Jordan Times
Friday, June 30, 2006
Islamic scholars unify their positions on major issues
By Mahmoud Al Abed
AMMAN — Muslim scholars, who gathered for a conference here this week, decided on establishing a committee to settle differences between Islamic schools and to monitor the issuance of religious edicts.
The decision was taken by the 17th session of the Islamic Fiqh Academy, which concluded its five-day meetings Wednesday.
According to the conference’s final communiqué, the committee will also be required to come up with practical ways that ensure unity among the Muslim nation in the cultural, social and economic fields.
The committee “is tasked with listing the controversial issues, putting them in their right perspective in line with the Islamic Sharia (law), and presenting the opinion of each madhhab (school) objectively regarding the issue in question,” the communiqué said.
At the meetings, more than 100 scholars representing all 45 majority Muslim countries as well as all major Muslim minorities managed to unify their positions on issues pertaining to extremism, religious edicts and the definition of who is a Muslim.
“Never before in 1400 years has such a universal consensus been achieved amongst all schools of Islamic thought, including Sunni, Shiite and Ibadi divisions, Salafi, Sufi and Ash’ari thought,” said a statement by Al al Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, which hosted the event.
To build on this achievement, participants in the conference called for incorporating the fiqh (jurisprudence) aspects that focus on Muslim solidarity and coherence in university and school curricula. Students, the communiqué said, should also be taught to respect the opinions of all madhahib.
The panellists also called for reviving Sufism as an educational approach to face the growing materialist trends in the world of today; this Sufism should abide by the original teachings of traditional Islam, they added.
The recommendations focused on a set of urgent issues threatening the Islamic nation and its internal and external relations.
According to Al al Bayt’s statement, the deliberations revolved over three issues: Specific recognition of all eight madhahib of Islam and of traditional Islamic theology and mysticism, and the definition of who is a Muslim. They also sought to work out an effective moratorium on takfir (declarations of apostasy) between Muslims based on the aforementioned definition.
The conference also pinpointed the subjective and objective conditions for the issuing of fatwas, thereby stemming irresponsible and ignorant edicts in the name of Islam.
Echoing the resolutions of the July 2005 International Islamic Conference held in Amman, the scholars taking part in the academy meeting agreed that any follower of one of the four Sunni madhahib (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali), the Ja’fari (Shi’i) School of Jurisprudence, the Zaydi School of Jurisprudence, the Ibadi School of Jurisprudence, or the Thahiri School of Jurisprudence is a Muslim.
Moreover, they said, it is not permissible to declare anyone who subscribes to the Ash’ari creed or true Sufism or Salafi thought an apostate. Equally, it is not possible to declare as apostates any group of Muslims who believes in God and His Messenger and the pillars of faith, and respects the pillars of Islam and does not deny any necessary aspect of religion.
Delivering His Majesty King Abdullah’s remarks at the opening session on Saturday, HRH Prince Ghazi, the King’s Personal Envoy and Special Adviser, stressed that addressing disunity among Muslims is the first step towards protecting and uniting the Islamic nation.
Fatwas
The conference’s final communiqué also stressed that issuance of fatwas should be brought under control.
“No one should practise ifta’a (issuance of fatwa) if he was not competent and qualified,” the statement said, adding that ifta’a should be taught as a separate Islamic discipline at university. They also called for continuous coordination between fatwa commissions in the Muslim world.
“If there are those among us who declare the adherent 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 in the speech.
In its statement, Al al Bayt Foundation said universal consensus of the learned is legally binding in Islamic law (Sharia).
“Legislation can now be made according to this consensus [reached in both conferences]. This is important not just for Muslims but for non-Muslims, as well, since one of the major factors behind terrorism are erroneous radical fatwas.”
Meanwhile, the ulema in the latest conference urged more attention to the role of clerics and mosque preachers and imams in fighting terrorism, while they called on media outlets to be cautious in their reporting of terrorist acts. Terrorism should not be linked to Islam, they said, noting that terrorism is also practised in the name of many faiths and cultures.
They also called on the world to agree on a universal definition of terrorism, avoiding double standards and inconsistency in the global fight against the phenomenon.