Al-Azhar Grand Imam and MCE Chairman, Prof. Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, said during his speech at Darul Quran JAKIM organization in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, that no one can leave this majestic Qur’anic meeting without mentioning the tragedy of the Palestinian people, which is also the tragedy of the Arab and the Muslim people, as well as the free people all around the world, East and West. This tragedy is represented in the heinous crime of genocide, that has exceeded all limits. We ask Allah Almighty and implore Him by His Holy Book to grant the steadfast people of Palestine near relief and clear victory, so that the scales of justice may be straightened with the elimination of this injustice and aggression, not only in the occupied land, but also around the entire world.

 

 

 

His Eminence explained that the Qur’an was revealed to declare respect for man, to confirm his honor and favoring over all other creatures, to open before him the horizons of knowledge without limits, and to push him to think, consider, research and contemplate, after freeing his mind from the shackles of ignorance, stagnation, imitation and blind following without argument or evidence. He added that the Qur’an gave women their freedom, and restored their dignity, humanity and rights that were confiscated from them by the social systems at that time and are still confiscated to this day.

 

The Grand Imam explained during his speech that the Qur’an came with a new philosophy of governance based on justice, equality, consultation, sound democracy, the prevention of tyranny, and the prohibition of injustice against people. He pointed out that the Qur’an has many verses that deal with social affairs, international relations, penal codes, family, and public affairs, and other matters, in addition to what it contains about belief, acts of worship, and dealings in all their forms, the unseen, and the afterlife.

 

The Grand Imam added that the Holy Qur’an, the Scripture that distinguishes right from wrong, is still being subjected to misleading campaigns in our time, by some pens which belong to Islam, but believe in the critical literary doctrines of the West, especially what is called hermeneutics. He pointed out that these doctrines are based on rules created by those individuals, including the abolition of every exalted religious truth, and adhering to human subjectivity as the sole source of knowledge, and that man alone is the one who is able to possess the truth, and he alone is the standard of truth and falsehood and the measure of every truth, and there is no authority above him. You may wonder about the fate of a divine text like the Holy Qur’an - with its eternal elements, constants and unseen matters - if the modern reading approaches it with this point of view that does not differentiate between God or man, the seen and the unseen, the sacred and the unholy. Wouldn't Muslims then be asked to abandon this book, which is no longer, from this perspective, a divine revelation valid for all times and places?

 

His Eminence stressed the nature of correlation between the Qur’an and the Sunnah, the former being the foundation of the latter's legitimacy, its authority and its reference in the lives of Muslims and the legislation that governs their lives. This relationship requires pointing out an old matter that keeps getting mentioned repeatedly, which is the calls that have been persistent in casting doubt on the Prophetic Sunnah. These calls deny the Sunnah's authenticity and authority, and waste its legislative value in Islam, and have concluded that the Qur’an alone is the source of legislation. They disregard that Muslims are agreed that it is necessary for the Sunnah to remain attached to the Qur’an, otherwise three-quarters of the religion will be lost. He added that separating the Qur’an from the Sunnah opens the doors wide to tampering with the verses of this Qur’an, its rulings and its legislation.