| Date | 25 August 2016– 27 August 2016 |
|---|---|
| Location | Grozny, Chechnya, Russia |
| Also known as | Grozny Conference Chechnya Conference The World Islamic Сonference 'Who are Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah?' |
| Organized by | Shaykh Ahmad Kadyrov Regional Charitable Fund Foundation for Chechen Islamic Culture and Education Tabah Foundation Muslim Council of Elders [1] [2] |
| Participants | Over 200 Muslim scholars-theologians and religious leaders from various Islamic schools of thought from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Morocco, Kuwait, Sudan, Qatar, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Britain, Russia, South Africa, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan [2] [3] [4] [5] |
| Previous event | Sufism: Personal Security and State Stability [6] |
| Website | Official website |
The 2016 conference on Sunni Islam in Grozny was convened to define the term "Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah", [7] i.e. who are "the people of Sunnah and majority Muslim community", [8] [Note 1] and oppose Takfiri groups. [10] The conference was held in the Chechen Republic capital of Grozny [11] from 25 to 27 August 2016, sponsored by the president of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, and attended by approximately 200 Muslim scholars from 30 countries, especially from Russia, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Kuwait, Sudan, Jordan, etc. at the invitation of Yemeni scholar, Ali al-Jifri. [7] [12]
The conference was dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the birth of Kadyrov's father, Akhmad Kadyrov, the first President of Chechnya. [13] [14]
The conference was notable for defining Sunni Islam in the final communiqué of the conference as including Ash'aris and Maturidis in theology (Aqidah), Hanafis, Shafi'is, Malikis and Hanbalis in jurisprudence (Fiqh), and people of spirituality (Sufis) - but not the Wahhabi or Salafi movements. [7] [8] It condemned Salafism and Wahhabism as "misguided" sects, along with off-shoot extremist groups such as ISIS, Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Muslim Brotherhood and others. [3] [15]
The conference definition stated:
“Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah are the Ash'aris and Maturidis (adherents of the theological systems of Imam Abu Mansur al-Maturidi and Imam Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari). In matters of belief, they are followers of any of the four schools of thought (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i or Hanbali) and are also the followers of the Sufism of Imam Junaid al-Baghdadi in doctrines, manners and [spiritual] purification." [16]
Sunni Islam also includes the "Ahl al-Hadith" who adopt the principle of tafwid (Consignment). The definition further explained the true Athari position:
"The scholars who belonged to the Ahl al-Hadith adopted either the position of tafwīd on the issue of God’s attributes or the position of ta’wīl (interpretation), with tafwīd more commonly adopted. Both positions are validated by the Ash`ari and Maturidi schools. The anthropomorphists (mushabbiha) and the corporealists (mujassima) are those who interpreted the Quran’s ambiguous verses (mutashābih) in a literal sense and imputed a physical form to God. The Ahl al-Hadith did not legitimate anthropomorphism and corporealism as valid doctrinal positions. Cases where individual hadith scholars held these positions are rare exceptions and unrepresentative of the Ahl al-Hadith school as a whole." [17]
Over 200 Muslim scholars-theologians and religious leaders from various Islamic schools of thought from 30 countries all over the world, including Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Morocco, Libya, Kuwait, Sudan, Qatar, Iraq, India, Indonesia, Britain, Russia, South Africa, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan. [2] [18] [3] [15] [4] [5] [19]
Notable scholars and preachers in attendance included: [20] [5] [12]
The conference participants reflected their support for what in Russia is considered “traditional” Islam. [24] Some suggestions came out of the conference, including recommendations to: [18]
The conference evoked a torrent of condemnation and criticism mostly from the Saudi Arabian establishment closely linked to the Saudi Kingdom such as the Saudi Council of Senior Scholars—as well as from the scholars of the Salafi, Wahhabi, and Ikhwani movements—for what they perceived as Russian meddling in regional politics via religion. [25] [1] [26] Twenty-one religious institutions across the world signed a petition of support to Salafis, expressing solidarity with them, emphasizing that the conference participants only represent themselves. [27]
The International Association of Muslim Scholars, an organization led by Muslim Brotherhood-linked Islamist Yusuf al-Qaradawi, reportedly criticized the conference as "a shameful attempt to sow dissent within the Muslim community." [13] The conference has also been widely criticised for toeing a Russian government line. Prominent Russian religious leaders avoided the conference in protest. [24] The chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Moscow, Ildar Alyautdinov, expressed his disillusionment with the resolution of the conference. [28]
In response to the widespread criticism received in the Islamic World, Al-Azhar publicly distanced itself from the conference and in mid-October sent a high-level delegation led by the senior Azhari scholar, Shaykh Abbas Shouman to Saudi Arabia and reconciled with the Salafi religious establishment, including the Grand Mufti Abdul Azeez Aal-Shaykh. [29]
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims, and simultaneously the largest religious denomination in the world. Its name comes from the word Sunnah, referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagreement over the succession to Muhammad and subsequently acquired broader political significance, as well as theological and juridical dimensions. According to Sunni traditions, Muhammad left no successor and the participants of the Saqifah event appointed Abu Bakr as the next-in-line. This contrasts with the Shia view, which holds that Muhammad appointed his son-in-law and cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor.
