Dr. Hossam Badrawi Official Website
The basic tenets of the Renaissance Enlightenment philosophers included the use of reason, the scientific method, individual freedom, and religious tolerance, as opposed to the established doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church at the time.
The philosopher Emmanuel Kant, in his article “Dare to Know,” stresses the importance of man coming out of the stage of mental deficiency and reaching the age of maturity or the age of adulthood. He defined mental deficiency as dependence on others, and the inability to think personally, or behave in life, or take any decision without consulting his guardians.. From this perspective, his enlightening cry came to say: Use your minds, O humans, and have the courage, so do not eat anymore. And do not give in to laziness, the able and the written, move, activate and engage in life in a positive and insightful way. He also warned against blind obedience to political leaders or clerics.
The protection of man lies in educating him to become mature and able to rely on himself, using his mind to liberate himself from the beliefs and truths taught to him through a history in which there is a lot of ignorance of sciences and universes. Science, observation, and the cumulative construction of knowledge are humanity’s means to modernity and advancement.
The most important thing that hinders enlightenment and development is human comfort in order for the matter to remain as it is, because change requires effort and joint concessions and a transition from one time to a new time in which responsibilities change and orientations multiply, and the nature of human beings is that they are enemies of what they are ignorant of.. In addition, if the rule is established for a sect. Political or religious, so why expose themselves to shocks that may rob them of kingship or control over peoples?!
By studying the Renaissance in Europe, I found that the men of the Church were the first enemy of the movement of enlightenment and development, and they declared war on science and science, and on philosophers and thinkers, but science has triumphed in the face of ignorance, and reason has won in the face of superstition, and progress in the face of backwardness.
It was a battle, which history and reality decided in favor of science, reason and light against the priesthood of the church and its intransigence, and the clergy were separated from politics.
Unfortunately, the battle with all its circumstances and circumstances has moved to our Islamic world without many realizing that Islam does not have priests, and that religious institutions do not control or rule and should not do, and that the adherence of Wahhabism and Salafism to the data of the past will not last, because it does not fit the era.
On the other hand, the advocates of the Enlightenment did not realize that Islam is not the Church. The Islamic religion that we know does not reject science or fight the mind, but it has men and sheikhs who were and still cling to the past and reject modernity.
Unfortunately, the two parties – some clergymen and some advocates of enlightenment – began portraying the battle as a struggle between Islam and science, between religion and reason.. These adhered to the past and the sayings of the predecessors, and pushed the advocates of enlightenment sometimes to the wall of atheism and infidelity.
If these and those themselves were fair, they would have made science, knowledge and openness of mind a religion and an obligation.
Perhaps the most difficult task is to transfer this conflict to a new arena of modernity and the use of reason and logic without repetition of intellectual battles that took place hundreds of years ago in Europe, for neither time is time, nor is the scope of knowledge what was.
Therefore, I was overjoyed and overwhelmed with hope when I witnessed the scholarly friend the Imam, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar speaking the same language of reason and taking a scientific approach in the face of the imperative 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 reviving tendencies of imitation and fanaticism. This obstacle is the failure to differentiate between Sharia as divine texts from the Holy Qur’an or prophetic from the authentic Sunnah, and between jurisprudence as scholars’ deductions and their interpretations of these texts, extracting rulings from them, and conferring the sanctity of Sharia on jurisprudence. Our previous jurists and invoking their fatwas and opinions that they said in order to confront the problems of their time, which, may God be pleased with them, knew with certainty that they were human interpretations that are not infallible and are not in the status of Sharia texts.
He said: “Fiqh is nothing but human deductions that scholars specialized in this precise scientific field have deduced from the infallible divine law, and any confusion between them will inevitably lead to the deification of human beings and the sanctification of human thought. Human knowledge or heritage is taken from it and left…».
He adds, “We can say while we are reassured: Yes, our heritage is not all capable of facing the problems of the times, but it is also not all incapable of dealing with them, and the continuation of this heritage alive and effective requires the abolition of elements and the preservation of other elements and the summoning of third elements from outside it according to the needs and interests of societies .
