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Daring to think series
Enlightening humanity (2).
Written by
Hossam Badrawi
In the midst of a fierce campaign against anyone who dares to declare an opinion or discuss a matter over which people may disagree, claiming that non-specialists are not allowed to speak about religion or to infringe upon the constants (without defining what is meant by the constants), I returned to an article of mine years ago that I wrote after I followed a meeting with a sheikh. Al-Azhar with the Pope of the Vatican and their issuance of a document on tolerance, love, reason and enlightenment.
“The basic principles of the Renaissance Enlightenment philosophers included the use of reason, the scientific method, individual freedom, and religious tolerance as opposed to the fixed doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church of the time,” she wrote.
The most important thing that hinders enlightenment and development in any nation is a person’s comfort with things remaining as they are, because change requires effort, joint concessions, and a transition from one time to a new time in which responsibilities change and orientations multiply, and it is human nature that they are enemies as long as they are ignorant. In addition, if rule was established for a political or religious sect, why would they expose themselves to tremors that might rob them of kingship or control over the people?
On the other hand, advocates of enlightenment must realize that Islam is not the church. The Islamic religion that we know does not reject science, nor does it fight reason.
Despite the presence of men and sheikhs who were and still are clinging to the past, rejecting modernity, and condemning everyone who discusses and thinks, and giving those who burn churches and all terrorist organizations in the name of Islam, such as ISIS and others like it, interpretations of texts and fatwas as support and reference, there are sheikhs and thought leaders who called and are calling for open minds and enlightenment of humanity. Such as imams Muhammad Abdou, Salim al-Bishri, Abd al-Halim Mahmoud, Ali Abd al-Razzaq, Ahmed al-Tayeb, and thought leaders such as Taha Hussein, al-Aqqad Zaki Naguib Mahmoud, and others.
There are intellectuals whose books were banned from circulation, or who were assassinated, such as Naguib Mahfouz, or were killed simply for daring to express an opinion, such as Faraj Fouda. On the contrary, there is no one in enlightenment and the call to use reason who issues a fatwa to kill the one who differs, or exile him, or prevent him from expressing his opinion.
Unfortunately, some extremist clerics and some enlightenment preachers should not portray the matter as a conflict between Islam and science, between religion and reason. These people cling to the past and the sayings of the predecessors, even if it is not accepted by reason, and they push Enlightenment advocates sometimes lead to the wall of atheism and disbelief.
If these and these people were fair to themselves, they would make science, knowledge, and openness of mind a religion and an obligation.
Perhaps the most difficult task is to transform conflict into dialogue, and move it to a new arena of modernity, and to use reason and logic without repeating intellectual battles that took place hundreds of years ago in Europe. Neither time is time, nor is the scope of knowledge. What was.
Therefore, I rejoiced and was filled with hope when I saw the learned friend, the Imam Sheikh of Al-Azhar, speaking the same language as reason and taking a scientific approach in confronting the inevitability of purifying heritage and renewing religious discourse when he said: Today we are talking about an obstacle that played a dangerous role in freezing the renewal movement and resurrecting tendencies of imitation. And fanaticism, this obstacle is the failure to differentiate between Sharia law as divine texts from the Noble Qur’an or prophetic texts from the authentic Sunnah and jurisprudence as the deductions of scholars and their jurisprudence in these texts, and extracting rulings from them and granting the sanctity of Sharia law to the diligence of our previous jurists and recalling their fatwas and opinions that they expressed in order to confront problems with them. Their era, which they, may God be pleased with them, knew with certainty were human endeavors that were not infallible and were not in the same position as the texts of Sharia.”
He said, “Jurisprudence is nothing but human deductions drawn by scholars specialized in this precise scientific field from the infallible divine law, and any confusion between them will inevitably lead to the deification of humans and the sanctification of human thought. The law is sacred texts, while the deductions of scholars are from jurists.” And the fundamentalists, interpreters, hadith scholars, and theologians are all human knowledge or heritage from which it is taken and left…”
He added, “We can say with confidence: Yes, our heritage is not all capable of confronting the problems of the age, but it is also not all incapable of dealing with them. The continuation of this heritage alive and influential requires eliminating elements, keeping other elements, and summoning third elements from outside it as needed.” Communities and their interests
“When heritage takes renewal as a tool or method to express itself, it resembles a torrential stream and river that never stops flowing for a moment, or this is how it should be, otherwise it turns into something resembling stagnant, stagnant water that does more harm than good. And those who think they are capable of doing Confronting new developments by simply recalling ready-made judgments from the heritage of past centuries, they misunderstand, whether they know it or not, the nature of this great heritage.
