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Egypt’s Grand Mufti Warns Regress in Fiqh Is a Sign of Extremism

Egypt’s Grand Mufti Shawki Allam (Egypt’s Dar Al Ifta)
Egypt’s Grand Mufti Shawki Allam (Egypt’s Dar Al Ifta)
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Egypt’s Grand Mufti Warns Regress in Fiqh Is a Sign of Extremism

Egypt’s Grand Mufti Shawki Allam (Egypt’s Dar Al Ifta)
Egypt’s Grand Mufti Shawki Allam (Egypt’s Dar Al Ifta)

Egypt’s Grand Mufti Shawki Allam stressed the need to adapt traditional texts in Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) to context and changes over time. He considered solely abiding by their literal interpretations a deviation from the right track.

“Using stagnation when interpreting traditional jurisprudential texts and commitment to them literally without taking into account changes in reality and norms is a manifestation of extremism and a departure from the purposes of the honorable Sharia,” said Allam on Wednesday, blaming terrorist groups for the practice.

“Jurisprudential conditioning is a process intended to attach the emerging reality - after good conception and realization of its dimensions - with a jurisprudential origin that has its descriptions and rulings,” explained the Grand Mufti.

In a step taken to better train Imams in Egypt, the Awqaf Ministry launched its first-ever program of the kind, entitled “Thinking Imam,” to prepare and instruct modern-day Imams.

According to the ministry, the program aims “to form a new generation of imams, distinguished scholars, and thinkers, not only in religious sciences but in all modern sciences.”

Interviews and tests will be held for program candidates, revealed the ministry. The vetting process will help select those best qualified to carry the banner of wisdom and good preaching.

Between 50-100 imams will be selected for the program, which will train its enlisters in various fields, including political sciences.

The program aims to promote a correct understanding of religion.

In early 2019, the ministry launched an academy to train and qualify imams and prepare trainers inside and outside Egypt.

For the ministry's part, imams should be familiar with modern technologies to benefit from them and adequately warn against their dangers.

For his part, Awqaf Minister Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa underlined that the ministry has focused on renewing religious discourse and spreading moderate thought.

He added that the ministry is also applying for several high-level training programs under national partnerships, intending to have a generation of imams who can explain the upright teachings of Islam.

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Palestinians Say 100,000 Residents Trapped in Israel’s North Gaza Offensive

A picture shows the damage to an ambulance at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia the northern Gaza Strip on October 26, 2024 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A picture shows the damage to an ambulance at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia the northern Gaza Strip on October 26, 2024 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Palestinians Say 100,000 Residents Trapped in Israel’s North Gaza Offensive

A picture shows the damage to an ambulance at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia the northern Gaza Strip on October 26, 2024 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A picture shows the damage to an ambulance at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia the northern Gaza Strip on October 26, 2024 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Israeli tanks thrust deeper on Monday into two north Gaza towns and a historic refugee camp, trapping around 100,000 civilians, the Palestinian emergency service said, in what the military said were operations to eliminate regrouping Hamas fighters.

The Israeli military said soldiers captured around 100 suspected Hamas fighters in a raid into Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Jabalia camp. Hamas and medics have denied any militant presence at the hospital.

The Gaza Strip's health ministry said at least 19 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes and bombardment on Monday, 13 of them in the north of the devastated coastal territory.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said around 100,000 people were marooned in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun without medical or food supplies. Reuters could not verify the number independently.

The emergency service said its operations had come to a halt because of the three-week Israeli assault into the north, an area where the military said it had wiped out Hamas combat forces earlier in the year-long war.

Talks led by the US, Egypt and Qatar to broker a ceasefire resumed on Sunday after multiple abortive attempts, with Egypt's president proposing an initial two-day truce to exchange four Israeli hostages of Hamas for some Palestinian prisoners, to be followed by talks within 10 days on a permanent ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday the latest meetings in Doha focused on a new outline that takes into account previous proposals and regional developments.

He said mediators would resume talks in coming days "in a continued attempt to advance a deal", without elaborating.

To date, Israel has repeatedly said the war will go on until Hamas is eradicated while the movement has ruled out end to fighting until Israeli forces leave Gaza.

Gaza's war has kindled wider conflict in the Middle East, raising concern about global oil supplies, with Israel carrying out bombings across Lebanon and sending forces into its south in an offensive to disable Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.

It has also triggered rare direct clashes between regional arch-foes Israel and Iran. At the weekend, Israeli warplanes pounded missile production sites in Iran in retaliation for an Oct. 1 Iranian missile volley at Israel.

Iran's Foreign Ministry said on Monday Tehran would "use all available tools" to respond to Israel's weekend attack.

'NONSENSE TALK OF CEASEFIRE'

North Gaza's three major hospitals, whose officials refused Israel's orders to evacuate, said they were hardly operating. At least two had been damaged by Israeli fire during the assault and run out of medical, food and fuel stocks.

At least one doctor, a nurse and two child patients had died in those hospitals due to a lack of treatment in the past week.

North Gaza residents said Israeli forces were besieging schools and other shelters housing displaced families, ordering them out before rounding up men and pushing women and children to leave the area for Gaza City and points in the south.

Only a few families headed toward southern Gaza as the majority preferred to relocate temporarily in Gaza City, fearing they could otherwise never regain access to their homes.

Some said they had written their death notices in case they died from the constant bombardment.

"While the world is busy with Lebanon and new nonsense talk about a few days of ceasefire (in Gaza), the Israeli occupation is wiping out north Gaza and displacing its people," a resident of Jabalia told Reuters by a chat app.

The Israeli military says its forces operate in keeping with international law and accuses fighters of hiding fighters and weaponry in civilian areas including hospitals and schools, a charge Hamas denies.

North Gaza was the first part of the enclave to be hammered by Israel's ground offensive after Hamas' cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, with intensive bombing largely flattening towns.

Nevertheless, Hamas-led fighters continue to attack Israeli forces in hit-and-run operations.

Hamas' 2023 attack killed 1,200 people and resulted in more than 250 hostages being taken into Gaza, per Israeli tallies.

The death toll from Israel's retaliatory air and ground onslaught in Gaza has reached 43,020, the Gaza health ministry said in an update on Monday.