175 Mahmoud Muhammed Taha and His Legacy of the Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam Hakkı Göker Önen * Abstract As a political activist, religious thinker and sufi practicer Mohammad Mahmud Taha is an influential person both for modernist thought in Islam and Sudan politics. His idea of second message of Islam finally caused him to be executed by the Islamist orientated dictator of his time Numeyri with the excuse of quitting from Islam. Yet his legacy, ideas and political struggle continued to live and has been an inspiration for subsequent political activists, modernists and protesters. Second message of Islam is basically based on the idea that Islam is a progressive, modern, equalitarian religion which correlates with current advanced liberal democracies. Perhaps these radical views became the main factor behind his execution. To analyse the case better, throughout this article we firstly define what do we mean by modernism in Islam. Secondly, we will give a brief summary of Taha’s life story by referring to the important political developments of his time. Lastly we will analyse Taha’s ideas by categorizing them under specific titles namely about West, civilization, religion and Islam. Lastly, we will briefly explain what does second message mean by taking into account the main conclusions that were driven from the previous parts. 1. INTRODUCTION: MAHMOUD MUHAMMAD TAHA AND HIS LEGACY OF THE RECONSTRUCTION OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN ISLAM The 20th century of Islamic thought has seen several very influential philosophers who claimed reconstruction for Islamic understanding to make it applicable to the problems of modern civilized life. Most of these thinkers came up with very radical suggestions when compared with the traditional considerations of religion and faced against a strong objection by formal religious authorities of Muslim states. Mahmoud Muhammad Taha in Sudan is definitely is one of the most remarkable ones of these reformist thinkers. His main ideas are briefly based on the consideration that the verses of the Quran revealed in Mecca present the main philosophy of Islamic ideal which should be taken as the primary guidance for interpreting Islam according to the current needs of daily life. Taha proclaims the verses revealed in Medina aimed to bring an order to the earliest Muslim society by offering extended rights for women, by restricting slavery and war but did not give an ultimate limit for these implementations. Conversely it aimed to give the message that the future Muslim societies should take these verses as a sample to further extend these rights to achieve a complete male and female equality and non-slavery society. Nevertheless, Taha’s radical ideas caused him to be accused of quitting from Islam. He was finally executed during time of Numeyri. The purpose of paper at this point, is to investigate Taha’s radical opinions by also discussing their influence in reconstruction of religious thought in Islam. * Asst. Prof. Dr., Istanbul Gelisim University, E-mail: hgonen@gelisim.edu.tr