Al-Azhar Grand Imam, Prof. Ahmad At-Tayyeb, said that “the Islamic legislation has provided humanity with the most wonderful values, concepts and legislative rulings ever known throughout the history of human civilizations, ancient and modern”. His Eminence stressed that this is a recognizable matter for fair thinkers, even those who do not believe in Islam.

 During the fifth episode of Grand Imam At-Tayyeb Talk, His Eminence explained that the miracle of the legislation of this true religion is that it was issued by an illiterate Prophet who could neither read nor write. He was born and lived in a desert environment, subsisting on the grievances of people, discrimination between people on the basis of race, fanaticism, social status, robbery, killing, raiding and enslaving the weak.

He (pbuh) declared that all people are equal like the teeth of a comb, thus putting an end to all the evils of the pre-Islamic society in belief, society, economy, governance and legislation. He succeeded in making from this plagued society heroes who liberated the world, east and west, from the oppression of the Khosrows, and the injustice of the Caesars, in a phenomenal short period of time.

His Eminence added that the most astonishing and miraculous thing about this religion is that it contains legislations valid for application in the societies of the twenty-first century, just as they were valid for application over a period of nearly one thousand and five hundred years back. Today, we still aspire to it because it takes care of the interests of the individual and society, just as the patient eagerly aspires to health.

His Eminence the Grand Imam responded to the fallacy that modern legislation cannot possibly be linked to the Qur’an and the Sunnah as its reference as they were revealed a long time ago. He explained that the reality of the Muslim nation, and its history, confirm that the jurisprudence of this nation and its profound humanitarian legislation in the field of constants and variables, were behind the strength of this nation, its steadfastness and its continuity, as one of the prideful nations in the world.

His Eminence the Grand Imam called on everyone who tries to ridicule Islamic jurisprudence and heritage to read the history of the conquests of Muslims, and to consider its most prominent stations. The Muslims conquered the two greatest and most powerful states in the East in the history of the Middle Ages, and defeated them decisively. The Muslims also received the keys to Bayt Al-Maqdis (Jerusalem), and then the lands of Iraq, the Levant, Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the countries of Andalusia (Spain) and Africa, east and west, Indonesia, China and others were all open to them.

He said, "Did the Muslims conquer these countries and remain in them to this day with an expired law, as some claim?!" He stressed that this Sharia has, until recently, been the source that provided them with stability and steadfastness, even when they were in their darkest ages, weak, lost, and humiliated by nations! His Eminence the Grand Imam explained that the problem is not in jurisprudence or Sharia, but rather in the idleness that afflicted our nation, and the intellectual and cultural fragmentation. The problem consists in their inability to invest the knowledge corpus of the greatest heritage on earth, and to select what is suitable to address our contemporary issues, and to build on its origins and principles within the framework of the constants and variables, as introduced by the Noble Qur’an and elaborated on by the honorable Sunnah.