The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Prof. Ahmad At-Tayyeb, received Dr. Abdul Salam Al-Kubaisi, the personal envoy of the head of the Iraqi Sunni Affairs (ISA), who delivered a letter of thanks from the ISA to the Grand Imam. He appreciated the Grand Imam’s efforts and praised his consistent positions on defending the Prophet’s tradition, denying the distortion of those who exaggerate and the interpretations of the ignorant.

The letter indicated that the ISA adopted an initiative to establish the Iraqi Hadith Institute. Therefore, a foundational symposium was held, under the title, “The Prophet’s Tradition between the Qur’anists and the People of the Qur’an” in the city of Erbil, in the presence of a group of distinguished hadith scholars from inside and outside Iraq, on December 23-24, 2018.

Dr. Al-Kubaisi briefed the Grand Imam on the recommendations of the symposium, which included supporting His Eminence’s positions on defending the Prophetic Tradition, expressing the Iraqi scholars’ aspiration towards the Grand Imam’s support of the Iraqi Hadith institution, and considering Al-Azhar the supreme reference for the Sunni Muslims in Iraq.

The Grand Imam expressed his appreciation of the ISA discourse and the position of Iraqi scholars, and their assumption of their responsibilities in defending the Prophetic Tradition, praising the idea of establishing the Iraqi hadith institute. His Eminence stressed that Al-Azhar supports this important measure, which comes at a time when all scholars and Islamic bodies need to play their role in defending the Islamic religion and the Tradition of the Prophet (pbuh) in the face of attempts to undermine them.

In the same context, His Eminence the Grand Imam received a letter from a number of hadith professors in Mecca, in which they expressed their appreciation of Al-Azhar efforts and their support for its scholars’ role in clarifying the realities of Islam and the ease of its Sharia, and in defending the honorable Tradition of the Prophet (pbuh).