Unfortunately, I was disappointed when I listened to al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb’s speech celebrating the birth of the Prophet (Mohamed) before President Sisi.
I was waiting for the announcement of a specific practical plan to purify the Islamic heritage and renew religious discourse, which has sharply deviated from rightness and dumped us in the black swamp of terrorism, producing a mutilated monster of the Islamic religion; in Islamic costume, Islamic economy, prophetic medicine and other manifestations of nominal despicable beliefs.
He stressed in his speech on an Islamic current that has no significant impact on the Egyptian society, called the Quranians, which regards Quran alone as the only source of faith and legislation in Islam, although they still perform what they call the actual Sunnah in how to pray, and the Hajj, Zakat and other traditions.
It is said that this movement appeared for the first time between the Kharijites in the past and has been revitalized in India where it still goes strong, and in Egypt a small group from this current has been prosecuted and their leader moved to live in the United States.
It’s enough for me here to mention what former Endowments Minister Mahmoud Zakzouk has said in one of his articles that the natural relationship between the divine rhetoric the Quran, and the prophetic application of this rhetoric, the Prophetic Sunnah, is more like the relationship between the Constitution and the law.
The constitution is the source and the spirit to the law, and the law is the elaboration and application of the constitution and no argument or constitutionality for a law contradicts or violates the constitution, and the law can’t replace or fulfill the role of the constitution.
The bottom line is that this trend is no different from other extremist currents that have no future. And all the danger lies in these thousands of graduates of Azhar schools and institutes, which are spread throughout the country without a real need and without a scientific study for actual needs.
Their heads are filled with a large number of facts mixed with much amounts of abnormal words and provisions contrary to reason and logic, with those that may be appropriate in ancient times but not suitable for the era we live.
This is evident before our eyes in some mosques’ preachers and some who speak in the media, unaware of the seriousness of what they say, as recently mentioned by Saad al-Hilali in his article in Al-Ahram.
It happened on Friday that I heard one of them in one of the great mosques while he was enumerating the merits of our Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, comparing to the rest of the prophets, peace be upon them. He was thinking that he with this commemorates the Prophet’s noble birth, though they are all the messengers of Allah to the humankind.
If we add to this the existence of a religious party in flagrant violation of the constitution, the presence of a vicious web of the current so-called Salafist, which is prevalent throughout Egyptian society, which is more dangerous than the Muslim Brotherhood, we find ourselves in real danger that requires serious and strict steps from all state institutions, and amongst it of course Al-Azhar, who carried the flag of moderation during the days of its prosperity.
