Al-Ahram Weekly | Profile | Ali Gomaa: Bridges of understanding

Credible eminence is the challenge faced by any grand mufti in this day and age, and while one might choose to abide by a fatwa of his -- a fatwa, as he is eager to point out, is but a legal opinion on a specific topic, by no means binding to everyone in the Muslim community -- there is no denying the love and respect Sheikh Ali Gomaa inspires, nor the fact that, however lightly the media have taken some of his fatwas, he embodies hope in a progressive and tolerant future, counterpointing many and varying hardline views. He comes at the start of millennium, and for those Muslims who respond to him, at least, he is the right man at the right time. Though perfectly orthodox, Sheikh Gomaa is sufficiently aware of perspective and context to answer questions about daily life, politics, economics, women's status, sociology, science, astronomy, sports and art in a breathtakingly modern spirit, demonstrating as much familiarity with the secular as with the religious world. His responses testify to the ability to formulate a vision which, orthodox in its roots and form, is nonetheless modern in outlook and content. A Sufi, globally-oriented, Sheikh Gomaa is a multilingual orator, a professor in the modern sense as well as a religious scholar, a writer, television presenter, a husband and a father. And, controversial as he has proved to be, he is intent on preaching his message wherever he happens to be in the world, regardless of how it rings with government figures or other religious authorities.

Opium of the people it may be for some, or a cosmetic dimension of the human constitution: Sheikh Gomaa believes religion is, contrary to all that, "an innate desire", almost biological, necessary for the well-being of humanity. He stresses that, since the European Enlightenment, secularism has palpably failed to satisfy people's needs, and cites the current global return to religion as evidence. "Especially in this country," he says, referring as much to Christians and Muslims, "people love religion, a bond all the stronger now that communism has fallen." Yet in this information age, with fatwas swirling and the surge of religiosity often taking extreme forms, what may be the guiding principle? Sheikh Gomaa is one possible answer. As this conversation has proved, in far fewer words and far less time than one really wanted -- having found a stream, the thirsty wanderer thinks he must drink it all! -- when it comes to the problems surrounding Islam, the bottom line is ignorance. Islam is badly understood, or not at all. Debates are seldom constructive, imitation is the norm, intellect is all but non-existent, and the free association of barely digested ideas will often lead to false conclusions accepted as the truth. The sickness should be dealt with "smoothly and systematically", Sheikh Gomaa says, "mainly by the media, whose power is unequalled, but only within the framework of religious scholarship rather than its current, ignorant interventions". Call him mawlana or doctor -- he is equally convincing wearing either hat: Sheikh Gomaa is professor of usul al-fiqh (the four canons of Islamic jurisprudence -- Quran, Sunna, qiyas or analogy, and ijmaa or consensus) at the Faculty of Islamic and Arabic Studies, Al-Azhar University, and the khatib (orator) of the Sultan Hassan Mosque as well as grand mufti. And, his schedule notwithstanding, he is available for personal consultations twice a week at Al-Azhar and Sultan Hassan, where he answers every kind of question. He also appears on three different television programmes and has written over 20 books. Since being appointed grand mufti four years ago, Sheikh Gomaa's discourse has consistently called for reforming the Islamic institution in line with the contemporary world and resorting to the intellect before all else. Though his lawyer father was not against his desire to join Al-Azhar as a boy, Sheikh Gomaa's mother insisted on a secular degree. And so it was after obtaining a BA in commerce from Ain Shams University in 1973 that he completed his BA, MA and PhD in Islamic law at Al-Azhar University (in 1979, 1985 and 1988, respectively). A man with a vision, Sheikh Gomaa believes that, from his current pedestal, he can influence Islamic thinking in the 21st century.

In harmony with the public at large, Sheikh Gomaa is often at odds with religious authorities of various ilks. Even those who appreciate the depth and breadth of his scholarship are sometimes angered by his fatwas, believing them to be unorthodox; extremists, for example, call for a literal interpretation of the texts, up to and including an overthrow of the regime, while the secularly minded would rather have a nutshell Islam for the times, clear of all tradition. Somehow Sheikh Gomaa treads a path between the opposing views: "I am not going to remould religion ignoring 14 centuries to suit whoever," he said recently during an episode of Al-Bait Baitak, a popular talk show. "I will do my work, issuing the fatwas best suited to the age as I see it, and I will be judged later by God." Thanks partly to his excellent media office (headed by Ibrahim Negm, a Harvard graduate who nonetheless abides by the tradition of kissing the sheikh's hand in greeting - which sometimes is misunderstood as a religious act and something that inspired respect in this instance), the 54-year-old Sheikh Gomaa generously offered some of his time at Dar Al-Iftaa, one of the world's most venerable centres of Muslim authority, founded in 1895, where he succeeded Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb to become Egypt's 18th grand mufti. His office, where I had some time to reflect while a group of visitors took their leave, proved remarkably cosmopolitan, what with the variety of faces and costumes -- both Azharite and modern, all speaking Arabic. Though courteous and gentle, Sheikh Gomaa was initially somehow reserved, no doubt a consequence of bad experiences with the media in the past. Of the innumerable issues to do with religion now raging, which should one start with? An outline seemed necessary: at the local level, his fatwas have caused a furore; at the regional level, conflicting multi- fatwas have given way to a kind of unstable religious market place confusing believers; at the international level, Islam is being scrutinised and Muslim immigrants face the challenges of integration into Western society. Acknowledging the global village and the need for a contemporary as much as a traditional perspective, Sheikh Gomaa, focussing on his own role, insists that a fatwa is an intellectual act outside scripture, which makes it both unbinding and, by definition, a functional act.

