While having
discussion with a friend, we talked about the main challenges our country is
facing including the dimensions of the war Egypt is fighting on several fronts…
we went deeper into the historical dimension and I said that, in my opinion,
president Sisi’s speech, despite short, during the celebration of Laylat
al-Qadr or the Night of Decree is a key to understand that historical
dimension and to know the fundamental roots of conflict in Egypt.
My friend asked
me to write about this and here I am starting with what I thought would be the
end of my article… that is; I learnt long time ago that the one who gets close to
the ruler is like the one who sits on back of a lion… if he stays on his back,
then he is in danger… and if he got off, then he would be in more serious
danger… and so it is better to keep a distance.
I also believe
that things are different after the two revolutions of January, 2011 and June,
2013 as there is no way for hypocrites to thrive; those professional in seizing
the chance of beguiling the ruler away from seeing the truth… I believe they
will not find this chance this time for two reasons… first, people will not
stay silent and will not listen once again to those hypocritical speeches…
second, the ruler himself has seen the dead wolf head.
In simple words,
I find that president Sisi’s word has opened the door for doing our best… not
only in advancing and modernizing what is called the religious discourse… and
not only in instilling morals… but also, along with these two, in fighting all
the negativities, hurdles and societal abnormalities that called for lying,
remissness, disorder, ignorance, poverty, corruption, shallowness and straying
away from true teachings of religion and as a result, away from proper
behaviors…
Those words of
president Sisi we heard in Laylat al-Qadr have connected between
memorizing, rote learning and absence of understanding, research and study and
those negativities, hurdles and societal abnormalities and what they instilled
in the society.
In my opinion –
and others may agree with me – that conflict goes back to the time before the
experiment of Muhammed Ali Pasha when an orientation calling for discussing,
understanding and also criticizing the Fiqhi and non-Fiqhi Mutoon[1]
started to exist… it is said that Sheikh Hassan al-Attar; then-chief of
Al-Azhar mosque (1830 – 1835) was the pioneer of this orientation… meaning
orientation of reviewing and criticizing Mutoon and not only memorizing
and providing explanations for them.
Since then and
starting from Sheikh Hassan al-Attar then later his two students Muhammed
Aiyaad at-Tantawi and Refa’a Rafe’a at-Tahtawi, such conflict has never stopped
between the two projects that established two orientations still fighting in
Egypt and the region; the project of underdevelopment and stagnation by
memorizing, rote learning, recitation and satisfaction of all that is available
of the ancestors’ productions and being in opposition with achievements of the
present time including scientific research tools and applications… and the
project of progress and renovation by making our minds and doing our best… not
only in what is related to religion, Fiqh and all their basics… but in
all that is related to life including science, scientific research and
technical applications in different fields too numerous to count and which
their studies are spread in the faculties with big numbers of students and
various disciplines in their departments.
This stagnation
project continued after Imam Muhammed Abdo in his two students; Muhammed Rashid
Reda and Moheb ed-Din al-Khatieb and later the one who followed their steps;
Hassan el-Banna… until we reached the era we are living now with those who
believe they have the right to spill innocent people’s blood… others who issue Fatwas
that the Muslim husband must deal badly with his Christian wife and make her
feel that she is hated and abhorred and even it is ok to rape her… and others
who give Fatwas of covering cattle udders because they are seducing!...
I believe that both muslim brotherhood and salafists and all their likes are
the clear representation of this project.
On the other
side, there were other people who came from the school of renovation and
progress; that one led by Imam Muhammed Abdo after his two mentor Shiekhs;
at-Tahtawi and al-Attar… of this orientation, we had unlimited prominent
figures like Sa’ad Zaghlool, Qassem Amin and Lotfi as-Sayed…
This orientation
was represented by individual figures until historic circumstances changed and
it turned into a comprehensive national project that includes independence,
freedom and strength of national will, comprehensive development, social
equality, building industrial facilities of different kinds, controlling the
River Nile by establishing the High Dam, the setting off of Egypt to do its
role in its geographical areas of influence… to the end of what we all know.