The venerable Sheikh says, “Inertia is one of the characteristics of death and that movement is the first characteristic of life.”
Doesn’t that, gentlemen, agree with what the wise people of the nation are calling for…?
I will add to the reader what came in the “Human Fraternity” document, which contains something that gratifies the heart and satisfies the enlightened mind. Where the poles of the two religions declared, in the name of the freedom that God gave to all human beings and created them and distinguished them, Al-Azhar Al-Sharif – and around it Muslims from the east and west of the earth – and the Catholic Church – and around it Catholics from the East and West – announced the adoption of a culture of dialogue as a path, and mutual cooperation. A way, and mutual acquaintance as an approach and a way
The document says: “We call on ourselves, world leaders, international policy makers and the global economy to work seriously to spread the culture of tolerance, coexistence and peace, and to intervene immediately to stop the flow of innocent blood, and to stop the wars, conflicts, climate decline, and cultural and moral decline that the world is currently witnessing.” ”
We address thinkers, philosophers, clerics, artists, media figures, and creative people everywhere to rediscover the values of peace, justice, goodness, beauty, human brotherhood, and coexistence, to affirm their importance as a lifeline for all, and to strive to spread these values among people everywhere.
The document says: “We also declare – firmly – that religions should never be a foment for wars or a source of feelings of hatred, hostility and fanaticism, or a provocateur to violence and bloodshed. These tragedies are the result of deviation from religious teachings, and the result of the exploitation of religions in politics, as well as the interpretations of a sect.” Among the men of religion – in some stages of history, some of them used religious feeling to push people to do what has nothing to do with true religion, in order to achieve narrow worldly political and economic goals. Therefore, we call on everyone to stop using religions to incite hatred, violence, extremism, and blind fanaticism, and to stop using the name of God to justify acts of killing, displacement, terrorism, and oppression. God Almighty is in need of anyone who will defend Him or terrorize others in His name.”
Years ago, after the end of a round table to discuss citizenship and freedom of belief at the headquarters of the Episcopal Church, in the presence of many respected Egyptian public figures, church representatives, and ambassadors, Bishop Mounir Hanna, Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Egypt and North Africa, approached me. He said to me: I read your last article about culture and religion, and I want to tell you: “Give up your pen, your clear thinking, and your delicate diplomatic style.”
“I am amazed, my friend, at those who fear criticism and freedom of thought. They position themselves as guardians of religion. Does God need someone to help him guard his words?
He went on to say: When Tawfiq al-Hakim wrote his articles “A Conversation with God,” the world rose and did not stop. Does God refuse to talk to him? On the contrary, God is like a father who enjoys the questions of his children, and human prayer is a conversation with God.
Then he went on to say: When some monks in the fourteenth century took it upon themselves to translate the Bible from Latin into the language of the people (English), they were sentenced to burning. The first of these was John Wycliffe, who saw that superstitions were filling the minds of the people and completely distancing them from the teachings of Christ because they did not understand Latin, which had become in the minds of the church leaders a sacred language that could not be translated.
Out of respect and greetings to the Sheikh of Al-Azhar and the Pope of the Vatican, who affirmed the essence of religion, brought light to the minds, and demonstrated the essence of morals, conscience, and a sound soul to protect humanity. .
Greetings to my friend, Bishop Mounir Hanna, and to everyone whose heart expands with tolerance to accept others and whose mind expands to comprehend the accumulation of knowledge, its newness, and its renewal.
I return to the saying of Imam Ali bin Abi Talib:
“The head of virtues and the source of good manners is the mind that God Almighty made for religion as a foundation and for this world as a support.”
Let us be sensible, tolerate, and engage in dialogue without fear, threat, or prohibition.
