Afifi al-Akiti - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Dato' Dr Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti BA (Queen's), MA (Oxon), MSt (Oxon), DPhil (Oxon), MSIEPM – also known as Shaykh Afifi – is KFAS Fellow in Islamic Studies at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies

Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies

The Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies is a Recognised Independent Centre of the University of Oxford, England. It was established in 1985 with the aim of encouraging the academic study of Islam and the Muslim world. The centre's Patron is Prince Charles.A new building for the centre is situated to...

, and Islamic Centre Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Faculty of Theology, University of Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

, and is a Fellow of Worcester College

Worcester College, Oxford

Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in the eighteenth century, but its predecessor on the same site had been an institution of learning since the late thirteenth century...

, Oxford. He is the first ever Malay to be appointed to such a position in this world famous University. He has received widespread media recognition across the globe.

Dr al-Akiti completed his DPhil in Medieval Arabic Philosophy from Oxford University as a Clarendon Scholar in 2008. His thesis identifies and systematically considers for the first time a group of philosophical writings, called the Madnun corpus, attributed to Islam's greatest theologian, al-Ghazali

Al-Ghazali

Abu Hāmed Mohammad ibn Mohammad al-Ghazzālī , known as Algazel to the western medieval world, born and died in Tus, in the Khorasan province of Persia was a Persian Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic....

(d. 505/1111) – his discoveries are based on a painstaking survey of nearly 50 medieval Arabic manuscripts. Besides acquainting scholars with this remarkable new body of source material, his three-volume study presents a critical edition of the most advanced and technical work of this corpus, the manual on metaphysics and natural philosophy called the Major Madnun.

Dr al-Akiti, who comes from Malaysia, is trained as a theologian and philologist in both the Islamic and Western traditions: educated originally at the feet of the ulema

Ulema

Ulama , also spelt ulema, refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law...

of the Muslim world, he subsequently received a First Class degree in Scholastic Philosophy and History of Science

History of science

The history of science is the study of the historical development of human understandings of the natural world and the domains of the social sciences....

from the Queen's University Belfast, where he was awarded various scholarships to read for his Masters and Doctoral degrees at Oxford. His areas of expertise are Islamic theology, philosophy and science.

In 2010, Dr al-Akiti was appointed Privy Councillor to the State of Perak

Perak

Perak , one of the 13 states of Malaysia, is the second largest state in the Peninsular Malaysia bordering Kedah and Yala Province of Thailand to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kelantan and Pahang to the east, Selangor the Strait of Malacca to the south and west.Perak means silver in Malay...

, Malaysia, by the Crown Prince of Perak, Raja Dr Nazrin Shah

Raja Nazrin Shah

Raja Dr Nazrin Shah ibni Sultan Azlan Muhibbuddin Shah is the Raja Muda of Perak. He is the eldest son of the current Sultan of Perak, Sultan Azlan Muhibbudin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Yusuff Izzudin Shah Ghafarullahu-lahu and the Raja Permaisuri of Perak Tuanku Bainun Binti Mohd...

.

Dr al-Akiti is listed in The 500 Most Influential Muslims for 2010. In 2009, along with Professor Muhammad Abdel Haleem

Muhammad Abdel-Haleem

Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem, OBE is Professor of Islamic Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, England; and editor of the Journal of Qur'anic Studies. Born in Egypt, he learned the Qur'an by heart during childhood, and is a hafiz. In 2004, Oxford University Press...

and the IIIT

International Institute of Islamic Thought

The International Institute of Islamic Thought is a privately held non-profit organization.The Institution is concerned with issues of Islamic thought...

, Dr al-Akiti was shortlisted for the Annual UK Muslim Awards, in one of its 15 coveted Awards for Excellence, the Allama Iqbal
Muhammad Iqbal
Sir Muhammad Iqbal , commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal , was a poet and philosopher born in Sialkot, then in the Punjab Province of British India, now in Pakistan...

Award for Creativity in Islamic Thought. In 2011, Dato' Dr Afifi Al-Akiti was conferred the title Darjah Paduka Mahkota Perak which carries the title "Dato'".

Critically Acclaimed Work: Defending the Transgressed

On 23 July 2005, just days after the 7 July London bombings

7 July 2005 London bombings

The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in the United Kingdom, targeting civilians using London's public transport system during the morning rush hour....