However, the most
important aspect in the renovation project in my opinion was the availability
of public and university education to everyone… then developing education in
Al-Azhar Ash-Sharif to include other schools like those in the Egyptian
universities in addition to its already existing ones like Sharia’a, Usul
ed-Din and Arabic language schools.
Here I stop to
investigate a phenomenon I think is very serious… also I believe it is the
reason lying behind the underdevelopment and stagnation which I pointed to the negativities,
hurdles and abnormalities that connect to them… it is the phenomenon of
discontinuity of the historical course of our country at large and in the issue
of education in specific… since development and progress are supposed to be
continued throughout history eras… either taking the form of a continuous
graphical line with rising ups and falling downs – according to circumstances –
but eventually continuous… or the form of connected circles with every circle
connected to the one preceding it and the other following it… however, what
happened in our case was an exception… as this graphical line turned into
separate dwarfed ones… every experiment, every era and every ruler starts from
zero to a degree or more… then the line stops to start again from zero without
continuity; meaning without accumulation leading to learning from lessons of
our experiments and eras… it is what I think has happened to Al-Azhar
Ash-Sharif and education in general.
Now I come back
to Sheikh Hassan al-Attar who was born in Cairo in 1182 Hijri calendar, 1768 Gregorian
calendar… the one Sheikh Abdel-Rahman al-Gabari; the famous historian,
described as: “he is the best of noble men… the one with the acute intelligence
and broad understanding who is acquainted in abundance with the literary,
traditional and mental sciences”.
Sheikh al-Attar
had a motto saying: “our country circumstances have to change… we have to
renovate it with the sciences it does not have”… and so he started by himself
as he was not convinced with the sciences common and known in his time… he
studied engineering, mathematics and went deep in studying astronomy and
medicine… also, he had a lot of interpretations over his books. He studied anatomy
and was connected to scientists of the French Campaign despite his opposition
to occupation… he called for including modern sciences in studying and
supported reviewing original books and not being satisfied with their old
interpretations… moreover, he was the one who asked at-Tahtawi to record and
write down all the important books he saw during his scholar mission to France…
There is a lot to
say about the knowledge, culture and role of Sheikh Hassan al-Attar… we also
have to say that the man since he was appointed chief Sheikh of Al-Azhar at the
age of 65 (1246 Hijri – 1830 Gregorian) until he died in this position in 1250
Hijri calendar, had tried to apply his modernizing vision in Al-Azhar but did
not succeed to do what he wanted for he wanted to avoid the rage of traditional
scholars; those who advocate memorizing, role learning, explaining the Mutoon
without any critical thinking.
That is why he
backed Muhammed Ali whom maybe had the same fear of agitating this bunch of
scholars… and so Muhammed Ali instituted a parallel educational system by
establishing the technical high schools like those of medicine, engineering,
pharmacy, founding the naval shipyard, building up a strong national army
depending on the Egyptians graduates of those schools and also those who came
back from the scholar missions to Europe.
Muhammed Ali’s
orientation was definitely connected to Sheikh al-Attar’s vision and discipline…
now the question is what would have happened if such progress, renovation and establishing
of those schools were done inside Al-Azhar and we did like what others did in
Europe… as university starts with a school for theology… another for law… third
for arts… forth for sciences… etc. that is why they have no cultural or
conscience duplicity… also, there is no conflict between theological sciences –
corresponding to Sharia’a ones in our case – and modern sciences… they
also do not have two educational systems resulting such duplicity we have.
I know that
history does not recognize “what if” and there is no way for hypotheses in it…
it would be better to ask: how can we achieve progress and renovation and
overcome underdevelopment and stagnation?... I would like to point once again
to the issue of disrupted graphical line of history because the attempt of
developing Al-Azhar in the sixties, in which other schools other than Sharia’a,
Usul ed-Din and Arabic language schools were established, is still
facing severe criticizing which I think is not objective because what Egypt did
during the time of July, 1952 and Nasser in such regard was the late response
to the vision and endeavors of our mentor Sheikh Hassan al-Attar and his good
students Aiyaad at-Tantawi and Refa’a at-Tahtawi… and after them Muhammed Abdo…
and others who followed their steps like Sheikhs Shaltoot, al-Bahe’i and others.
