Book Seen with Azhar Imam Renews Debate Over Enlightenment Concept

Circulated photo of Al-Azhar Sheikh with the book (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Circulated photo of Al-Azhar Sheikh with the book (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Book Seen with Azhar Imam Renews Debate Over Enlightenment Concept

Circulated photo of Al-Azhar Sheikh with the book (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Circulated photo of Al-Azhar Sheikh with the book (Asharq Al-Awsat)

A photo of a book that appeared next to Al Azhar Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb during his return flight from a European country, renewed on Sunday a debate over the concept of enlightenment among some of his supporters in Egypt.

The debate started when Dr. Khaled Montaser posted on his Twitter account the photo of Al-Tayeb during his return from a medical trip in Germany, with the book “The Decline of the West” by Moroccan thinker Hassan Aourid next to him.

Montaser tweeted that the book that the eminent Imam was reading while on the US jet is about the infidel West, adding in a sarcastic tone that if the Western civilization disappears, “we will not find a medicine tablet or a plane to return home.”

The tweet drew a wave of reactions, which considered that Montaser did not read the book.

Al-Azhar newspaper’s editor-in-chief Ahmed Al-Sawy defended the photo and responded to Montaser without naming him.

He said that The Decline of the West book had provoked the anger of the pretenders of knowledge and enlightenment who saw only their own superficial minds in the picture of Al-Azhar’s sheikh during the trip.

Al-Sawy stressed that important Western writers and thinkers are interested by the subject of this book.

Also, expert in political science and former deputy in the Egyptian Parliament, Dr. Omar Al-Shobaki, explained that the book “is not superficial, and does not deal with the West as infidel.”

He said the book carries a practical critical vision of the negative aspects of the Western civilization and its political system and it is part of the Western vitality to allow self-criticism, and review and correct its own mistakes.

Shobaki stressed that this critical vision should please any person seeking real enlightenment.

He also touched on the “concept of enlightenment” by saying that the required enlightenment calls for religious, political, social and cultural reform.



Private Lunar Lander Blue Ghost Falls Silent on the Moon after a 2-week Mission

Private lunar lander Blue Ghost’s shadow is seen on the moon’s surface after touching down on the moon with a special delivery for NASA, Sunday, March 2, 2025. (NASA/Firefly Aerospace via AP)
Private lunar lander Blue Ghost’s shadow is seen on the moon’s surface after touching down on the moon with a special delivery for NASA, Sunday, March 2, 2025. (NASA/Firefly Aerospace via AP)
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Private Lunar Lander Blue Ghost Falls Silent on the Moon after a 2-week Mission

Private lunar lander Blue Ghost’s shadow is seen on the moon’s surface after touching down on the moon with a special delivery for NASA, Sunday, March 2, 2025. (NASA/Firefly Aerospace via AP)
Private lunar lander Blue Ghost’s shadow is seen on the moon’s surface after touching down on the moon with a special delivery for NASA, Sunday, March 2, 2025. (NASA/Firefly Aerospace via AP)

It’s lights out for the first private lunar lander to pull off a fully successful moon mission.

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander fell silent over the weekend, wrapping up two weeks of science experiments for NASA. The end came as the sun set at the moon, no longer providing energy for the lander’s solar panels.

“Mission is completed,” Firefly CEO Jason Kim said via X late Sunday night. "But the Ghost still lives on in our hearts and minds for the journey it’s taken us on!"

The lander operated five hours into the lunar night as planned before it died Sunday evening. Photos of the lunar sunset and glow will be released on Tuesday, Kim said, The AP reported.

Blue Ghost launched from Cape Canaveral in January as part of NASA’s commercial lunar delivery program. It landed at the moon’s far northeastern edge on March 2. It carried a drill, vacuum and other science and tech instruments for NASA. Firefly confirmed Monday that all 10 experiments worked.

Late last week, Blue Ghost observed a total solar eclipse from the moon — a total lunar eclipse as seen from Earth.

The Texas-based Firefly became the first private company to land on the moon without falling or crashing after a string of failed missions by other companies over the past few years. Only five countries — the United States, Russia, China, India and Japan — have achieved a successful landing.

A Japanese company's lunar lander shared the SpaceX rocket ride, but took an even longer route to get to the moon. That lander from ispace is targeting an early June touchdown.

Another Texas company, Intuitive Machines, ended up sideways in a crater near the moon's south pole earlier this month, dooming the mission. It was the second incomplete mission for Intuitive Machines. Its first lander put the US back on the moon last year for the first time since the Apollo era after a less-than-perfect landing that hampered communications.

Firefly is already working on its next lunar lander and striving for one moon landing a year.