| 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, supported by Vladimir Putin [12] , 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] [13]
The conference was dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the birth of Kadyrov's father, Akhmad Kadyrov, the first President of Chechnya. [14] [15]
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] [16]
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." [17]
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." [18]
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] [19] [3] [16] [4] [5] [20]
Notable scholars and preachers in attendance included: [21] [5] [13]
The conference participants reflected their support for what in Russia is considered “traditional” Islam. [25] Some suggestions came out of the conference, including recommendations to: [19]
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. [26] [1] [27] 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. [28]
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." [14] The conference has also been widely criticised for toeing a Russian government line. Prominent Russian religious leaders avoided the conference in protest. [25] The chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Moscow, Ildar Alyautdinov, expressed his disillusionment with the resolution of the conference. [29]
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Muslim community, being appointed at the meeting of Saqifa. This contrasts with the Shia view, which holds that Muhammad appointed Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor. Nevertheless, Sunnis revere Ali, along with Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman as 'rightly-guided caliphs'.
Wahhabism is a religious revivalist movement within Sunni Islam named after the 18th-century Hanbali scholar Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab. It 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.
Akhmat-Khadzhi Abdulkhamidovich Kadyrov was a Russian politician and revolutionary who served as Chief Mufti of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in the 1990s during and after the First Chechen War. At the outbreak of the Second Chechen War he switched sides, offering his service to the Russian government, and later became the President of the Chechen Republic from 5 October 2003, having acted as head of administration since July 2000.
The Salafi movement or Salafism is a revival movement within Sunni Islam, founded in the late 19th century and influential in the Islamic world to this day. 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, the Maturidi and Ash'ari creeds, a variety of Sufi orders, including the Qadiri, Chishti, Naqshbandi and Suhrawardi orders, as well as many other orders of Sufism, and has hundreds of millions of followers across the world. 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 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."
Syed Nazeer Husain Dehlawi was an Islamic scholar and leader of the reformist Ahl-i Hadith movement in India. Earning the appellation shaykh al-kull for his authority among early Ahl-i Hadith scholars, he is regarded, alongside Siddiq Hasan Khan (1832–1890), as the founder of the movement and has been described as "perhaps the single most influential figure in the spread of the Ahl-i-Ḥadīth".
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).
Muqbil bin Hadi bin Muqbil bin Qa’idah al-Hamdani al-Wadi’i al-Khallali was an Islamic scholar in Yemen. He was the founder of a Madrasa in Dammaj which was known as a centre for Salafi ideology and its multi-national student population. Muqbil was noted for his fierce criticisms of the Egyptian Islamist writer Sayyid Qutb.
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.
Salafism and Sufism are two major scholarly movements which have been influential in Sunni Muslim societies. The debates between Salafi and Sufi schools of thought have 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 — whose interpretations of Islam differ — is historically diverse and reflects some of the changes and conflicts in the Muslim world.
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".
The Salafi movement in Sunni Islam has experienced a strong jolt recently, not only in terms of a challenge to its worldview but even to its very existence. On August 25-27, an international conference held in Grozny, Chechnya, was attended by over 200 leading Muslim clerics from various Islamic schools of thought, sponsored by the president of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov (see photo), and with the blessing of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Participants addressed the question, "Who are the people of the Sunna?" and determined that authentic Sunni Islam is not a militant religion that preaches violence, but rather a religion characterized by inclusion and tolerance towards the "other"....According to them, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov sought to glorify the Suffi stream as the leading religious denomination in Russia for two main reasons: Kadyrov's affiliation with the Suffi stream and Putin's willingness to support its strengthening as he is a moderate and a traditional enemy of the Salafi stream, which is why he expressed willingness to hold the conference in Grozny and to use it to create an anti-Salafi front.... Kadyrov is described in the official media and on the social network accounts on Salafist operatives as a reveler playboy who is breaking the laws of Islam and as Putin's Pinocchio.
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