Right now, we are
about to move from the catastrophe of the separate dwarfed graphical lines to
the blessing of continuous one of accumulation… I believe president Sis’s call
that he issued in the celebration of Laylat al-Qadr is the main point of
the new era.
The question now:
will this progress and renovation; meaning understanding, perfectionism, connectedness
to our present time changes and all that is new in all levels, be limited to
the religious discourse and good morals in the narrow meaning of the word
morals, or will it exceed this to all aspects of our life?
My answer is – as
I understand – that the disease of underdevelopment and stagnation by
memorizing, rote learning and recitation is spread like an epidemic in all
aspects of our life… as non-Azhari university education has what is worse than
memorizing, rote learning and recitation because it has what is called brief
notes… these are abridged briefs where most of their contents are cancelled and
which are memorized by the students… and the one who does not buy them or who
decides to open resources and references – in case they existed – is severely
punished… especially if the professor knew the student did not buy this brief
note or his own book that is not different from those briefs… we shall also know
that there are fights among professors, associate professors, lecturers,
assistant lecturers and teaching assistants in departments and in schools with
big number of students over these brief notes and books… and so they are sold
for hundreds of thousands annually… not to mention the absence of libraries,
laboratories, real research halls, science clubs and other elements of
understanding, research, study, innovation and invention.
Adding to this
the chaos of the whole educational system as we have Egyptian universities,
British universities… German… American… French… etc… like the case in the pre-tertiary
education… indeed we are facing a real catastrophe where any intentions of
having a proper education, whether tertiary or pre-tertiary, were executed.
In such regard,
we heard there is a cultural renovation project supported by the current
minister of culture… we also heard that he assigned this project to some of the
efficient senior scholars as renovation and modernization should not be limited
to the issue of religious discourse but to the whole cultural system and how to
turn it from memorizing, role learning and recitation; meaning from
underdevelopment and stagnation to employing minds and developing skills of
critical thinking and innovation in all educational, cultural and scientific
fields.
Those who believe
in stagnation project now hold arms, kill, terrorize people and loot public
properties, strategic facilities and private properties of individuals, police
and army men in defending their project that failed in politics and ruling and
so they wanted to impose it by force and blood.
Those who believe
in progress and renovation project have nothing to do but to go as fast as
possible with an indomitable will among people in the streets… in the concerned
institutions; educational and cultural… to apply the procedural steps that
harness talents, enrich minds and open the door for a renovating current taking
stagnation and underdevelopment in its way.
Before finishing
my lines as I wrote the end at the beginning, I also believe that memorizing,
rote learning and recitation is dominant in the field of politics and spread in
political parties and civil movements as well as there are some who memorize and
rote learn Mutoon of liberalism as written in the original books… others
do the same thing with the Marxist Mutoons and Arab-Nationalism ones…
and so we usually find ourselves standing before those who memorize and rote
learn theories while they know nothing about the reality and current changes.
I must say that
the project of progress, renovation and employing the mind to understand and
innovate exceeds narrow intellectual and political beliefs at those believing
in the Egyptian modern state… and that working hard to apply and strengthen
this project is after all a victory for all that is rational, progressive and
modernizing.
It is not about
the terrorist muslim brotherhood group… or the deceiving salafists’ movement…
or the set of negative habits and traditions hindering development and progress…
rather it is the matter of country’s present and future… its very material existence
and civilization and cultural ones; meaning either we keep Egypt; the one with
the cultural and civilization accumulated layers throughout history that once
radiated its shine all over the world in the past times… or we accept to submit
to a terrorist group like Daesh.
Translated into
English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article was
published in Al Ahram newspaper on August 9, 2014.
To see the
original article, go to:
#alahram
#ahmed_elgammal #Egypt
[1]
Mutoon: (Arabic: متون) the Arabic plural word for
muton (متن) which is the text containing
the main idea.
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