Managing Juristic Differences: A Civilizational Approach

5th International Conference

The General Secretariat for Fatwa Authorities Worldwide

Opening Statement

By Dr. Shawki Allam

Grand Mufti of Egypt

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

 All praise is due to God, Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon our master, the Messenger of God who was sent as a mercy to the worlds, and upon his family, Companions and those who have followed his guidance until the Day of Judgment

Your Excellences,

May the peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you.

Allow me at the beginning of this blessed conference to say that it gives me great pleasure to extend the sincere greetings and good wishes of HE the President of Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (may the Almighty protect him and keep him safe) to the muftis, ministers, scholars, students, and researchers attending this conference.

It is likewise my honor to welcome you all, on behalf of the people of Egypt and myself, in your second homeland, Egypt.

I would also like to say that it is a great pleasure for us to have your participation in this conference that brings us together at this same time every year to discuss the major issues and problems facing Muslims everywhere around the globe.

Holding the conference of The General Secretariat for Fatwa Authorities Worldwide with your help here in Egypt comes as no accident. Egypt, with the profound historical; cultural; scholarly; and religious significance it enjoys, has and will never under any circumstances shirk any responsibility, duty, or role required of it. Egypt is the land of al-Azhar, the land of civilization, the land of the bounteous Nile, the land of bestowal. Egypt as the mother of the world, embraces all who set foot in it as not only peaceful and protected visitors cooperating in goodness, but as its own sons and daughters.

Dear scholars,

We are well aware that the participation of scholars engaged with the affairs of the Muslim Ummah, especially the muftis, in this conference and other serious conferences that explore the dominant issues of grave concern to the Ummah, is not a matter of luxury that can be done away with. It is much more. It is a noble mission and a taxing task. It is fulfilling the duty of the time enjoined upon us by God Almighty and rising to His call to scholars and muftis of which He says in the the Quran,

“And when there comes to them information about [public] security or fear, they spread it around. But if they had referred it back to the Messenger or to those of authority among them, then the ones who [can] draw correct conclusions from it would have known about it. And if not for the favor of God upon you and His mercy, you would have followed Satan, except for a few” (Quran 4: 83) and,

 “And it is not for the believers to go forth [to battle] all at once. For there should separate from every division of them a group [remaining] to obtain understanding in the religion and warn their people when they return to them that they might be cautious” (Quran 9: 122).

It is for this reason that I ask God Almighty to bless our efforts with success and accept it solely for His sake.

I wish our guest scholars participating in this conference a good stay and success in the tasks enjoined upon us by God. Every year, the entire Muslim Ummah turns with careful attention to our conference due to the great importance of the issues it addresses. Muslims everywhere await the conference outcomes and recommendations that are promptly transformed into practical work programs aimed at advancing the lived contexts of the Ummah and at saving it from falling prey to the schemes of radical and terrorist groups.

Honorable attendees,

The persistent efforts exerted by The General Secretariat for Fatwa Authorities Worldwide since 1437 AH/ 2015 CE until present are epitomized in the organization of this conference and the launching of various initiatives designed to combat extremist and terrorist ideologies and the initiation of qualifying and training programs.  Apart from this, the General Secretariat has issued various scholarly publications that include scholarly encyclopedias and observation publications following the latest scholarly and statistical methods to follow the index of the state of fatwa and religion across the world. Further efforts include developing scholarly curricula to assist academic institutions worldwide in teaching a fatwa curriculum, launching many promising projects in addition to breaking into cyberspace and social networking. All of these efforts are meant to promote the development and renewal of religious discourse in the Islamic world which is confronting many huge challenges on the social, political and religious levels. In consequence, it is imperative that we exert greater effort and cooperation to combat the dangers posed by extremist and terrorist trends threatening the Ummah’s present and future. With your efforts, cooperation, and participation, The General Secretariat for Fatwa Authorities Worldwide is gathering momentum, strength, progress, and success by the year. We look forward to more success and growth. Indeed, success comes only from God Almighty.   

Honorable scholars,

This year we are meeting to explore and discuss one of the most critical issues of our time, a civilizational approach to managing juristic differences. This is an issue of essential importance to the Muslim Ummah and therefore it is necessary to address it in light of the well known current conditions and changes. In reality, differences between authoritative Muslim scholars over juristic issues is a healthy phenomenon because it reflects the extent of flexibility and vitality of Islamic jurisprudence and its suitability for every time and place. It is mainly due to the accommodation of such differences between scholars that we posses such a rich juristic and legislative legacy rarely found elsewhere.       

