Muhammad Said Ramadan al-Bouti

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Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Būti
مُحَّمَد سَعِيد رَمَضَان ٱلْبُوطِي
Movement
Islamic neo-traditionalism[5]
Muslim leader
Influenced by
Influenced
AwardsDubai International Holy Quran Award, 2004
Part of a series on
Ash'arism
Rock carved with al-'Aqida al-Murshida by Ibn Tumart
Background
Eminent scholars
3rd AH/9th AD
  • Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari
    (d. 324/936)
  • Ibn Khafif (d. 371/982)
4th AH/10th AD
5th AH/11th AD
6th AH/12th AD
7th AH/13th AD
8th AH/14th AD
9th AH/15th AD
10th AH/16th AD
11th AH/17th AD
12th AH/18th AD
13th AH/19th AD
14th AH/20th AD
Theological works
Institutions
Events
Related groups
Classic
Modern

Muhammad Said Ramadan Al-Bouti (

Arabic: مُحَّمَد سَعِيد رَمَضَان ٱلْبُوطِي, romanized: Muḥammad Saʿīd Ramaḍān al-Būṭī) (1929 – 21 March 2013) was a renowned Syrian Sunni Muslim scholar, writer and professor, where he was vice dean in the Damascus University and served as the imam of the Umayyad Mosque.[8]

Al-Bouti wrote more than sixty books on Islamic law and theology. He was a leading figure of Islamic neo-traditionalism which adhered to the four schools of thought in Sunni Islam and the orthodox Ash'arite creed.[8] His works has been highly regarded to be a pivotal defense of Sunni Islam against opposing ideologies such as Secularism, Marxism, and Nationalism along with reformist movements of Wahhabism and Islamic Modernism.

On 21 March 2013, al-Bouti was assassinated at the Al-Iman Mosque in Damascus. The circumstances around the event are still unclear.

Early life

Al-Bouti was born in 1929 in the village of Jeilka, located near

Kurdish tribe that was present in a number of regions across Levant, Iraq, and Turkey.[10] When Al-Bouti was four years old, his family migrated to Damascus due to Ataturk's secularization.[11]

He was enrolled in a primary school and received specialized religious tutoring from his father.

Prophet Muhammad's biography with Shaykh Hasan Habannakah and Shaykh al-Maradlnl in the Manjak Mosque in al-Midan. Later when the mosque was transformed into the Institute of Islamic Orientation, he studied Qur'an exegesis, logic, rhetoric and the fundamental principles of Islamic jurisprudence until 1953.[2]

In 1954, he travelled to

Al Azhar University, at the Faculty of Sharia.[13]

On the completion of his three-year degree in law from the Faculty of Sharia Al-Azhar, and another Diploma in Education from the Faculty of English again at Al-Azhar, al-Bouti returned to Damascus with a Sharfa teaching qualification (ijaza) and an education diploma.[14]

Career

Al-Bouti started his career teaching at a secondary school in Homs between 1958 and 1961.

Al Azhar University for a doctorate in Shariah and received his doctorate (PhD) in 1965.[14][15]

He returned as an instructor at the University of Damascus in 1965, eventually becoming the dean of the Faculty of Sharia at the same university from 1977 to 1983.

seerah).[14]

He was also a visiting professor at many Arab and Islamic universities and supervised the master's and doctoral degrees in the Sharia College at Damascus University and other universities.[15]

Al-Bouti was a member of the Aal al-Bayt Foundation for Islamic Thought in Amman, Jordan,[17] of the Supreme Council of the Academy of Oxford[18] and of the Supreme Advisory Council for the Tabah Foundation in Abu Dhabi.[19]

During the Muslim Brotherhood's revolution in 1979 in Syria, al-Bouti vocally condemned the attacks of Islamic militants,[20] while most of his senior colleagues were either silent or supportive of the opposition.[16] Al-Bouti was chosen for the Dubai International Holy Quran Award in its eighth session in 2004 (1425 AH) to be the "personality of the Muslim world".[15] In 2008, Al-Bouti was appointed preacher of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.[16]

Thought

Most of al-Bouti's ideas are put forward within the framework of traditional legal scholarship, frequently referring to Qur'anic verses, Hadith and the opinions of the leading classical authorities, in particular al-Nawawi, Ibn al-Arabi, al-Ghazali, and al-Shafi'i. Due to his profession, al-Bouti regards Islamic law as the core of the Islamic religion; whenever he speaks of Islam he means the principles, injunctions and practical implications of the Sharia.[7]

In his preaching and writings, Al Bouti worked to refute not only

Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani.[16]

He devoted one book to criticising

Salafism and explaining their incoherence:[22]

Al-Bouti had a "long-standing opposition to both military and political activism in the name of Islam" based on the belief that Islam should be 'the common element that unites' all political forces rather than taking the side of one force, which he explained in his book Jihad in Islam (1993).

