The Speech of H. E. Prof Ahmad At-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar on the celebration of Prophet Muḩammad's Birthday
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Mr. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
May Allah's Peace, Mercy, and Blessing be upon you!
It is my pleasure to express my kindest congratulations to you, to the great Egyptian people, and to the Arab and Muslim kings, sovereigns, and peoples, on the occasion of the birthday of the Prophet of humanity and peace. May Allah's Peace, Mercy, and Blessing be upon him and upon his fellow Prophets and Messengers. This anniversary recalls to the awareness of each Muslim and each one who rightly knows this honorable Prophet and his biography the image of greatness and great people who have changed the history and saved humanity. Those great people, who have guided the course of human life to the right path, acted as a carrier transmitting the light of heavens to the earth. About 1.3 billion followers now celebrate the birthday of this highly ranking Prophet worldwide. Actually, the Prophet (pbuh) has several due rights on all believers who benefit from his noble example, teachings, and trends. He (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) was not majestic in only one aspect of human fascinating nobility and greatness. Rather, he combined all the aspects of greatness, which are well deserved of high respect and veneration at all times.
It is surely impossible to epitomize all the aspects of Muḩammad's greatness in this speech, limited in scope and time. He was the perfect human being notably distinguished for so many aspects of human perfection. I hope my statement will be enough to indicate a repeatedly discussed issue of some relevance to this honorable occasion. It is such cries, which frequently raise doubts about the value, authenticity, and authority of the Prophet's Sunnah. They also impugned the early sources of Sunnah, including the Prophet's Companions and their Successors in their earnest requests to set the entire Sunnah aside from the area of legislation and laws and to exclusively depend on the Qur᾿ān in all the acts of worship and life dealings. Concerning the areas falling outside the text of the Qur᾿ān, to them, Muslims are free from the fetters of proscriptions and obligations.
The first instance this call appeared in modern times was in India by the late 19th century. Famous figures shared this call there. However, some of them eventually claimed to be prophets and proved loyal to the power of colonization. Some others ended up denying the Sunnah, including the mass-narrated reports, claiming that the Sunnah has no legislative value in Islam and that the Qur᾿ān is the only source of legislation, in defiance of the Muslim unanimous consensus on the necessity to maintain both the Sunnah and the Qur᾿ān acting together. Otherwise, the greater part of religion would be lost. They gave examples in their attempt to make their point. As known, the second pillar of Islam, after the declaration of faith, is prayer. It is well known that the concept of prayer is authentically reported in the Qur᾿ān but there is no single verse in the entire Qur᾿ān that tells about the way of performing the five daily prayers, the number of units in each, its moves, the times of takbeer recitation from the beginning to the concluding salutation. There is no way to know about these details except from the Prophet's Sunnah, which is the second source of legislation in Islam. When a denier of the Sunnah is asked to give evidence to the manner of prayers from the Qur᾿ān, he, deeply upset, claims that the Qur᾿ān only commands the performance of prayers but the manner is left to the president of the state to decide after consulting with his advisors on the way that suits the time and place.
Those close to the colonial authorities followed suit of them, denying the verses of jihad (sacred fight) and issuing fatwas (juristic rulings) proscribing the resistance of the colonizers. Actually, they deny all that the Western culture denies including the doctrines of faith. Oddly, they adopted the Western culture in all its aspects, even in matters contradicting Islam, thus challenging Muslim unanimous agreements. The sound of this chaos echoed in Egypt and found one advocate, who was a prisoner in the [well-known, Cairo-based] Tora Prison. He published two articles in Al-Manar Magazine in 1906 CE and 1907 CE entitled, “Islam is only the Qur᾿ān.” The idea then found support among those waiting in ambush for the Sunnah, who persistently denied the Prophet's Tradition. Regardless of their trends and attitudes, they all shared the same doubts and suspicions about the narrators of hadith, neglecting the great academic efforts in which the Muslim erudite scholars and encyclopedic polymaths sacrificed their lives and lost their eyesight for only one aim: distinguishing the authentic hadith from the inauthentic one among the statements of the Sunnah. This distinction ran through a uniquely accurate process of investigation and wonderful examination of the history of narrators, especially their academic and moral biographies. These endeavors and discussions had eventually led to the rise of a new independent discipline known as ᾿isnād (Haith Narration) or ʿilmu r-Rijāl (Study of Hadith [Narrating] Men). It is a unique discipline unknown to non-Muslims in the past or the present, as testified by prominent European scholars who have studied the Prophet's Sunnah for long periods of time.
In this regard, the English orientalist, of Dutch origin, Aloys Sprenger said that history had never known, and will probably not ever know, a contribution like that of the Muslims who, thanks to the discipline of hadith narration (‛Ilu r-rijāl) that they had created, the lives of half a million narrators were scrutinized. Likewise, the British renowned orientalist Margoliouth said in one of his lectures that although the theory of ᾿isnād, created by the scholars of hadith, has led to much hardship, as it necessitates a perfect investigation before approving each narrator of the hadith sources, the value of the ᾿isnād theory in terms of the accuracy of the Prophet's hadith is beyond all doubt. Muslims have full right to take pride in having the discipline of hadith among their branches of knowledge.
This fair judgment would be hard to admit by Western scholars if they did not go along the long and tough journeys of discussion, investigation, and verification. In conclusion, it has become clear for them that the history knows no other personality like Prophet Muḩammad (pbuh) with a perfect record of his entire life's events, deeds, statements, travels, morals, and habits, including the color of his clothes, the lines of his countenance, the manner of his speaking, walking, eating, drinking, sleeping, and smiling, as well as his close relationship with his family, friends, and enemies, among many other details with which the literature of the Prophet's biography and history are duly rich.
In conclusion, I would like to come back to the issue of the birthday of the Prophet (pbuh) to wonder in surprise: who told this honorable Prophet (pbuh) that some of his followers would rise after more than thirteen centuries to call for the exclusion of his Sunnah and for depending on the Qur᾿ān alone. So, he (pbuh) forewarned us against their manner centuries before they were born. It is authentically narrated that Prophet Muḩammad (pbuh) said, “Soon, there will come a time when a man reclining on his sofa would, when one of my sayings is narrated to him, say, 'Let the Book of Allah be the judge between us and you. Whatever it states as permissible, we will take as permissible; and whatever it proscribes we will take as forbidden'. Indeed, whatever the Messenger of Allah has forbidden is equally authentic to that which Allah has forbidden.” Is not this forecast a sign of his prophecy and a miracle proving the truth of his message?
Dear Mr. President,
I repeat my congratulations to you, asking Allah to provide you with more determination, success, and guidance. May Allah preserve you for Egypt and preserve Egypt for you! Happy new anniversary to everyone!