The selection of the title of this year’s conference comes from a real determination that is not limited to merely addressing intellectual and ethical issues related to juristic differences, but extends to an honest intention to utilize and manage juristic differences with insight and prudence. The purpose is to render these differences an efficient instrument for promoting a system that allows Islamic jurisprudence and fatwa to contribute towards the contemporary civilization on the levels of both the Islamic world and humanity in general.

The civilizational approach to juristic differences of opinions has had a positive impact on the unity of Muslims and their peaceful existence alongside other religions, cultures, and civilizations. The result was that Muslims accumulated an enormous wealth of legislative knowledge that continues to influence and benefit the constitutions and laws of many countries in our modern world. It is this civilizational spirit that the conference attempts to revive once more.    

Honorable scholars,

Our venerable scholars, both Islamic legal theorists and jurists have expended praiseworthy efforts to set out rules and principles that we may describe as ‘the civilizational management of juristic differences’. Towards this end, they specified certain conditions with a view to confining the practice of juristic disagreement to only competent scholars and to preventing pseudo-scholars from engaging in ijtihad.

Islamic legal theorists and jurists then proceeded to formulate the well-known golden rules delineating the civilizational features of juristic differences and disagreement and set the scene for accommodation and flexibility and for avoiding stagnation, strife, discord, difficulty and hardship, and censure.

Among these rules are that:

1. Objection is not for issues where there is a difference of opinion but for omitting what is agreed upon to be a requirement.

2. It is recommended to remove oneself from issues over which there is a difference of opinion.

3. Whoever is afflicted with a matter over which there is a difference of opinion, it is allowed to follow the opinion of those scholars who permit it.

The elucidation and comprehension of the civilizational approach to juristic differences is not restricted to usuli and juristic aspects only. It is imperative that we gain insight into the ethical and value dimensions of the disagreements explored by our righteous predecessors, may God be pleased with them, with the express aim of manifesting the features of a civilizational approach to managing differences.

It was recorded that Imam Malik rejected Caliph al-Rashid’s request to enforce the Muwatta` as the exclusive law of Islamic territories. He argued that the people of different regions were acting upon the hadiths and reports that had reached them from the Prophet’s Companions who had settled in their lands after the Prophet’s death. In support of his argument, Imam Malik cited the Prophet’s words, “The differences among the people of my Ummah are a mercy.”

Imam Malik's approach to dealing with the civilizational management of juristic differences has produced a great juristic wealth within Islamic law unparalleled in the history of humankind, fostering mercy and tolerance between the people and creating an environment where love, mercy, and peace prevailed.

Although successive generations have continued to inherit this civilizational sophistication from one generation to the next, today we see weeds of evil sprouting and flourishing in our Ummah embracing the Kharijite ideology and construing the juristic branches for creedal principles that they use as a pretext to excommunicate all who disagree with them. What is more, they deviate from the methodology of guidance and benevolence that has come down to us from our righteous predecessors.

Despite this disparity between them and the scholars of the first centuries of Islam, they falsely claim to revive the methodology of our predecessors and follow their path. The Muslim Ummah has unfortunately suffered greatly from the actions of these groups with all of their various stripes and multitude of whims. Their ideology has metamorphosed to embrace an excommunicatory ethos that acknowledges nothing but itself and believes in the salvation of none but its adherents. This ideology has evolved to become an explosive eruption claiming sacrosanct lives, spreading strife everywhere, and posing a real threat to the entire world.

It is the duty of scholars, jurists, and mujtahids to stand up to these destructive ideas. The Muslim Ummah is reaching out to you for help, resolute in its determination to eradicate those corrupt groups and follow your inherited authentic path. There can be no salvation for our Ummah except through your unified will to combat those perils.

To conclude, I would like to reiterate my gratitude and welcome you once more in your second homeland, Egypt. I pray to God that He grant you His help and success and that He may reward your efforts and unite you on truth and benevolence.

I reaffirm that, through your efforts, cooperation and participation, the General Secretariat will achieve more success in the coming years. We are looking forward to more endeavors and seek guidance only from God.

And the last of our prayers is all praise is due to God, the Lord of the worlds.

May the peace and blessings of God be upon you.