Again I call upon our
Egypt to open its scientific, research and cultural institutions for Arab
scientists, researchers and intellectuals of the Arab countries hit by our
present time savage Tatar invasion… and for president Sisi to take this move to
be remembered in history for what he did for his country and whole nation… I have
already written about how history events sometimes repeat themselves and I gave
an example of the Tatars’ invasion to Persia, Iraq and the Levant… today, I continue
tackling another point that gives us the impression we do live in past times.
Before going further, I’d
like to mention two things; the first is that all attempts to ruin the
Egyptian-Saudi relations do not and seems that they will not cease to stop… as
it was proved for everyone that Egypt’s resilience in our current hardship and
our efforts to overcome it is based on the will of its people, army and
leadership… it’s also based on the clear role played by our Arab brothers in
Saudi Arabia and Emirates.
That’s why those who
aim at nailing Egypt want to break its people’s will through siege, rumors,
terrorism and others… they want to undermine the Egyptian-Arabian relations,
especially with Saudi Arabia and Emirates… not only this, but its international
relations as well like what happened with Russia and later Italy.
The second is I’d like
to pay tribute to Ambassador Ahmed El-Qattan, ambassador of the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia, its permanent representative in the Arab league and dean of Arab
diplomats, who is never tired of strengthening the mutual relations between the
two countries and standing against all attempts – which are many indeed – to
ruin those relations.
The man’s activities
are not limited to mass media only in those two perspectives… but he
practically works to conduct broad responsible serious dialogue with Egyptian
intellectuals belonging to different thought ideologies and political schools without
constraints… and I can say that the man is never bored of any objective
criticism whatever it was and is only bored, like any normal person, of what is
unreal or biased.
The history events’
repetition I talk about here has to do with the Egyptian-Saudi relations after
those who love to fish in troubled waters have thought that what happened in
Chechnya will ruin the mutual relations and do what other hardships didn’t do in
the past.
They said that the
Grand Imam of al-Azhar has denied that “Wahhabism” and “Salafism” belong to the
balanced ideology of Islam… and in doing so, he meant to question other people’s
faith… to the rest of nonsense talk they said… as if the nation had come back
to long-time-in-history past eras which we are supposed to have overcome centuries
ago… the right question here in this regard: does Islam need – after 15
centuries since the start of Dawaa – to have a group of people who grant “indulgences”
or decide the true meaning of faith?
Are we about to repeat what other
non-Islamic religious institutions have been through when they were separated
by dispute and fighting for long centuries and so they had to hold ecumenical
councils?
Let us revise the history of those ecumenical
councils in the history of the international church as eight eastern councils
in addition to 13 western ones were held.
First, the council is a meeting
including the Pope and bishops to discuss matters of the faith, respond to heresies
and take a stance towards atheists… such councils date back to the time of
prophets as the first one was held in Jerusalem in 49 A D regarding bringing atheists
to faith… a second one was held in 175 A D… afterwards, came the first eastern
council; the First Council of Nicaea in
325 A D to discuss the teachings of Arius and take a stance towards it…
followed that the First Council of the Constantinople
in 381 A D to discuss the issue of Holy Spirit… after this came The First Council of Ephesus in 431 A D, then
the Second Council of Ephesus in 449…etc.
I’m not about to
discuss those councils; what happened, resulted and came out of them… rather, I’m
about to discuss whether Muslims need similar councils like those old ones these
days… I wish they look like the good ones of them which led to the unity of
faith and worship, but actually they led to disband and mutual distrust in
faith.
We are working hard to prove the
reality that we actually live in the 15th A D century and not the
Hijri one… and sometimes we strive desperately to prove that we still live at
the beginning and middle of the Middle Ages when religious conflicts thrived, atheist
groups came to light and fight between secular power represented by the emperor
and religious one represented by the Pope arose… each one of them along with
their aides standing behind worked hard to prove he was the one worthy of jurisdiction
over society… to the extent that – I wrote about this long time ago in the same
space here – one of the Popes; Boniface VIII has issued a papal edict that - since he is the one sitting on the chair of Saint Peter - he is the only and most eligible one to be at the head of the state.
In that conference of
Chechnya, some talked about the balanced ideology of Islam and its true
teachings… while some gave examples of some doctrines and Fiqh schools as
models of those concepts… and I don’t think that it would have occurred for a
knowledgeable and cultured man like the Grand Imam of al-Azhar that he is the
one possessing “faith indulgences” and “certificates of Islam”.
When he said that people of Hadith
are models of those concepts, he didn’t deny anyone’s faith… and even if it
happened and he accidentally forgot, it’s not more that a seminar holding a
dialogue… and not an ecumenical council issuing decisions that later turn into faith
doctrines completing what came in the Holy Bible.
The Grand Imam of
al-Azhar is just like anyone of those sitting at the top of Islamic religious
institutions in Saudi Arabia and other places… they are all not exempted of
wrong and definitely they are not sacred… actually, they do right and they make
mistakes as well… their words are not sacred… and so are those conferences of
meetings; they are nothing but gatherings to discuss common issues and problems
and find ways for the nation to go out of it… nothing more.
Finally, what lies
between Egypt and the kingdom exceeds any religious dispute here or there… what’s
between them is not based on the unity of faith alone but rather historical,
cultural, economic and strategic relations that have to do with the composition
of both countries’ peoples lie… so those who love to fish in troubled waters shall
look for other places to fish.
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This
article was published in Al Ahram newspaper on September 8, 2016.
To
see the original article, go to:
#alahram
#ahmed_elgammal
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