The Grand Imam likens the Islamic civilization to a glowing ember that never extinguishes, no matter how much is piled upon it. 

The Grand Imam: 

We do not know of a civilization that has survived for 14 centuries despite receiving fatal blows other than the Islamic civilization.

The nation that put humanity on the straight path has become somewhat weak and isolated.

Division and internal conflicts are the weak points through which colonialists penetrated the Muslim countries.

We warn against a phenomenon that can destroy Islamic society and its foundations, which is the audacity to accuse others of being disbelievers, heretics, and innovators in religion, in addition to trespassing on others’ lives, honor, and property.

The Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta Islamic State University held a public meeting for His Eminence the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif and Chairman of the Muslim Council of Elders (MCE), Prof. Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, today, Tuesday, on the occasion of His Eminence’s visit to Indonesia. The university’s professors, researchers, and Indonesian students from various universities, a number of ministers, ambassadors, and heads of religious institutions, attended this public meeting under the patronage of Mr. Joko Widodo, President of the Republic of Indonesia.

In his speech during this public ceremony, which was about “The Unity of the Nation in Confronting Challenges,” the Grand Imam stressed that the Muslim nation, which enlightened the entire world after darkness had enveloped it, and corrected the path of humanity with the Holy Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH), is now suffering from of endemic-like symptoms; once one symptom is treated, a hundred others appear. He added that anyone who contemplates the greatness and the strength of the Islamic civilization, which was founded on justice and fairness, is greatly shocked when they look at what it has come to now. Even if it has not died or disappeared, it has certainly come to a degree of weakness and isolation that is obvious for Muslims more than it is for others.

His Eminence added that one of the amazing things about the Islamic civilization is that despite suffering from weakness and decline, it inspires limitless hope for recovery, revival and renewal. It is like a burning ember that does not go out despite the layers of thick ash that accumulate on it from time to time throughout its long, bright history. History has not known of a civilization that has endured for fourteen centuries despite the fatal blows that have been - and are being - directed at it other than the Islamic civilization.

His Eminence said that the fate of this glorious civilization has changed today; it has begun to borrow its philosophy, culture, and methods of teaching, sociology, and economy, from the West as if its people were a barbaric nation coming out from the graveyards of history, as if they had never known science, literature, philosophy, legislation, history, or arts, and as if they had not taught all of humanity and reigned the East and West with their advanced civilization for centuries. The scourge of this nation is division, discord, and internal conflict, which are malignant diseases and weak points through which Muslim countries have been penetrated by colonizers in the past two centuries. They are the same malignant diseases through which Western colonialism is creeping in again in the twenty-first century.

The Grand Imam warned that the saying “divide and conquer” is now being re-employed under the banners of the clash of civilizations, creative anarchy, globalization, the end of history, and other banners raised here and there in Muslim countries so that Muslims can be killed under them, or so that they can fight each other on behalf of the new colonizer. This is happening while the Holy Quran, which we recite morning and evening, and compete to have our children memorize it, warns Muslims day and night with the Almighty’s saying: “Obey Allah and His Messenger and do not dispute with one another, or you would be discouraged and weakened. Persevere! Surely Allah is with those who persevere” (Qur'an 8: 46).

His Eminence raised a question, saying that it imposes itself on the minds of everyone who's concerned with this matter, which is: How can Muslims reconcile with each other? He said that this painful question is now being raised in a dark way. It is sufficient to point out that the discourse of Islamic preachers, who are entrusted with reuniting peoples with each other, has often become the primary reason for the division and fragmentation of Muslims, as enmity among themselves has become severe. He posed questions as how many people in the dawah arena now stand behind the hatred, discord and animosity among Muslim youth? Where have the fateful issues of the Muslim nation gone? They have disappeared from the discussions of these young male and female preachers? Do not these major issues deserve to be mentioned in their discussions that almost forbid what is permissible and permit what is forbidden?

His Eminence continued asking: do our youth know about Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque and what it suffers from, as much as they know about the differences between the Ash'aris, Salafis and Sufis? Are they preoccupied with researching into the reality of their nation as much as they are preoccupied with researching into trivial, controversial issues, which are outdated? Do they study their academic curricula as much as they study books by specific preachers? How can our youth turn away from an inevitable and necessary obligation, which is the unity of Muslims, and devote themselves to study a jurisprudence in which the commendable is mixed with the obligatory and the dislikable with the forbidden?

The Grand Imam pointed out that the differences between the five Islamic rulings have disappeared, or almost disappeared, and the Muslim family has become preoccupied with partial issues that are not obligatory to do, and has completely neglected pivotal issues of great danger in Islamic law, such as honoring parents, being kind to neighbors, the value of work, time, hygiene, mercy to people, and other moral and social obligations that have fallen to the bottom of the list of religious duties in this strange jurisprudence. Another matter that pushes the nation toward this miserable direction which is an attempt to clearly tamper with the jurisprudence of the four Imams, and to impose a new jurisprudence that obligates people to do what is not obligatory, and it is not reasonable that it should be obligatory, such as: performing sunnah prayers before the Maghrib prayer, or paying Zakat al-Fitr with only one type of grain. This is something that the masses of Muslims did not know, and were not accustomed to before, and it was not practiced by our trusted jurists.

His Eminence pointed out that we must reflect deeply on a phenomenon that is capable of destroying the Islamic society and its foundations, if lnot confronted with correct jurisprudence and pure knowledge. This phenomenon is the audacity to accuse others of being disbelievers, heretics, and innovators in religions. Moreover, this absurdity justifies trespassing on lives, honor, and property. How can such ideas spread in a nation whose scholars and imams from the major schools of thought agreed on such golden rules as "We do not declare any Muslim to be a kafir (disbeliever), and we pray behind the righteous and the sinful alike, and nothing takes a Muslim out of Islam's fold except denying what brought him into it" and other rules that have preserved the cohesion and unity of the nation throughout history, His Eminence added. These beliefs are based on the authentic hadith of the Prophet (PBUH): “Those who observe our prayer, face our qibla, and eat our ritually slaughtered animals, are Muslims entitled to the protection of Allah and His Messenger, so do not betray Allah’s protection.”

At the end of his speech, His Eminence called on the youth of the nation to be serious and work hard, and he stressed that the time now is a time for seriousness and diligence, not a time for sermons and exhortations, while other nations are working in suspicious silence, with extreme planning and deceit. He added that Muslims are tired of talk that does not produce actions on the ground, reminding of the golden saying of Imam Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, when he said: I hate talking when it does not lead to action.