Azhar University to freeze the dialogue with the Vatican after the Pope's comments that offended Muslims.[23]

Al-Bouti specialized in fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and usul al-fiqh (principles of jurisprudence) according to the Shafi'i school of law. Most of his views are based on the Qur'an, hadiths and the opinions of the leading classical authorities, such as

al-Shafi’i.[3][4]

Aside from religious matters, he also wrote various works on non-religious subjects such his translation of

Mam and Zin, a famous Kurdish story, into Arabic.[24]

Syrian protests 2011 and his position

Following the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in March 2011, Al-Bouti criticised anti-government protests and urged demonstrators not to follow "calls of unknown sources that want to exploit mosques to incite seditions and chaos in Syria."[10]

The opposition called him a hypocrite over his support for the

uprising in Egypt, which he had written was Islamic, only to condemn protests as un-Islamic when they broke out in Syria itself. Al-Bouti did criticise President Assad in public, shortly after demonstrations had started, for a government decision to fire hundreds of female teachers for wearing the hijab. Following Al-Bouti's criticism, the decision was quickly revoked by President Assad.[25]

Assassination

A book of Quran was in the hand of Al-Bouti at the time of assassination

Al-Bouti was killed while giving a religious lesson to students at the Al-Iman Mosque in the central Mazraa district of Damascus.[26] The bomb attack reportedly killed at least 42 people and wounded more than 84. It marked the first time during the civil war a suicide bomber detonated explosives inside a mosque.[26] Al-Bouti's death is said to have removed "one of the few remaining pillars of opposition to the uprising" among the majority Sunni Muslims who have formed the base of support for the uprising.[27]

According to Thomas Pierret – a lecturer in Contemporary Islam at the University of Edinburgh – the death of Al-Bouti means the loss of the "last credible ally among the Sunni religious elite" for the Syrian government. Al-Bouti was "a Muslim scholar of world standing," Pierret states.[27]

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack and both the government and the opposition condemned the attack and accused each other of perpetrating it. Among opposition forces there was "a mixture of suspicion and shock that a notable religious figure ... would be targeted" by a suicide bomber inside a mosque.[26]

Videos

Some, including Jim Muir of the BBC, have questioned whether a bomb killed Al-Bouti.[28] Official film footage shown on Syrian television taken after the bombing appears to belie a bomb scene,[29] showing "superficial debris, but not the kind of structural damage or bloodbath that would be expected from a huge bomb killing 50 people in an enclosed space".[28]

The BBC claims Al-Bouti shows no sign of serious injury following the explosion, and his desk and the books on it are not disturbed.[28] However within seconds a man with his back to the camera walks up to the scholar, does something and then leaves, leaving al-Bouti "limp" and "bleeding heavily from the mouth and from a wound to the left side of his head". Almost immediately al-Bouti is carried away by five other figures. None of the figures show any attempt "to attend to [Al-Bouti] or investigate his injuries", and their movements have "nothing of the panic and chaos that accompanies big bomb explosions in crowded places". The authenticity of this video "has not so far been seriously challenged" and its "implication seemed to be that the sheikhs' killing was the work of the regime".[28]

In reply to the video, Syrianews.cc gave an interview to the Sheikh's son, Tawfiq for his account of the event. According to the interview,[30]

"All the injured told the same story of the bombing, a man entered the mosque & sat alone. Later he walked and bombed himself. My father leaned to the right after being injured and tried to adjust his hat. When the injury took effect he fell to the left."