, Shaykh Afifi wrote Defending the Transgressed by Censuring the Reckless against the Killing of Civilians (Arabic: Mudafi' al-Mazlum bi-Radd al-Muhamil 'ala Qital Man La Yuqatil), in the forward of which, was described by Shaykh Gibril Haddad

Gibril Haddad

-Biography:Born in 1960 in Beirut, Lebanon, Haddad studied French Literature at Columbia University. After studying in Damascus, Syria, from 1997 to 2006, he currently lives in Brunei and is an Islamic author and translator....

as a "fatwa or 'response by a qualified Muslim scholar against the killing of civilians". Furthermore:

Upon reading Shaykh Afifi's fatwa do not be surprised to find that you have probably never before seen such clarity of thought and expression together with breadth of knowledge of Islamic Law applied (by a non-native speaker) to define key Islamic concepts pertaining to the conduct of war and its jurisprudence, its arena and boundaries, suicide bombing, the reckless targetting of civilians, and more.

This work was first published and became freely available on the Internet. It was written in response to a statement issued by the radical group al-Muhajiroun

Al-Muhajiroun

Al-Muhajiroun is a banned Islamist organisation that was based in Britain and which has been linked to international terrorism, homophobia and anti-semitism...

, which refers to the 9/11 hijackers as the "Magnificent 19", and claims that while Muslims who live in the West are not allowed to wage war against the government, Muslims who live elsewhere do not face the same prohibition. In fact, the leader of al-Muhajiroun, Omar Bakri Muhammad

Omar Bakri Muhammad

Omar Bakri Muhammad is an Islamist militant leader who was instrumental in developing Hizb ut-Tahrir into a major organization in the United Kingdom before leaving the group and heading another Islamist organisation, Al-Muhajiroun, until its disbandment in 2004.For several years Bakri was one of...

, even argues that the British government had broken a supposed "covenant of security" with its Muslim citizens when it embarked on its anti-terror crackdown by introducing anti-terror legislation and indefinite detention of terror suspects. British Muslims therefore had every right to consider themselves at war with the government, he claims. Countering this argument, Shaykh Afifi says that Omar Bakri has no authority to issue such a war directive as only a Muslim government could issue one. If a Muslim were to carry out such an attack, he would be a murderer and not a martyr or hero.

As a result of its huge online popularity, Defending the Transgressed was subsequently published as a book by Aqsa Press (Birmingham) and Warda Publications (Hellenthal, Germany) in September 2005. A year later the Defending the Transgressed appeared (as second edition) in The State We Are In – a collection containing contributions on the same topic by other notable Muslim scholars, including the likes of Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

Hamza Yusuf

Hamza Yusuf Hanson is an Islamic scholar of the Sunni tradition, and co-founder of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, United States. He is an American convert to Islam, and is one of the signatories of A Common Word Between Us and You, an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders,...

and Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah

Abdallah Bin Bayyah

Shaykh Abdallah bin Mahfudh ibn Bayyah He was born in Mauritania. Currently he teaches at King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia. He is a specialist in all four traditional Sunni schools, with an emphasis on the Maliki school of Madh'hab....

. Its third edition is published in 2009 as part of the Oxford Amnesty

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

Lectures (OAL) 2006 series, War Against Terror.

So far, Defending the Transgressed has been translated into a number of languages including German, Spanish, Albanian and Swedish.

The Defending the Transgressed has to date received critical acclamations by Muslim as well as non-Muslim sources; some of those reviews are reproduced here:

Shaykh al-Akiti’s scholarly refutation of the religious “basis” of terrorism.

The Fatwa for the protection of civilians.

An excellent piece to provide a clear and credible answer to the tragedy of terrorism.

The author of the article (who is himself a Muslim scholar) tackles the arguments of those who condone the killing of non-combatants head-on, refuting their arguments with proof and evidence from the Shariah. This is very important to do so. The fatwa issued by CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
The Council on American-Islamic Relations is America's largest Muslim civil liberties advocacy organization that deals with civil advocacy and promotes human rights...

, though correct, fails to address the arguments of the other side. It is important to address any such arguments so that the masses (Muslim or otherwise) learn what exactly is Islam's position on this subject.

Suicide bombing is an innovated practice that has no basis in Islamic law. Particularly when targeted against innocent non-combatants it is a fundamental violation of Islam’s understanding of justice. ‘No soul is guilty of the sins of another’ (Holy Qur'an, chapter 6 verse 163). ‘Do not kill yourselves’ (Holy Qur'an, chapter 4 verse 29). For more, see my essay ‘Bombing without Moonlight’ and the more technical Sharia discussion by Shaykh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti).