Wahhabism is a reformist religious movement within Sunni Islam, based on the teachings of 18th-century Hanbali cleric Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab. The movement was initially established in the central Arabian region of Najd and later spread to other parts of the Arabian Peninsula, and is today followed primarily in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The Salafi movement or Salafism is a revival movement within Sunni Islam, which was formed as a socio-religious movement during the late 19th century and has remained influential in the Islamic world for over a century. The name "Salafiyya" is a self-designation, to call for a return to the traditions of the "pious predecessors", the first three generations of Muslims, who are believed to exemplify the pure form of Islam. In practice, Salafis claim that they rely on the Qur'an, the Sunnah and the Ijma (consensus) of the salaf, giving these writings precedence over what they claim as "later religious interpretations". The Salafi movement aimed to achieve a renewal of Muslim life and had a major influence on many Muslim thinkers and movements across the Islamic world.
Abu al-Fida Isma'il ibn Umar ibn Kathir al-Dimashqi, known simply as Ibn Kathir, was an Arab Islamic exegete, historian and scholar. An expert on tafsir, tarikh (history) and fiqh (jurisprudence), he is considered a leading authority on Sunni Islam.
The Barelvi movement, also known as Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah is a Sunni revivalist movement that generally adheres to the Hanafi and Shafi'i schools of jurisprudence, and Maturidi and Ash'ari schools of theology with hundreds of millions of followers, and it encompasses a variety of Sufi orders, including the Chistis, Qadiris, Suhrawardis and Naqshbandis as well as many other orders of Sufism. They consider themselves to be the continuation of Sunni Islamic orthodoxy before the rise of Salafism and the Deobandi movement.
Ahl-i-Hadith or Ahl-e-Hadith is a Salafi reform movement that emerged in North India in the mid-nineteenth century from the teachings of Sayyid Ahmad Shahid, Syed Nazeer Husain and Nawab Siddiq Hasan Khan. It is an offshoot of the 19th-century Indian Tariqah-i-Muhammadiya movement tied to the 18th-century traditions of Shah Waliullah Dehlawi and the Wahhabi movement. The adherents of the movement described themselves variously as "Muwahideen" and as "Ahl e-Hadith."
Islamic schools and branches have different understandings of Islam. There are many different sects or denominations, schools of Islamic jurisprudence, and schools of Islamic theology, or ʿaqīdah (creed). Within Islamic groups themselves there may be differences, such as different orders (tariqa) within Sufism, and within Sunnī Islam different schools of theology and jurisprudence. Groups in Islam may be numerous, or relatively small in size.
Al-Ahbash, also known as the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects is a neo-traditionalist Sufi religious movement and, in Lebanon, political party, which was founded in the mid-1980s. The group follow the teachings of Ethiopian scholar Abdullah al-Harari. Due to the group's origins and activity in Lebanon, the Ahbash have been described as the "activist expression of Lebanese Sufism."
