Knowledge is the noblest thing that honors Man and raises his/her status, as Allah Almighty says: “Allah will raise those of you who have faith and those who have been given knowledge by degrees” [Q:58:11]. Indeed, Acquiring knowledge casts responsibility on scholars towards their societies and fellowmen to attain welfare, development, guidance and elaboration, persuasion and justification; it was mentioned in the Prophetic Hadith that “religion is sincerity.” They said; “To whom, O Messenger of Allah?” He said: “To Allah, to His Book, to His Messenger, to the imams of the Muslims and to their common folk”.
In fact, knowledge creates close mental and spiritual relationships among scholars, by which scholars, despite their different specialties, may take the same path to reveal Allah’s miracles in this universe and to end up in paradise in the hereafter, as the Prophet (PBUH) said: “Whoever takes a path upon which to obtain knowledge, Allah makes the path to Paradise easy for him”.
The first principle ever of acquiring knowledge in Islam and the most abiding duty of scholars is to spread the knowledge they acquired among people; again, scholars should cherish their knowledge and abide with its traditions and the proper significances that befit scholars and students seeking knowledge and truth. Additionally, any branch or specialty of knowledge must not be turned into a commodity subject to supply and demand, or to be demeaned in the circles of benefits and narrow interests. Knowledge is a message before being a source of livelihood which should come in the second place, not in the first one.
Knowledge is free from all constraints, and the true scholar should feel high ranked and enjoy high self-esteem, even though he is poor. Fortunately, and praise is due to Allah, that we studied poor scholars who left in our minds and souls enlightenments that led our scientific and moral path.
In such concern, I would like to share with you the prominent status of al-Azhar moderate approach and its regenerative committed tendency since Sheikh Mohammad Abdu and after him: Sheikh Selim al-Bishri, Sheikh Mohammad Bakhit al-Muti’i, Sheikh Mohammad Mustafa al-Maraghi, Sheikh Mustafa Abdul Raziq, Sheikh Mohammad Draz, Sheikh Mahmoud Shaltut till Sheikh Abu Zahra and Sheikh al-Ghazali, as well as the rest of the noblest, sincere and prominent group of al-Azhar scholars and imams. Indeed, Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) had described scholars as: “In every successive century those who are reliable authorities will preserve this knowledge, rejecting the changes made by extremists, the plagiarisms of those who make false claims for themselves, and the interpretations of the ignorant”.
I promise you, we will remain faithful to such regenerative moderate approach of al-Azhar, and we will exert every effort to defend it against the falsifications of the extremists, who seek to subvert minds and deviate the religion. We exert every possible effort to purify al-Azhar approach from any deviated attempts to contaminate it with invalid, deviant thinking as well as combating the misinterpretations that are not based on the rules of comprehension, interpretation and true preaching.
