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The International Union for Muslim
Scholars strives to achieve one major
objective and several other rather minor
ones. The major objective is to
persistently strive to preserve the
Islamic identity of the Muslim Ummah so
that it retains its moderate stance and
lofty goals of enjoining what is good
and forbidding what is evil. The Union
uses all available legal means to stand
up to internal and external destructive
trends and promote the Muslims’
awareness of their role and noble goals.
This will be done through spreading
straightforward Islamic thought and
dispersing knowledge through
facilitating the way for every Muslim to
seek a sufficient level of
Shari`ah-based knowledge.
The minor
objectives are as follows:
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Raising the
awareness of Muslims about their
religion and enlightening them about
the pure message of Islam: Islam is
based on the Qur’an and Prophetic
Sunnah and is represented in its
creed and legislation, acts of
worship and transactions, and
thought and behavior. This refers to
Islam with all its
comprehensiveness, moderation,
easiness, and tolerance and is far
removed from deviations made by
either bigots, enemies, or those who
are ignorant.
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The Union
strives to alarm the Muslims of the
perils threatening their ideological
and cultural identity that work to
tear apart their ties and drive them
away from its basic relationship,
i.e. the religion of Islam. The
Union will face this organized
ideological and cultural invasion
using the same kind of weapons that
are used against them. It will also
alert the whole Ummah of the new
weapons that are being used under
the guise of carefully-tailored
terms like globalization and
modernity, and so on.
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The Union
endeavors to strengthen the Islamic
spirit in the soul of both
individuals and groups in a way that
paves the way for the Ummah to play
its original role and carry out its
mission of disseminating the message
of monotheism on earth. This is in
addition to spreading welfare on
earth and helping humanity to
achieve all its desired goals. The
result of all this is nothing but
producing well-prepared beneficial
work, straightforward morals and
ethics, logical and rational
thinking, nobility in manners, and a
good example for all humanity to
emulate.
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Being a guiding
light for all Muslims and finding
optimal solutions to their present
and ever-emerging intellectual and
everyday problems through the
rulings of Shari`ah and its main
principles by encouraging
contemporary authentic ijtihad
resulting from authorized
organizations or efficient and
trustworthy scholars.
-
The Union
endeavors to unify the ranks of
Muslim scholars when dealing with
the Ummah’s major and crucial
issues.
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The Union aims
at streamlining the positions of
eminent scholars on issues of
concern to Muslims worldwide as well
as joining the Ummah's various ranks
in a way that defies all the
constant and continuous challenges.
In doing so, the Union calls upon
the whole Ummah to adhere to the
golden maxim that reads: We should
cooperate in all that we agree upon,
and excuse one another for the
issues about which we differ.
Means of Action
The International
Union for Muslim Scholars shall follow
all possible and legal means to achieve
its goals. All these means should be
under the umbrella of calling to Allah
with wisdom and good admonition, along
with dialogue and constructive debate
using contemporary means such as speech,
the pen, books, magazines, Radio
broadcasts, T.V., satellite channels or
the internet. The International Union of
Muslim Scholars (IUMS) shall
specifically focus on the following
means:
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Direct
educational discourse for Muslims in
a way that corrects their
misconceptions and rectifies their
stands in accordance to pure Islamic
tenets. This is done to preserve the
Islamic identity of the Ummah and
its members from the internal and
external effects that may lead them
to deviate from their original path.
This discourse might be of a verbal
nature to be introduced via the
pulpit or the mosque, or telecasted
via T.V. or satellite channels; in a
way to make use of all possible
modern means of communication. In
addition, the Union will be
committed to release regular
periodicals to serve its own various
purposes.
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Endeavoring to
give advice –with wisdom and
leniency– to Muslim leaders,
political decision-makers,
influential figures, and those who
have the power to move public
opinion; in a way that helps them
correct their movements, strengthen
their stances, and help them make
the right decisions that serve the
Muslim creed and the Muslim Ummah,
and help reaffirm the Islamic
identity, and warn them against the
pitfalls, dangers and traps designed
by their enemies. All this should be
done in a sincere interpretation of
the duty to advise Muslims and to
exhort one another to truth and
exhort one another to endurance.
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Co-operating
with similar organizations and
institutions to achieve similar
objectives even with different and
various methods such as academic,
scientific, cultural, social,
political, charitable, and
humanitarian institutions in a way
to support them spiritually through
providing them with backup and
consultation; and to support them
scholarly through giving related
opinions and fatwas. In addition,
co-operation may take the form of
making use of these organizations
and institutions through mobilizing
their efforts so as to achieve
common objectives that will result
in realizing those common objectives
for all parties concerned.
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Raising
constant awareness about the crucial
issues and events that are relative
to Islam and the Muslims regardless
of their nature. These issues and
events may be of a cultural, a
social, a political, or an economic
nature. This is going to be done
through unveiling the causes,
dimensions, and effects that are
relative to the Islamic identity of
the Ummah. The Union shall declare
its own stance on these issues and
events at the appropriate time after
studying them well. This is done to
make Muslims realize their real
nature and call upon them to tackle
these issues and events in a way
that preserves their identity and
saves them from danger. This shall
be achieved through issuing
declarations, statements, petitions,
as well as brochures. All these
should be governed by what has been
mentioned elsewhere concerning
making da`wah through leniency and
persuasion with good argument and
being far removed from all that may
lead to arousing public unrest and
destroying unity.
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Conducting
dialogues with cultural trends,
ideological schools of thought, and
political bodies existing in the
Islamic arena -regardless of their
ideology- in order to minimize their
negative effects if they were
harmful; and to make the best use of
them if they were beneficial; and to
direct them –whenever possible–
towards serving the designed
purposes of the Union in relation to
what is common between the Union and
them so as to achieve commonly
shared goals. If this is to be done
properly, all the effective forces
of the Ummah will be directed
towards winning the battle of
construction and progression.
All the
aforementioned suggestions, with all
possible additions or amendments, should
be incorporated into the Constitution of
the International Union of Muslim
Scholars in a way that suits the
requirements of the location where its
headquarters will be based, and the
organizational nature of its foundations
along with the surrounding
circumstances.
Hence, we call upon
our scholars, both brothers and sisters,
to read this project and send us their
consent or feedback to be reviewed until
we reach a final version of the entire
project. Based upon this, the founding
assembly shall meet in the Union’s
headquarters, by the Will and Grace of
Allah, to declare the birth of the
International Union for Muslim Scholars
(IUMS).
President of the
Union
Yusuf Al-Qaradawi |
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