Sheikh Gomaa's position hasn't stopped him from resuming a social role (he is, for example, the founder of the Egypt Goodness Foundation and a major player in the Food Bank), and this attitude reflects the integrity with which he faces the widest range of issues imaginable through the press, television and even the worldwide web. He evidently feels the need for Dar Al-Iftaa, the traditional stronghold, to compete with various, seldom reliable sources of fatwas, though he believes the media is behind much of the apparent trouble, blowing up issues and circulating misinformation; at a Dar Al-Iftaa conference in Kuwait, Sheikh Gomaa proposed that Islamic institutions put together a unified standard to which all sheikhs who issue fatwas the world over can adhere. This was a week after Sheikh Ezzat Atiya, dean of the Hadith department at Al-Azhar University, issued the notorious breastfeeding fatwa, drawing on the tradition that prohibits sexual relations between a man and a woman who had breastfed him to suggest that symbolic breastfeeding could be a way round the segregation of males and females -- only to face a disciplinary committee. According to Sheikh Gomaa speaking recently in London, "when each and every person's unqualified opinion is considered a fatwa, we have lost a tool that is of the utmost importance to rein in extremism and preserve the flexibility and balance of Islamic law." Unqualified authorities must stop issuing fatwas, he repeats now, but even more importantly, the media must stop "commenting on the fatwas in ignorance and making them the talk of the world". About this issue he is particularly clear: "Responsibility and power are two faces of the same coin and I don't have the power to change reality, so change can only come through tolerant communication, advice, scholarship and constructive debate." Sheikh Gomaa sits up. "Such chaos comes of misinterpreting the essence of religion." What is needed is a culture capable of accepting religion as a science comparable to medicine, not a field like entertainment. The difference is that, in the latter category, judgement depends on taste, while the former is objective and systematic: "you can reject a particular treatment but you can't change medicine as a whole; your judgment may be different from another -- and this is not a question of religion but one of religiosity -- and you might reject religion overall. But you can't have tastes about it, you can't change it to suit your tastes."

Only scholars can pronounce, and even then they must have two skills besides a deep understanding of the law: knowledge of reality, and the ability to apply the law to it. They can debate among themselves, and a Muslim has every right to take or leave what they offer. A ruling in scripture is eternal and unchanged; a fatwa is a pronouncement on how to apply it; and it must take into account not only time and place but the people to whom it is being applied and the state they are in. It is public figures giving in to "the superstitious attitude" and talking religion that must be combated. There are clearly prescribed steps for issuing a fatwa, and Sheikh Gomaa has equipped Dar Al-Iftaa with a team of 12 muftis capable of issuing 1,000 fatwas daily. Seeking such guidance is not encouraged in Islam, except where it is necessary due to the development of societies. Sadly, however, "people keep asking the same questions over and over again". Be that as it may, a fatwa should always be understood as a bridge linking past with present, absolute with relative, theoretical with practical: "For this reason it takes more than knowledge of Islamic law to issue a fatwa."

Potentially explosive issues on which he has pronounced include women acting as judges, statutory, yoga, gambling on sports, organ transplants, the unification of the call to prayer, mobile phone reinforcement transmitters on top of minarets and serving alcohol as part of your job in a non-Muslim country.

A furore was recently instigated in the press when Gomaa was quoted by the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom, as giving an "opinion" regarding the sanctity of the Prophet Mohamed's body, saying that such sanctity extended to his "urine". Gomaa was vehemently attacked by commentators for what was perceived as an inappropriate statement not suited for a religious authority of his stature. Gomaa sticks to his guns, however, asserting that the controversial statement was actually a "misquotation" of a passage in a work that he had authored. He reiterates the view that, within Muslim jurisprudence, all that emanated from the body of the prophets is "sacred and blessed".

His point of view notwithstanding, Gomaa still had his own book pulled out of the market, in a bid to end "all current as well as future controversy".

Why bring all this up at a time when it could have negative effects on Islam and its image? "My duty is to answer whatever question I am asked. They are all part of a compendium of 2,300,000 questions answered in our 14-century history." Whether one agrees with him or not, one cannot deny the impact of his statements on public opinion. He concedes that the ongoing dialogue reflects the society that he lives, and its prevalent culture.

