Abdallah bin Bayyah explained

Honorific-Prefix:Shaykh
Abdullah bin Bayyah
Native Name:عبدالله بن بيه
Native Name Lang:ar
Religion:Islam
Denomination:Sunni
School Tradition:Ash'ari
Jurisprudence:Maliki[1]
Nationality:Mauritania, United Arab Emirates[2]
Office1:Chairman of the UAE Council of Fatwa
Term Start1:30 May 2017
Predecessor1:Office established
Birth Date:[3]
Birth Place:Timbédra, Mauritania
Location:King Abdul Aziz University
Influenced:Hamza Yusuf

Abdallah bin Mahfudh ibn Bayyah (Arabic: عبد الله بن المحفوظ بن بيّه, born 1935) is a Mauritanian Islamic scholar, politician and professor of Islamic studies at the King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, who serves as the chairman of the UAE Council for Fatwa.[4] [5] [6]

He is a specialist in all four traditional Sunni schools, with an emphasis on the Maliki Madh'hab. Currently he is the president of the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies.[7] Bin Bayyah is involved in a number of scholarly councils including the Islamic Fiqh Council, a Saudi-based Institute. He was also the vice-president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars.[8] from which he resigned in 2014.[9] [10] He was also a member of the Dublin-based European Council for Fatwa and Research, a council of Muslim clerics that aims to explain Islamic law in a way that is sensitive to the realities of European Muslims.[11] For over two decades, in relation to the latter two institutions, he worked closely with the Egyptian scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi. However, after the Arab Springs, Bin Bayyah distanced himself from Qaradawi and the International Union of Muslim scholars, instead founding the UAE-based Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies.[12] The Forum has attracted huge controversy for its close ties to the UAE government as well as Bin Bayyahs personal support for authoritarian leaders.[13] [14] [15]

Early career

Bin Bayyah was born in 1935[3] in Timbédra in a household with an Islamic environment in which he studied all of the Islamic sciences. He began his formal studies with his father, Mahfoudh; meanwhile, he studied Arabic with Mohammed Salem bin al-Sheen, Quran with Bayyah bin al-Salik al-Misumi.[16]

In his youth, he was appointed to study legal judgments in Tunis. On returning to Mauritania, he became minister of education and later minister of justice. He was also appointed a vice president of the first president of Mauritania.[4] He resides in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and teaches Islamic Legal Methodology, Qur'an and Arabic at the King Abdulaziz University. He is fluent in Arabic and French.[17] Hamza Yusuf serves as his translator.

Views

Sufism

Bin Bayyah is a promoter of Sufism.[18] He believes that Tasawwuf (which he defines as the seeking of perfection through the love for and longing towards meeting Allah) needs to be revived in the Islamic Ummah and restored as an Islamic science. He also asserts that various Sufi practices - including the use of dhikr beads, Tawassul (using the righteous as a means to gain Allah’s blessings), Tabarruk (deriving blessings from the relics of the deceased), and visiting the graves of the Awliya - all have a "solid basis in Islam." Bin Bayyah asserts that although Sufis strive to attain Ihsan, the highest level of faith in Islam, it is only attainable once one has mastered the first two levels of faith, Islam (the focus of jurists) and Iman (the focus of theologians).[19]

Bin Bayyah states: "That space of overflowing love, light, passion, insight, transparency, transcendence, and spirituality must have some container and some action to exist within and by. Actually, it is the inseparability and interdependence of the body and the soul. There must be a discipline with its own rules and terminology to represent such perfection aspired to by the highly-determined. That discipline took various names such as “sermons”, as used by Al-Bukhari, and “asceticism”, as in early Sunnah. Eventually, it was agreed to be named “Tasawuff”, just as the discipline of the Sharia was to be called Fiqh."[19]

On extremism

Bin Bayyah is one of the signatories of the Amman Message, which gives a broad foundation for defining Muslim orthodoxy.[20] He is also a signatory to the Letter to Baghdadi, an open letter to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The Letter to Baghdadi is a theological refutation of the practices of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.[21] In 2014, he issued a fatwa against the extremist terrorist group ISIS[22] and was famously quoted in a later interview on CNN for saying, "I call to life, not to death." In subsequent years, Bin Bayyah has addressed think tanks and similar audiences such as The Council on Foreign Relations.[23]

Prominence

Bin Bayyah was quoted by President Barack Obama during his speech before U.N security council 2014.[24] Since 2009, he has been ranked as The 500 Most Influential Muslims by Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre and currently holds the number 15 spot for 2020.[25]