Ali Gomaa is an Egyptian Islamic scholar, jurist, and public figure who has taken a number of controversial political stances. He specializes in Islamic Legal Theory. He follows the Shafi`i school of Islamic jurisprudence and the Ash'ari school of tenets of faith. Gomaa is a Sufi.
Ahl al-Hadith is an Islamic school of Sunni Islam that emerged during the 2nd and 3rd Islamic centuries of the Islamic era as a movement of hadith scholars who considered the Quran and authentic hadith to be the only authority in matters of law and creed. They were known as "Athari" for championing traditionalist theological doctrines which rejected rationalist approaches and advocated a strictly literalist reading of Scriptures. Its adherents have also been referred to as traditionalists and sometimes traditionists. The traditionalists constituted the most authoritative and dominant bloc of Sunni orthodoxy prior to the emergence of mad'habs during the fourth Islamic century.
Muḥammad ibn Ali ibn Muḥammad ibn Abd Allah, better known as al-Shawkānī (1759–1834) was a prominent Yemeni Sunni Islamic scholar, jurist, theologian and reformer. Shawkani was one of the most influential proponents of Athari theology and is respected as one of their canonical scholars by Salafi Muslims. His teachings played a major role in the emergence of the Salafi movement. Influenced by the teachings of the medieval Hanbali scholar Ibn Taymiyya, Al-Shawkani became noteworthy for his staunch stances against the practice of Taqlid, calls for direct interpretation of Scriptures, opposition to Kalam as well as for his robust opposition to various folk practices which he condemned as shirk (idolatry).
Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion teaching that there is only one God (Allah) and that Muhammad is His last Messenger.
Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed El-Tayeb is an Egyptian Islamic scholar and the current Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Al-Azhar Al Sharif and former president of al-Azhar University. He was appointed by the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, following the death of Mohamed Sayed Tantawy in 2010. He is from Kurna, Luxor Governorate in Upper Egypt, and he belongs to a Sunni Muslim family.
Atharism is a school of theology in Sunni Islam which developed from circles of the Ahl al-Hadith, a group that rejected rationalistic theology in favor of strict textualism in interpretation the Quran and the hadith.
Salafi–Sufi relations refer to the religious, social and political relations between Salafis and Sufis, who represent two major scholarly movements which have been influential within Sunni Muslim societies. The debates between Salafi and Sufi schools of thought dominated the Sunni world since the classical era, splitting their influence across religious communities and cultures, with each school competing for scholarly authority via official and unofficial religious institutions. The relationship between Salafism and Sufism – two movements of Islam with different interpretations of Islam – is historically diverse and reflects some of the changes and conflicts in the Muslim world today.
Starting in the mid-1970s and 1980s, Salafism and Wahhabism — along with other Sunni interpretations of Islam favored by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies — achieved a "preeminent position of strength in the global expression of Islam."
Dr. Ahmad Mahmoud Karima, professor of Islamic law and comparative jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University, is best known for his religious moderation and condemnations of radicalism, and for his intense criticism of the Salafi-Wahhabi movement, and the Muslim Brotherhood group.
The 2020 International Maturidi Conference was an international scientific-practical conference held over three days, from 3 to 5 March 2020, in the city of Samarkand and under the title of "Imam Abu Mansur Maturidi and the Teachings of Maturidiyya: The Past and the Present".
Sa'id 'Abd al-Latif Foudah is a Shafi'i-Ash'ari scholar of Islamic theology (kalam), logic, legal theory, and the Chief Theology and Philosophy Advisor to the Imam al-Razi Chair at the King Hussein bin Talal Mosque in Amman, Jordan, who is best known for his criticism of the Salafi-Wahhabi movement and Ibn Taymiyya and his followers.
Al-Azhar Al-Sharif is an Islamic scientific body and the largest religious institution in Egypt. Its headquarters is located in the building of the Sheikhdom of Al-Azhar in the center of the Egyptian capital, Cairo. The history of the establishment of the Al-Azhar Mosque dates back to the year 970 by the Fatimid Caliph Al-Muizz Li-Din Allah. It is considered the third oldest university in the world after Al-Zaytoonah and Al-Qarawiyyin universities.
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