahmed Al-Gubbanchi sees worshiping as a means not an end itself, and that if it will not improve the morality of the human being, it is useless. He sees that the traditional Islamic thought unable to find a solution for many problematic and regressive issues as part of Islamic Sharia like Apostasy, Stoning, Inequality for women, discrimination against non-Muslims in the Islamic society. The way to get rid of these practices is, according to him, in addition to criticism of Hadith as he has done in his book (Rectification of the Hadith of Shia), also to rethink the whole concept of inspiration, he comes up with the belief that the words of Quran is not the literal word of God, rather the meanings is from God, while the knowledge and the phrasing of Quran is from the prophet himself intended to suit with the conditions of his time, which is why, he allowed seven ways of reading the Quran, he also believes that Muslims need not to consider the verses of Quran literally today when they conflict with the "Practical reason", just as Mu'tazila did formerly with the verses which conflict with the "Theoretical reason".
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