Jordan Times
Sunday, June 25, 2006
King urges Muslim
scholars to fight takfiri ideology, fatwas
By Mahmoud Al Abed
AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Saturday
said addressing disunity among Muslims is the first step towards protecting and
uniting the Islamic nation.
“Without this, it would be unreasonable to call for the solidarity and
cooperation of Muslims, countries and peoples, on the basis that we are one
nation,” he told the 17th annual Islamic Fiqh Academy Conference, which opened
on Saturday.
In the speech, which was delivered on his behalf by HRH Prince Ghazi, personal
envoy and special adviser to the King, the Monarch urged hundreds of eminent
Muslim scholars from 43 countries to fight takfiri ideology and fatwas
(religious edicts) issued by ineligible individuals and groups.
“If there are those among us who declare the adherents of any madhahib an
apostate, or who dare to issue fatwas without being qualified or who do not
respect the sanctity of Muslim blood, honour and property, then there should be
those who stand up to all these matters that fracture the nation and abuse our
faith,” the King said.
He said Jordan is hosting the high-profile meeting at a time when the Muslim
nation is going through a crucial stage of its history, “an era that challenges
and threatens its existence, identity and civilisation. This places on the
nation’s ulama (scholars) and fuqaha (Islamic jurists) an additional and
tremendous responsibility.”
The meeting is the first after the 26-year-old Jeddah-based academy’s mission
was expanded this year to include major issues facing the Muslim world,
including terrorism and mounting anti-Islam sentiments in the world, according
to the panellists.
Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu
referred to the Baku meeting of OIC foreign ministers, where participants
endorsed a plan to empower the academy to address current problems and
scientific advancements, with focus on the Muslim nation’s relations with other
cultures.
The King highlighted the academy’s new responsibilities, citing recommendations
made at the third extraordinary session of the OIC in Mecca at the end of last
year, when the OIC called upon the academy “to emphasise the importance of
dialogue among the adherents of madhahib (schools of fiqh), of the commitment to
moderation and tolerance and of confronting religious edicts (fatwas) that
distance Muslims from the immutable principles of the Islamic faith and all that
has been established by the madhahib.”
In his speech, King Abdullah also referred to the Amman Message and the
International Islamic Conference held in Amman last summer.
“Our sense of responsibility and duty as members of Al al Bayt... led us to
issue the Amman Message which defines for the world the essence of our faith and
counters all that distorts our faith, whether it be ignorance, hatred, or
wrongful practices by some in the name of Islam... We invited [to the July
conference] the nation’s ulama and fuqaha to meet on the principles and rules
carried in the Amman Message... After listening to more than twenty fatwas
issued by a number of fiqh authorities in the Muslim world, the scholars stated
in the final recommendations that all eight madhahib must be respected and that
whosoever is an adherent to any of the eight madhahib is a Muslim whose blood,
honour and property are sacrosanct.”
The Fiqh Academy members and other scholars started discussions on working
papers focusing on the unity of the Muslim nation regardless of the diversity in
its schools of fiqh, the eligibility for issuing fatwas and Islam’s position on
extremism and terrorism.
During the five-day conference, they will also discuss how Muslim communities
outside the Islamic world can strike a balance between the constants of their
faith and their duties as citizens in non-Muslim countries.
At the economic level, scholars will present papers on the various types of
business partnerships.
Women’s issues, the relationship between Muslim states and others under
international conventions and biomedical research and genetic engineering are
also on the agenda of the academy’s meeting.