In December 2013, Syrian television showed what it claimed were confessions to the murder of al-Bouti by Syrian, Iraqi and Palestinian members of Jabhat al-Nusra.[31]

Works

Al-Bouti published nearly 60 books and religious publications (in Arabic),[26] some of philosophical nature. Most of his philosophical works are published by Dar Al-Fikr:

Selective books include:

TV programs:

References

  1. ISBN 080785588X
  2. ^ a b Andreas Christmann , 'Islamic scholar and religious leader: A portrait of Shaykh Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Būti', Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations (Publisher: Routledge), Vol. 9, No. 2, (1998) p. 150.
  3. ^ a b Zekeriya Budak, Islamic Jurisprudence for Muslims in the West (2011), Leiden, p. 19.
  4. ^ a b Al-Bouti, M.S.R., Hâdhâ Wâlidi: al-Qissa al-Kâmila li hayât al-Shaykh mullah Ramadân al-Buti min wilâdatihi ilâ wafâtihi, Damascus, Dar Al-Fikr, 8th edition, 2006, p. 13.
  5. ISBN 978-90-04-42557-6
    .
  6. ISBN 1107026415
  7. ^ a b c d e Andreas Christmann, 'Islamic scholar and religious leader: A portrait of Shaykh Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Būti', Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations (Publisher: Routledge), Vol. 9, No. 2, (1998) p. 155.
  8. ^ a b "Sheikh al-Bouti, the Syrian Sunni cleric who stood by Assad". Al Arabiya. 22 March 2013. p. 1.
  9. ISBN 978-0-1997-5726-8
    .
  10. ^ a b Sheikh al-Bouti, the Syrian Sunni cleric who stood by Assad alarabiya.net| 22 March 2013
  11. ^ "Dr M. Saeed Ramadan Al Bouti". Facebook. 27 October 2005.
  12. ^ Dr. M. Sa'id Ramadan Al-Bouti Archived 6 April 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ a b "Bouti, Prominent Sunni Muslim Scholar". onislam.net. 22 March 2013.
  14. ^ a b c Andreas Christmann , 'Islamic scholar and religious leader: A portrait of Shaykh Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Būti', Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations (Publisher: Routledge), Vol. 9, No. 2, (1998) p. 151.
  15. ^ a b c d e f "Quran award recognises Al Bouti's contributions". GulfNews.com. 5 October 2004. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
  16. ^ a b c d e Pierret, Thomas (22 March 2013). "Syrian Regime Loses Last Credible Ally among the Sunni Ulama". 22 March 2013. Syrian Comment. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
  17. ^ "The Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought". Aalalbayt.org. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
  18. ^ a b "Islamic scholar rejects terror tag for holy war". GulfNews.com. 26 April 2002. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
  19. ^ "The Senior Scholars Council – About Us". Tabah Foundation. 13 January 2008. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
  20. ^ Andreas Christmann , 'Islamic scholar and religious leader: A portrait of Shaykh Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Būti', Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations (Publisher: Routledge), Vol. 9, No. 2, (1998) pp. 152–153.
  21. ^ Andreas Christmann , 'Islamic scholar and religious leader: A portrait of Shaykh Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Būti', Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations (Publisher: Routledge), Vol. 9, No. 2, (1998) p. 154.
  22. ^ Andreas Christmann , 'Islamic scholar and religious leader: A portrait of Shaykh Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Būti', Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations (Publisher: Routledge), Vol. 9, No. 2, (1998) p. 157.
  23. ^ Muslim Seminary Ends Talks With Vatican Over Pope's Comments| Francis X. Rocca| Religion News Service| huff post|01/20/11
  24. ^ "Encyclopedia Iranica:AḤMAD-E ḴĀNI".
  25. ^ Phil Sands (24 March 2013). "Thousands grieve for murdered Syrian imam who supported Assad". thenational.ae.
  26. ^ a b c d Karam, Zeina (21 March 2013). "Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan Al Buti, Syrian Pro-Assad Cleric, Killed in Damascus Bombing". Huff Post. Retrieved 23 March 2013.
  27. ^ a b Pierret, Thomas (22 March 2013). "Syrian Regime Loses Last Credible Ally among the Sunni Ulama". Syria Comment. Retrieved 16 November 2013.
  28. ^ a b c d Muir, Jim (10 April 2013). "Syria 'death video' of Sheikh al-Bouti poses questions". BBC News.
  29. ^ "فيديو.. لحظة قتل الشيخ البوطى رئيس اتحاد علماء الشام و أكبر داعم لسوريا وقيادتها". barakish.net. Archived from the original on 29 March 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  30. ^ +ProSyriana (9 April 2013). "Tawfiq AlBouti on the Video of His Father Murder". SyriaNews.
  31. ^ Terrorists affiliated to Jabhat al-Nusra confess to assassination of Sheikh al-Bouti, 22 Dec 2013 "Syrian Arab news agency - SANA - Syria : Syria news ::". Archived from the original on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  32. ^ Mem and Zin

External links

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