Al-Qaradaghi meets scholars and professors from Bosnia and Herzegovina
Dr. Ali Al-Qaradaghi, Secretary General of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, received in the union’s main office Sunday March 4th, 2013 a delegation of scholars and university professors from Bosnia and Herzegovina accompanied by Dr. Mohamed Khalifa, Director of the Al-Qaradawi Center for Moderation.
During the meeting, IUMS Secretary General gave a talk about the methodology required for scholars in order for the Muslim nation to rise. After reviewing the problems and conditions of fragmentation and ills befalling the nation, he pointed out the flawed spots and focused on issues related to the scholarly and religious side.
The leading scholar elaborated that the intellectual and religious sides were directly responsible for the conditions in civilizations prior to Islam for which reason Europe launched its three-dimensional reform to step toward progress. These reforms were nothing other than: 1) a rejection of the church with its rigid and stubbornly anti-scientific mentality, 2) a reform of the political system and 3) a reform of the educational system; and so these steps lead them to proceed solely on the material side.
When Islam came, the nations that joined it suffered huge problems. However, Islam was able to build civilization for them with its two wings, the material and ethical one in a model that tackled both the mind and the spirit.
Today on the other hand, the Muslim nation was afflicted in the religious area with theories that only drove it backward instead of forward. There’s the cold-asceticism – not the true one – that caused us to come behind and to neglect the "ta`mir” or advancement of the universe although the purpose behind the creation of humans is not only worship but also this inhabitance and advancement. Such advancement is an obligatory act, clarified the sheikh, and Allah – exalted He be – prepared paradise for those who work and give alms, since Allah referred to them as {And who are payers of the poor-due; } [Quran 23: 4]. The owners of these theories conversely preferred poverty to wealth although the Prophet used to seek refuge in Allah from poverty just as he sought refuge from disbelief. The "poor” mentioned in the hadith, prophetic saying, "Oh, Allah, resurrect me with the poor” refers to humble people not the impoverished or humiliated ones. Asceticism in our scholarly tradition is that of the heart.
Looking at the situation from another angle, our scholars were preoccupied with the partial issues and the nation followed the same steps and remained away from the holistic matters. In that manner, religious commitment and differences became a reason for division rather than a reason for unity and assembly. They turned the inclination toward facilitation in religion into an inclination toward complication although for example many traditions in relation to women’s issues are considered part of jurisprudence and religion while they actually do not originate in religion.
The conclusive issues of Shariah only represent one third of it, the sheikh clarified. If Shariah law was all made up of core unchangeable parts there would not have been space for progress, renovation and updating. At the same time, if Shariah was made up of inconclusive texts, this nation would have been left unshielded. So, Allah desired the good for this nation through the benefit of invariable issues and the protection of variable issues.
On the intellectual side, Islam lent great value to the mind, and placed it in its right circle, that of innovation and building. Ibn Abbas says with regard to the interpretation of the verse {And He has subjected to you all that is in the heavens and on earth} [Quran 45:13] that a necessary requirement to this subjection is empowerment. Our world can be advanced through a mind that invokes the guidance of revelation and Islam was innovative in directing the mind to the material world without preoccupying it with the metaphysical world.
Thus, the method of thought and reform has become greatly flawed by those who were committed to the surface meaning of texts and those who were committed to a cold asceticism. We need to rectify religion and renew the method of approaching texts, the jurisprudence of application, the understanding of the obligatory and the evidence, and the understanding of reality and deduction of rulings. We must understand that the renewal of religiousness does not serve anything except being a reason for our progress and turning us into reformers in all fields. Any understanding that prevents us from bringing advancement to the world is an unislamic one.
The IUMS Secretary General urged the visiting scholars to remove all that was forced into religion whereas religion is in fact far from it and to confront extremism and misleading ideas with the correct moderate method.
Following his word, the Secretary General answered questions posed by the visiting scholars who were then introduced to the union and its role in resolving some of the existing issues in the Muslim world.