Publications

Responsibilities and positions

Medals and awards

See also

Prominent students

External links

Notes and References

  1. [Gerhard Böwering]
  2. News: الإمارات تحصر الفتوى في مجلس يرأسه عبدالله بن بيّه.. وجدل . Arabi21 . 16 January 2022 . ar.
  3. John Gallagher, Eric D. Patterson, Debating the War of Ideas, p 51.
  4. John Gallagher, Eric D, Debating the War of Ideas, p 51.
  5. al‐Azami. Usaama. July 2019. 'Abdullāh bin Bayyah and the Arab Revolutions: Counter‐revolutionary Neo‐traditionalism's Ideological Struggle against Islamism. The Muslim World. 109. 3. 343–361. 10.1111/muwo.12297. 202966459 . 0027-4909. 2021-08-30. 2021-12-31. https://web.archive.org/web/20211231235723/https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:53d73a1a-5ca0-4849-99bb-5c418e0ced4c. live.
  6. Web site: UAE Council for Fatwa’s Members . 2023-09-17 . The UAE Council for Fatwa . en-GB.
  7. News: Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies. 2015-04-02. 2015-04-03. https://web.archive.org/web/20150403045314/http://peacems.com/?page_id=2973&lang=en. live.
  8. http://www.iumsonline.net/ar/default.asp?MenuID=3 Members list (Arabic)
  9. Web site: 404 . elkhabar.com . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140821133545/http://www.elkhabar.com/ar/nas/354962.html . 2014-08-21 .
  10. Web site: Middle East Online: Qaradawi's deputy resigns from Union of Islamic Scholars. Middle East Online. 2016-10-18. 2016-03-01. https://web.archive.org/web/20160301181451/http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=61348. dead.
  11. http://www.e-cfr.org/ar/index.php?ArticleID=245 List of Members of the European Council for Fatwa and Research
  12. Web site: Rivals in the Gulf: Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Abdullah Bin Bayyah, and the Qatar-UAE Contest Over the Arab Spring and the Gulf Crisis. 2022-01-05. Routledge & CRC Press. en.
  13. Web site: UAE's forum for 'promoting peace' is another cynical PR initiative. 2022-02-09. Middle East Eye. en.
  14. Web site: 5Pillars (RMS) . 2018-12-16 . Traitors in our midst: The scholars of colonisation . 2023-03-14 . 5Pillars.
  15. Book: Al-Azami, Usaama . Islam and the Arab revolutions : the ulama between democracy and autocracy. . 2023 . Hurst Publishers . 978-1-78738-822-2 . Chapter 4 Bin Bayyah Support to Opposition . 1359915242.
  16. [:ar:عبد الله بن بيه]
  17. http://imamsonline.com/blog/abdullah-bin-bayyah/ Imams Online: "Abdallah bin Bayyah"
  18. http://www.israinternational.com/component/content/article/42-rokstories/126-shaykh-abdullah-bin-bayyah-addresses-global-sufi-gathering.html ISRA News: "Abdallah Bin Bayyah"
  19. http://binbayyah.net/english/2012/01/20/sufism-in-islamic-shariah/ The Official Website of His Eminence Abdallah Bin Bayyah: "Sufism in Islamic Shari`ah"
  20. Web site: Bin Bayyah's official reply to Amman Message . 2012-02-01 . 2012-02-08 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120208072334/http://ammanmessage.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=73&Itemid=42 . live .
  21. Web site: Letter to Baghdadi. Letter to Baghdadi. 23 March 2016. 8 February 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150208110812/http://www.lettertobaghdadi.com/. live.
  22. Web site: Prominent Muslim Sheikh Issues Fatwa Against ISIS Violence. Bayyah. Sheikh Abdullah bin. NPR.org. en. 2020-02-26. 2019-12-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20191216082516/https://www.npr.org/2014/09/25/351277631/prominent-muslim-sheikh-issues-fatwa-against-isis-violence. live.
  23. Web site: A Conversation With Shaykh Abdallah bin Bayyah. Council on Foreign Relations. en. 2020-02-26. 2020-04-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20200420044829/https://www.cfr.org/event/conversation-shaykh-abdallah-bin-bayyah. live.
  24. News: Prominent Muslim Sheik Issues Fatwa Against ISIS Violence. September 25, 2014. April 4, 2018. May 12, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180512115213/https://www.npr.org/2014/09/25/351277631/prominent-muslim-sheikh-issues-fatwa-against-isis-violence. live.
  25. Web site: Abdullah bin Bayyah. The Muslim 500. en-US. 2020-01-04. 2020-01-04. https://web.archive.org/web/20200104033600/https://www.themuslim500.com/profiles/abdullah-bin-bayyah/. live.
  26. Gerhard Böwering, Patricia Crone, Mahan Mirza, The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought, p 347.
  27. Web site: WAM/Hatem Mohamed . Emirates News Agency - 8th Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies starts Sunday in Expo 2020 Dubai . Wam.ae . 2021-12-04 . 2021-12-31 . 2021-12-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211228193857/https://www.wam.ae/en/details/1395302999725 . live .
  28. Web site: كلمة رئيس المنتدى :: منتدى تعزيز السلم في المجتمعات المسلمة . 2021-12-28 . 2021-12-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211228200514/https://www.peacems.com/about-us/president-message/ . live .
  29. Web site: Bio. binbayyah.net. 2013-12-08. 2013-12-12. https://web.archive.org/web/20131212012529/http://binbayyah.net/english/bio/. live.
  30. Web site: King of Malaysia has Awarded Sheikh Abdullah BIM Bayyaj. BinBayya Network. 26 February 2020. 10 February 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200210061948/http://binbayyah.net/english/king-of-malaysia-has-awarded-sheikh-abdullah-bin-bayyah/. live.

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