
By Habib Ali Al Jifri
February 26, 2014
Takfir, the act of accusing a Muslim of
apostasy, has become an ideology embraced by extremist movements to justify the
killing of anyone who does not fulfil their criteria of “true” belief.
There are two main reasons for the
cancerous spread of Takfirist ideology in parts of the Muslim world.
The first one is the rejection of the
diversity of opinions. This diversity is often a result of the application of
scholars’ independent legal judgement (Ijtihad) to religious textual evidence
that is non-definitive in its meaning. This leads to two things: an increased
inability for the representatives of religion to embrace changes in the world
from one perspective, and an expansion of the spheres of war in the Muslim
world from another.
The second reason is the association of
“non-belief” with killing and deviancy. Such tendency fails to recognise the
Sharia’s legal distinction between a combatant disbeliever and a civilian
disbeliever.
A combatant disbeliever can be legitimately
fought by the state, while the civilian cannot be prevented from his or her
rights despite their non-belief, as is declared in the Quranic verses: “For you
your religion and for me mine” and “Whomsoever wills may choose faith, and
whomsoever wills may choose non-faith”.
Throughout history, people have suffered
from the bloodshed and oppression that ensued from religious zealotry emanating
from political battle grounds.
A number of religious scholars have
expended efforts in creating initiatives that deal with the threat of Takfirism.
Among them is Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah, a renowned jurist and scholar from
Mauritania.
He convened the Mardin Conference in 2010
in Turkey, which had two primary purposes: to carefully examine and review
Islamic law’s traditional classification of the world into “domains” (Diyar)
and how this pertains to the concepts of jihad, loyalty and enmity (Al-Wala
Wa Al-Bara), citizenship and emigration.
The second purpose of the conference was to
discuss the “Mardin Fatwa” of the 13th century scholar Ibn Taymiyya, in which
he deduced a new ruling based on the Islamic jurisprudential classification of
the world into domains of “non-belief”, “Islam”, and “covenant”. Ibn Taymiyya
considered the city of Mardin to belong to both a domain of non-belief and domain
of Islam at the same time – non-belief due to its being ruled by the non-Muslim
Tartars, and Islam due to its residents being Muslim.
During the conference Sheikh Bin Bayyah
proposed a re-evaluation of this classification. International relations of that
time were primarily determined by warfare and conflict with cordial relations
being the exception.
Today, however, with peace being the norm
and war and conflict the exception, the classification no longer applies.
He also brought attention to methodological
flaws in how sacred texts are meant to be understood and interpreted and how
the various independent legal judgements of jurists are meant to be adopted.
For example, he mentioned how Takfirists used the Mardin Fatwa to justify their
own agendas.
When printed editions of this edict were
compared with its only available manuscript, a printing mistake was discovered
which changed a word from “shall be treated” (Yu’amal) to “shall be
fought” (Yuqatal). The text in question as found in the printed editions
of the fatwa reads: “(Mardin is of a third category) in which the Muslim shall
be treated as he merits, and in which the one who departs from the sacred law
(Sharia) shall be fought as he merits.”
Whereas the text in the manuscript read:
“(Mardin is of a third category) in which the Muslim shall be treated as he
merits, and in which the one who departs from the sacred law (Sharia) shall be
treated as he merits.”
This distortion has been printed for over
100 years and been the cause for much unlawful bloodshed.
Despite these efforts and others,
institutions and organisations – faith-based or not – as well as Sharia bodies
and councils and the media are completely oblivious to them and their valuable
outcomes.
The most pressing question today is whether
there is a serious desire to confront Takfirist ideology.
Habib Ali al-Jifri is the founder of
Tabah Foundation, an Islamic research institution in Abu Dhabi that offers
faith-based perspectives on contemporary Muslim and global issues
Source:
thenational.ae/why-is-there-no-serious-effort-to-counter-takfir-ideology-1.457996#ixzz2uRsR17eo
URL: http://www.newageislam.com/radical-islamism-and-jihad/habib-ali-al-jifri/reasons-for-the-cancerous-spread-of-takfirist-ideology-in-parts-of-the-muslim-world/d/115796