Al-Azhar Grand Imam, Prof. Ahmad At-Tayyeb, said, “In the previous episode, we talked about the first obstacle to renewal, which is ignoring the distinction in our contemporary Islamic jurisprudence between the constants of Sharia and its variables. Today, we are talking about another obstacle that played a fatal role in freezing the renewal movement, and reviving tendencies of imitation and intolerance. This obstacle is the lack of distinction between Sharia, such as divine statements from the Noble Qur’an, or prophetic statements from the authentic Sunnah on the one hand, and jurisprudence, such as scholars’ deductions and their interpretations of such statements to derive rulings from them, on the other hand. Attaching the sanctity of Sharia to the rulings issued by our previous jurists, and retrieving their fatwas and opinions meant to settle the problems of their time is also an obstacle to renewal.

 During the seventeenth episode of his Ramadan program, Grand Imam At-Tayyeb Talk, which is broadcast for the fifth year, His Eminence added that our previous jurists, may Allah be pleased with them, certainly knew that their rulings were mere human judgments. These were not infallible, nor did they rise to the rank of Sharia definitive statements. Those honorable jurists would not have hesitated to change their fatwas if something new in the life of Muslims happened and required the change of any such fatwa. Such change was to facilitate matters for the Muslims, so that jurists would not bear responsibility before Allah on the Day of Judgment for causing harm to Muslims or putting them in difficulty or embarrassment in religion, as He Almighty has favored them with the promise that matters are not meant to be so.

Al-Azhar Grand Imam affirmed that Sharia consists of infallible divine statements, while jurisprudence forms human deductions drawn by scholars specialized in this precise scientific field from the infallible divine law, and that any confusion between them will inevitably lead to the undue deification of human beings and the sanctification of human thought. Scholars state that the decisive separation between divine law and human jurisprudence consists in the permissibility of ascribing Sharia to Allah, the Most High, and the impossibility of ascribing fiqh (jurisprudence) to Him, Exalted be He. Therefore, it is said, “Allah is Ash-Shāriˁ (the legislator) of these rulings,” but it may not be said, that "He, the Most High, is a faqīh (jurist).” 

His Eminence indicated that the Sharia consists of sacred statements, while the deductions of scholars, such as jurists, exegetes, modernists, theologians, and scholars of the principles of religion are human knowledge, or a heritage that can be quoted or abandoned. These deductions have been available to Muslims over a period of fifteen centuries form what is called the Muslims legacy in general terms. Then, it branches into more specialized fields such as jurisprudential, linguistic, or literary legacy, etc.

He clarified that we ought not to understand from focusing on the distinction between Sharia and the legacy based on it, that we turn our backs on jurisprudential, or any other type of legacy. Likewise, we do not underestimate the status of our great jurists who are still to this day respected, appreciated, and revered in European, American, Russian, Japanese and other universities that appreciate knowledge and scholars and respect their due status.

Al-Azhar Grand Imam stressed that when we distinguish between Sharia on the one hand and jurisprudence on the other, we do not intend to replace jurisprudence with elements alien to it - Western or Eastern - that contradict its nature and differ with it concerning basics and objectives. All we want is what our great ancestors wanted when they looked at this legacy in its reality as a tremendous academic and cultural product that played its required role in building the civilization of Muslims, and established it in the East and West. However, they did not look at it as an infallible legacy that is immune to change and alteration.

His Eminence explained that just as our legacy is not entirely acceptable today, but it is not entirely rejected either, as reckless people who do not know its value and its lofty rank think. It is true that not everything in our legacy is able to face the problems of our age, but not all of it is incapable of dealing with them. Therefore, the focus of our ancestors was on the renewed movement that ispeculiar to this legacy, which requires selectively ignoring some elements and keeping others, if this legacy is meant to remain alive. In addition, other elements may be imported from outside it, according to the needs and interests of the Muslim societies. 

Al-Azhar Grand Imam affirmed that permanent renewal of the heritage is responsible for keeping Islam as a living, flexible religion that disseminates justice, mercy and equality among people. When legacy uses renewal as a tool or a method by which it expresses itself, it becomes similar to a flowing current, or a running river that does not stop moving for a moment, or so it should be. Otherwise, it would turn into something like stagnant water that does more harm than good. Those who think that they are capable of facing developments by simply recalling ready-made rulings from the legacy of past centuries, do abuse - willingly or unwillingly - the nature of this great legacy. I do not think that any other legacy has this unique characteristic, i.e. the ability to change in order to keep pace with the renewed reality over fifteen centuries, while coping with the divine discourse. 

The Grand Imam concluded that legacy is an echo of the statements of divine revelation understood in a certain way in a certain era. If the method of deducing from the statements differs, the legacy moves, and if the legacy stops and freezes, then the defect would then be in the inflexible legacy, not in the divine statements. His Eminence indicated that the confusion between jurisprudence and Sharia has led to falling into imitation and taking it as a fixed approach in the search for solutions to our contemporary problems.

This scourge has overwhelmed the scene of Islamic culture in many of its manifestations. We are still searching in the opinions of the ancients for answers that do not correspond to the questions of the twenty-first century. Perhaps, we select the most critical and difficult opinion, and promote it with its formalities and husks. Some do so because they have a desire to be distinguished and different for the sake of dissenting. They want to emphasize their loyalty to specific agendas, currents and sects, but we need not to delve into their details. Their method does not reveal anything of the greatness of the Muslim legacy nor its vitality, which is linked to its ability to create new manifestations based on the divine statements, which are represented in extracting provisions that meet emerging needs; such emerging needs are not necessarily the same as those ancient needs. The Grand Imam stressed that immobility is one of the characteristics of death, and that movement is the first characteristic of life, and that the Great Qur’an mourned imitation and imitators in many of its verses.