Former Mufti Ali Gomaa has stressed that Islamic heritage is under attack by enemies.
During his speech at Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs on Saturday, Gomaa said there was a significant difference between renovation and reform saying that renovation requires changing exigencies of time, place, people and circumstances.
The West, according to Gomaa, did not destroy their heritage but preserved it to establish their universities and science. Islamic heritage is of morals, worshipping and worldly science, but the Western sciences considered relations with God as relative in accordance with interests.
Imam al-Qurtuby has 20 books including only one strange saying that needs to be discussed rather than destroying his great book, he added.
Removing parts from books of Islamic heritage means loss of Schools of Islamic jurisprudence, Gomaa said adding that our predecessors will accuse us of fraud. He also called on Al-Azhar graduates and Egyptians to be proud of their heritage without caring for the verbal criticism outside scientific academies.
Meanwhile, Ahmed Omar Hashem, former President of Al-Azhar University, said that books of heritage are being fiercely attacked by enemies of Islam funded by some organizations. He called on officials to stop the attack against Islam.
He also highlighted importance and identity of heritage saying “a nation without heritage is a nation without identity.”
Hashem said that our heritage is preserved and that those behind campaigns against heritage are not aware of anything.
“Al-Azhar holds the message of Islam, which faced a similar attack by the tatars, however, it gathered Muslims under its umbrella,” Hashem said.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