His interests, he says, lie in reviving the waqf (foundation) system, overseeing zakat (the legal charity system of Islam), community integration and improving understanding: "There is no problem with a political movement but I think social, economic and intellectual movements should have priority. As a human being, the mufti has a political stance and a vision but for his job he cannot belong to one group or party at the expense of another." Dar Al-Iftaa is nominally part of the Ministry of Justice but has full autonomy and is not allowed to interfere with the work of the secular courts or government policies. Nor is it affiliated with Al-Azhar except insofar as its employees -- down to Sheikh Gomaa, who is a member of Al-Azhar's Council of Islamic Research -- are Al-Azhar graduates. It is a relation of integration, he says, not of conflict; the final word is that of the council, however, which is an international body headed by Al-Azhar. The flexibility of Islam is as much legal as cultural, he insists, the law being both a methodology and a canon of positions adopted by jurists over 14 centuries including no less than 90 schools of legal thought: the 21st century offers "a providential position" from which to benefit from this huge corpus. Claims that the door to ijtihad (the exertion of effort in coming up with a new ruling) were closed after the fourth century of the Hijra find no resonance with Gomaa. "There is no door to ijtihad to open or close - only the recurrent need for it. Fatwas like those concerning the permissibility of women baring their hair or smoking during the fast in Ramadan are unacceptable because they have not been correctly deducted from the Quran and Sunna."

But a liberalist he most undoubtedly is, in line with all grand muftis appointed by the presidency and not, as had been the case until the 1980s, by Al-Azhar. With less originality, perhaps, others frequently flouted-conservative- popular sentiment, an accusation from which Gomaa too suffers. But the issue, he says, is political: "There are those whose mission is to cut off [religious] scholars from the ummah (Muslim community) through blaming the authorities." Of the 120,000 fatwas issued by Sheikh Gomaa, not one, however, was in the interest of the government. "In Imam Mohamed Abdu's reign [1899- 1905], he issued no more than 942 fatwas ; now we issue more than 1,000 f atwas a day. Taking population growth into account, this means 1,800 fatwas to each issued by Imam Abdu. Where, then, is the separation between scholars and the public? If anything, this change is evidence of spiritual need, not ignorance and definitely not separation." But just as important is the business of clearing up the confusion surrounding Islam and Muslims in the West, largely a matter of discussing the possibility of integration with the West and emphasising the multiplicity of (Muslim) civilisation: its humanitarian and cosmopolitan dimensions, its spiritual and material side, its flexible mode of government and its survival under non-theocratic states. The issues at stake include extremism, suicide bombing and the theory and practise of Jihad. At a recent Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme (CIP) conference in Britain, which boasted the presence of then prime minister Tony Blair, included a reception by Gordon Brown (the UKs new PM) and opened with a video conferencing session with Prince Charles, Sheikh Gomaa was the voice of moderation. "Blair's practical proposal for raising awareness was exactly what I had called for two years before in London," Sheikh Gomaa said on his return to Cairo. "We have to think about establishing a central authoritative body in London too, to gather Muslims, especially Muslims of British origins, and solve their problems." Elsewhere he highlighted the need to separate orthodoxy from extremism: "some people claim that the history of Islam is tainted. From my own long study of the religion and its history, I can attest to the fact that Islam is entirely innocent of ethnic cleansing, inquisitions and forced conversion -- an opinion confirmed by a study undertaken by Richard W Bulliet, a pre-eminent Middle East scholar at New York's Columbia University, who demonstrated that while the body politic of Islam spread quickly, it took hundreds of years for populations to convert. Therefore, in reality the faith was spread through love, intermarriage and family relations, not by the sword. We all need to learn from history and build a world fit for our grandchildren."

Most astounding, however, are Sheikh Gomaa's views on women: "I believe Islam gives men and women equal social and political rights -- the right to be heads of state and judges included." A staunch opponent of any form of extremism, Sheikh Gomaa was saddened to find his name attached to a foreword he never wrote to an Arabic edition of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Here as elsewhere he displays far more humanity than is evident within the space allowed this piece: he switches effortlessly from one role to the next, from tolerant intellectual to unwieldy debater, from psychiatrist to everyday father, with a wonderfully witty sense of humour. His posture and alertness are only two facets of the aura that engulfs you in his presence, which involves a breathtaking intelligence and delightfully easy classical Arabic. "I've had a target and a vision. I want to expand knowledge of Islam and, as much as I can, to deliver its message and revivify it, for the benefit of those who will arrive in my wake. I want to serve Islam, whether as preacher or mufti, whether as husband or father, in and out of Egypt. The main thing is to work hard, and pray for success." One tradition he revived is that of the Sheikh Amoud, wherein a sheikh sitting with his back to a pillar teaches a group of students -- an open- university approach to the study of religion. His taste in calligraphy has found various expressions, and he boasts of a photographic memory allowing him to recite upwards of 1,000 lines of traditional poetry at a time. Though he has not forgotten the wrongs that have been commited against him, his principle reaction is to repeat, yet again, that he is someone who issues fatwas -- a craftsman doing his job.