Sheikh Al-Mahfouz Bin Bayyah’s work comes as part of distinguished efforts that scholars, preachers and researchers rely on, as well as politicians, governments and institutions for the purpose of one goal: that Muslims do not oppose Muslims, and that Muslims do not oppose the world.
Since ’Uthman’s Fitnah the movements of political Islam have always been the greatest enemy of religion and the world. They have always been the stronghold of fatigue and strife, then the collapse of the Caliphate states and the Muslim kingdoms.
The Islamic civilization could have remained in its prestigious position with its mastery of knowledge, century after century and decade after decade. But the war of military and ideological depletion led by the old Kharijites and carried on by the new Kharijites was behind the constant series of resistant sedition, coups, and waves of exodus.
There is no such structured organization that we might call Kharijites, nor are there identity cards or membership arrangements referring to this or that Kharijite. Scholars are no longer preoccupied with tracking their groups and movements as much as they are tracking their thoughts and opinions. Their rhetoric and opinion as well as their action and behavior are indicative of the same Kharijite ideology.
The expansion of the Kharijites from the Indian subcontinent to the Iberian Peninsula has formed an alliance of “takfir,” denouncement, and repudiation. Their repudiation has affected the most distinguished of Muslims, the greatest companions and righteous contemporary Muslims.
The danger of the “contemporary Kharijites” is more serious than that of their takfiri ancestors. Their ancestors were scavenging on a strong state and a rich civilization. As for today’s Kharijites, they are scavenging on a helpless debilitated body and are scooping from the blood of the poor and weak who were afflicted with weakness, hunger and fear.
From Afghanistan to Nigeria and from Iraq to Somalia, the Kharijites devour miserable prey that are impoverished and diseased, adding weakness to weakness.
It was among the blessings of God on the nation that He constantly endowed it with those who warn people and disclose confusions, those who think firmly and act with determination, and do not stop until they achieve what they intend, as Al-Kawakibi said.
One of these is the global peace advocate, the scholar Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah, head of the Supreme Council for Fatwas in the United Arab Emirates. He is the Islamic philosopher who summarized his humanitarian project in a timeless saying: “War must be declared over war, so that peace begets peace.”
In the work we’re discussing, Sheikh Al-Mahfouz Bin Bayyah, son of the advocate of world peace, narrates the intellectual biography of one of the most important conferences of Islamic thought, the Mardin Conference in Turkey.
The Mardin Conference revealed for the first time how the extremists forged statements under the name of Sheikh Ibn Taymiyyah, may God have mercy on him. This conference constituted a milestone in contemporary thought.
A single word that was changed in a text by Ibn Taymiyyah, led to the placement of an alibi for an alliance of criminals and terrorists. The cover has been uncovered, and the text has been restored to what it was, which means the abolition of the false legitimacy that the Kharijites of the twenty-first century have espoused.
This work, published by the Cairo Center for Strategic Studies–as part of the “Issues and Opinions” series–represents the first detailed effort to present the introductions, facts and results of the historic Mardin conference. It narrates the road to Mardin, and the road from Mardin. It employs a subtle literary style that merges the core and subject matter within the research and presentation of a serious material.
The Cairo Center for Strategic Studies, which is proud to present this important work of Professor "Sheikh Al-Mahfouz Bin Bayyah", believes that confronting word with word, term with term, and fatwa with fatwa, is a necessary and obligatory matter.
The Islamic knowledge society must confront the alliance of sophists, those who delve into the Islamic heritage in pursuit of every bad and ugly potential, and displace every great and precious accomplishment. Simply put, we need to transform Mardin's activity from a "conference" to a "model" and from a "station" to a “roadmap”.
The Mardin conference was based on legal and historical knowledge, and on the jurisprudence of interest and the realization of purposes. This makes “knowledge” and “tolerance” together the mainstays of this historic conference, or that “tolerance” based on a complete intellectual system of religious principle, historical context and realistic proposition.
The extremists will continue to fight Muslims in the name of the “Mardin Fatwa”. Scholars must not forget in their generous offerings the continuation of the confrontation at the “Mardin Conference”.
The Cairo Center for Strategic Studies is looking forward to more works whose content joins forces in order to preserve the mind, preserve blood, and restore the civilized function of the Islamic Nation.
Ahmed Al-Moslemany
The Cairo Center for Strategic Studies
Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah, Ibn Taymiyyah, The Mardin conference
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