And heritage when it takes renewal as a tool or a method to express itself is similar to the current and the flowing river, which does not stop flowing for a moment, or so it should be, otherwise it turns into what looks like stagnant, stagnant water that harms the most beneficial. And those who think that they are capable of confronting developments by simply recalling ready-made rulings from the heritage of past centuries are doing wrong in terms of knowing or not knowing the nature of this great heritage.”
The venerable Sheikh says: “Stagnation is one of the characteristics of death, and movement is the first characteristic of life.”
Does that not agree, gentlemen, with what the wise people from the nation call to..?!!
I will add to the reader what came in the “Human Fraternity” document, which gratifies the heart and satisfies the enlightened mind, where the two poles of the two religions announced in the name of the freedom that God gave to all human beings, instilled in them and distinguished them. From East and West – adopting a culture of dialogue as a path, mutual cooperation as a path, and mutual acquaintance as a method and path.
The document says: “We call upon ourselves, world leaders, international policy makers and the global economy, to work seriously to spread a culture of tolerance, coexistence and peace, and to intervene immediately to stop the flow of innocent blood, and to stop the wars, conflicts, climatic decline, and cultural and moral decline that the world is currently witnessing.”
The philosopher Emmanuel Kant, in his article “Dare to Know,” stresses the importance of man coming out of the stage of mental deficiency and reaching the age of maturity or the age of adulthood. He defined mental deficiency as dependence on others, and the inability to think personally, or behave in life, or take any decision without consulting his guardians.. From this perspective, his enlightening cry came to say: Use your minds, O humans, and have the courage, so do not eat anymore. And do not give in to laziness, the able and the written, move, activate and engage in life in a positive and insightful way. He also warned against blind obedience to political leaders or clerics.
The protection of man lies in educating him to become mature and able to rely on himself, using his mind to liberate himself from the beliefs and truths taught to him through a history in which there is a lot of ignorance of sciences and universes. Science, observation, and the cumulative construction of knowledge are humanity’s means to modernity and advancement.
The most important thing that hinders enlightenment and development is human comfort in order for the matter to remain as it is, because change requires effort and joint concessions and a transition from one time to a new time in which responsibilities change and orientations multiply, and the nature of human beings is that they are enemies of what they are ignorant of.. In addition, if the rule is established for a sect. Political or religious, so why expose themselves to shocks that may rob them of kingship or control over peoples?!
By studying the Renaissance in Europe, I found that the men of the Church were the first enemy of the movement of enlightenment and development, and they declared war on science and science, and on philosophers and thinkers, but science has triumphed in the face of ignorance, and reason has won in the face of superstition, and progress in the face of backwardness.
It was a battle, which history and reality decided in favor of science, reason and light against the priesthood of the church and its intransigence, and the clergy were separated from politics.
Unfortunately, the battle with all its circumstances and circumstances has moved to our Islamic world without many realizing that Islam does not have priests, and that religious institutions do not control or rule and should not do, and that the adherence of Wahhabism and Salafism to the data of the past will not last, because it does not fit the era.
On the other hand, the advocates of the Enlightenment did not realize that Islam is not the Church. The Islamic religion that we know does not reject science or fight the mind, but it has men and sheikhs who were and still cling to the past and reject modernity.
Unfortunately, the two parties – some clergymen and some advocates of enlightenment – began portraying the battle as a struggle between Islam and science, between religion and reason.. These adhered to the past and the sayings of the predecessors, and pushed the advocates of enlightenment sometimes to the wall of atheism and infidelity.
If these and those themselves were fair, they would have made science, knowledge and openness of mind a religion and an obligation.
Perhaps the most difficult task is to transfer this conflict to a new arena of modernity and the use of reason and logic without repetition of intellectual battles that took place hundreds of years ago in Europe, for neither time is time, nor is the scope of knowledge what was.
