There have been many works on Muhammad 'Abduh since the beginning of the present century. One group of studies, as those done by Adams and Safran, tried to clarify the role played by 'Abduh in the formation of a modern society in Egypt or in modernization of Egypt; another group, including the studies by Caspar and Kerr, attempted to elucidate "similarity" or connection between 'Abduh's reform idea and the Islamic reform ideas which made appearance in the earlier periods. In the present paper the writer would like to clarify, through an examination of a relationship between his idea and movement, what was achieved by 'Abduh. The "Salafiyya" as so termed by 'Abduh is a broad concept and is characterized by the fact that he added Ash'ari in the Salaf. By so doing 'Abduh no doubt wanted to place himself as a follower of Ash'ari. According to 'Abduh, Ash'ari was the first person who tried to settle the long-standing antagonism in the ideological history of Islam between the two extremes, the "abuse of reason" and the "disregard" of it, standing as he did in an "intermediate" position. Caspar and Kerr, on the other hand, held that 'Abduh was a Mu'tazilite and that his claim tobe a follower of Ash'ari, therefore, was aimed at concealing his being a Mu'tazilite. The writer has doubts about their views, because they drew such conclusions from their comparative studies of the Ash'arite in the 19th century and the Mu'tazilite in the 10th century. The writer, however, is of the view that we should study how was 'Abduh's Salafiyya related to his reform movement. As for 'Abduh's reform movement, the writer, having analyzed nine reports and draft laws written by 'Abduh, as well as activities of five committees in which he took part, was able to find out details of the reforms he was concerned with and also the persons connected with him. While many past studies on 'Abduh pointed out that the persons most closely connected with 'Abduh's reform movement were Lord Cromer and Khedive 'Abbas Hilmi, the writer's own finding is that those most closely connected with the 'Abduh's reform movement were Mustafa Riyad, 'Ali Mubarak, Husein Fakhri and Mustafa Fahmi and that nearly all members of the 'Abduh group were specialized in legal affairs. It was also made clear that the British policy toward Egypt at that time was aimed at establishing an efficient administrative organization, from which appears a clear image of 'Abduh as an administrative official who exerted himself to reform the Islamic institutions (the Azhar, the Shari 'a Court, the Waqf administration, etc.) by means of legislation, rather than the image of 'Abduh as a thinker. As an administrative official who found himself in the deep "gulf" between the British authorities or the Egyptian government, on the one hand, and the religious institutions of Islam, on the other, 'Abduh pushed forward with his movement for reforming Islam. His intention at that was to resolutely carry out reforms of the Islamic institutions and thereby to save them from direct intervention by the British authorities or the Egyptian government. The 19th century Egyptian situation, in which 'Abduh fought his way, may probably be best paralleled by the days of Ash 'ari. That is why 'Abduh looked to Ash'ari who had found a way to cope with the "Islamic crisis" in his days for a prototype of solution of the similar crisis ten hundred years later. Again that is why 'Abduh did add Ash'ari in the Salaf.

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