Al-Azhar Grand Imam, Prof. Ahmad At-Tayyeb, explained that many contemporary Western scholars have said that the Holy Qur’an was the only impetus for the civilization of Islam in the Middle Ages. They emphasized that the only way for Muslims today - if they want to create a new Islamic civilization similar in splendor to their previous one – is to be inspired by this Qur’an, and that the Prophet’s Sunnah is a necessity for a complete and correct understanding of this Qur’an.

During his speech today at the Laylat ul-Qadr celebration at Al-Manara Center, in the presence of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the Grand Imam stressed that there are campaigns launched to attack the Prophetic tradition (Sunnah). The campaigns aim to play it down in the hearts of Muslims, so that the Qur’an itself may be played down and the Sharia rules may be tampered with. Such campaigns are the beginning of an imminent sedition that is not new, nor was it born in our era. The Prophet (pbuh) himself told us of its news, and warned us of its misguidance and the misguidance of those who undertook it fifteen centuries ago, in many hadiths that are counted among his miracles. The hadiths told about things unknown at his time. 

The Grand Imam explained that even though the Prophet (pbuh) had many miracles and sensory evidence of the sincerity of his Prophethood, the Holy Qur’an represented the greatest miracle, as it was a miracle in his life. It remained a miracle after his life, and it will remain so until Allah Almighty inherits the earth and all that is on it. In his life, he (pbuh) surprised his people, who were giants of eloquence in poetry and prose, with a miraculous book whose words transcend and whose verses are organized in a way above all their intellectual and literary capabilities. The Prophet (pbuh) challenged them with the Qur’an and asked them to bring a similar book. When they were unable, he challenged them to come up with ten suras (chapters) like it; and when they were still unable, he challenged them to come up with three suras, but they failed; and finally he challenged them to come up with one surah like it, but they did not succeed. Then, he ended this matter and said to them: My Lord commands me to inform you that you could not and will not be able to do that, even if you seek the help of men and jinn, cooperating in solidarity, supporting each other.

Today, Wednesday, the Ministry of Endowments has organized a major celebration of Laylat ul-Qadr, at the Al-Manara Conference Center. Among the important figures who attended the celebration are President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the Grand Imam Prof. Ahmad At-Tayyeb, Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, Prime Minister, the Speakers of the House of Representatives and Senate, and a large number of religious, political and media figures.