Therefore, I was overjoyed and overwhelmed with hope when I witnessed the scholarly friend the Imam, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar speaking the same language of reason and taking a scientific approach in the face of the imperative 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 reviving tendencies of imitation and fanaticism. This obstacle is the failure to differentiate between Sharia as divine texts from the Holy Qur’an or prophetic from the authentic Sunnah, and between jurisprudence as scholars’ deductions and their interpretations of these texts, extracting rulings from them, and conferring the sanctity of Sharia on jurisprudence. Our previous jurists and invoking their fatwas and opinions that they said in order to confront the problems of their time, which, may God be pleased with them, knew with certainty that they were human interpretations that are not infallible and are not in the status of Sharia texts.
He said: “Fiqh is nothing but human deductions that scholars specialized in this precise scientific field have deduced from the infallible divine law, and any confusion between them will inevitably lead to the deification of human beings and the sanctification of human thought. Human knowledge or heritage is taken from it and left…».
He adds, “We can say while we are reassured: Yes, our heritage is not all capable of facing the problems of the times, but it is also not all incapable of dealing with them, and the continuation of this heritage alive and effective requires the abolition of elements and the preservation of other elements and the summoning of third elements from outside it according to the needs and interests of societies .
And heritage when it takes renewal as a tool or a method to express itself is similar to the current and the flowing river, which does not stop flowing for a moment, or so it should be, otherwise it turns into what looks like stagnant, stagnant water that harms the most beneficial. And those who think that they are capable of confronting developments by simply recalling ready-made rulings from the heritage of past centuries are doing wrong in terms of knowing or not knowing the nature of this great heritage.”
The venerable Sheikh says: “Stagnation is one of the characteristics of death, and movement is the first characteristic of life.”
Does that not agree, gentlemen, with what the wise people from the nation call to..?!!
I will add to the reader what came in the “Human Fraternity” document, which gratifies the heart and satisfies the enlightened mind, where the two poles of the two religions announced in the name of the freedom that God gave to all human beings, instilled in them and distinguished them. From East and West – adopting a culture of dialogue as a path, mutual cooperation as a path, and mutual acquaintance as a method and path.
The document says: “We call upon ourselves, world leaders, international policy makers and the global economy, to work seriously to spread a culture of tolerance, coexistence and peace, and to intervene immediately to stop the flow of innocent blood, and to stop the wars, conflicts, climatic decline, and cultural and moral decline that the world is currently witnessing.”
“We turn to thinkers, philosophers, clerics, artists, media professionals and creators everywhere to rediscover the values of peace, justice, goodness, beauty, human brotherhood and coexistence, and to emphasize their importance as a lifeline for all, and to strive to spread these values among people everywhere.”
The document says, “The first and most important goal of religions is to believe in and worship God, and to urge all human beings to believe that this universe depends on a God who rules it. Rather, everyone must preserve it from its beginning to its natural end.
We also firmly declare that religions should never be a post of wars or inciting feelings of hatred, hostility and intolerance, or provoking violence and bloodshed. History – some of whom employed religious sentiment 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 fuel 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 those who defend him or terrorize others in his name.”
Respect and greetings to the Sheikh of Al-Azhar and the Pope of the Vatican, who affirmed the essence of religion and brought it back into light for the minds, and showed the essence of morality and conscience in it and a normal soul to protect humanity.
The document says, “The first and most important goal of religions is to believe in and worship God, and to urge all human beings to believe that this universe depends on a God who rules it. Rather, everyone must preserve it from its beginning to its natural end.
We also firmly declare that religions should never be a post of wars or inciting feelings of hatred, hostility and intolerance, or provoking violence and bloodshed. History – some of whom employed religious sentiment 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 fuel 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 those who defend him or terrorize others in his name.”
Respect and greetings to the Sheikh of Al-Azhar and the Pope of the Vatican, who affirmed the essence of religion and brought it back into light for the minds, and showed the essence of morality and conscience in it and a normal soul to protect humanity.