This is the most comprehensive legal articulation of the traditionalist Islamic rules of war that I have seen in some time.

Why is life so cheap these days? I agree wholeheartedly with this fatwa against the targeting of innocent civilians, put forward by Shaykh Muhammad Afifi Al-Akiti, and I think if you spend some time reading it, you too would realize how true it is.

The Scholarly Answer to Why Suicide Bombing is Forbidden in Islamic Law!

A very timely, relevant and detailed anti-terrorism fatwa

Ma sha Allah, is about all I could say whilst reading it: a work of scholarship and insight. It's uplifting to know that our Sacred Law (Shariah) is still alive and that its scholars are still hard at work (may Allah support them in their labours).

The best scholarly argument against suicide attacks both generally and specifically regarding Israelis is the fatwa written by Shaikh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti.

One can have no truck with terrorist methods in any circumstance. Islamic law is clear on this point: the lives of civilians, non-combatant and off-duty soldiers and reservists are held to be inviolable, as is reiterated in a detailed refutation of suicide bombing by Sheikh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti. Once the political rationale is made that this is permitted because an oppressed people are weak and have no military alternatives, then the tactic gets taken up elsewhere on the same rationale. Therefore, in accordance with a primary purpse of Islamic law, which is to protect human life, there are no exceptions anywhere.

Bin Laden’s religious language supporting homicide bombings and “jihad” are also easily deconstructed by these two publications (among others), Defending the Transgressed and The Hijacked Caravan. In short, OBL displays absolute religious hypocrisy by cloaking himself in the mantle of champion of Islam, yet failing to abide by some of its most basic principles. He is a disgrace and should be properly condemned by all true Muslims. For solid deconstructions of the “religious” justifications for suicide bombings and jihad, see these two detailed publications

This fatwa undeniably is well researched, thought of, explained and articulated. Its more authoritative, consistent and credible a source than what many contemporary equals tends to be. A must have and a must read for all politicians, journalists, everyone else who want to publicly quote or evaluate principles on warfare in Islam.

In rebuttal of the so-called "Jihadi" understanding of jihad it addresses most, if not all, of the questions and issues that are commonly brought up by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. It is also one of the best proofs of the relevancy and authority that traditional Islamic jurisprudence still has in the modern world in the hands of those who actually understand it and have the ability to use it with proficiency.

I think it is clear [that] Akiti's refutation that the Muslim extremists have absolutely no theological ground to stand on and are instead misinterpreting and cherry picking the Qur'an and Islamic tradition to support an indefensible extremism...Furthermore, I think Akiti's position makes it clear beyond doubt that Islam does not justify the murder of innocents, nor unprovoked attacks on non-Muslims, nor terrorism, nor any of the other slanders that many in the Western media have attributed to Islam.

Subhan Allah, this is what we need: really! Our ulema need to be focusing their energy on the task at hand, and so release fatwas of such clarity that there is no room for ambiguity, no room for discussion...I pray to God Almighty that he bestows on our Ummah many more alim such as Shaykh al-Akiti who are brave enough to pick up the gauntlet thrown by the traitors of our religion, and, to use a term from our land, “send them packing”

This wonderful piece of work spells out in very clear language why suicide bombing and the killing of civilians is completely prohibited in Islam and anyone who suggests otherwise(like the morons of Al Mahajaroon-who I think should be banned alongside the vile BNP) are misguided and /or heretics....would recommend everyone read this as to understand the real doctrine of Islamic etiquette vis a vis war.

[This] is a brilliant fatwa by Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti denouncing terrorism and its abhorrent participants. His legal reasoning and clarity is simply amazing, a clear indication of the rigorous nature of traditional Islamic jurisprudence.

Defending the Transgressed, published in the wake of the July 2005 London bombings, is the most comprehensive critique of Islamist violence and, in particular, the innovation of suicide bombings...Al-Akiti is a scholar who denounces Islamist terrorism, with unrivalled eloquence, passion and intellectual acumen. He has no political or sectarian agenda...His fatwa is a bold and necessary step in the right direction. When it comes to suicide bombing, there is no room for ifs, buts or maybes.

External links

Video links

Press links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.