Our Interview with the Egyptian Newspaper Al-Bawaba:

The Complete Original One followed by the Distorted Incomplete Version!

Published in June 26, 2017

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Introduction:

1- Our painful experiences include those journalists who contact us via email, and when we stipulate that they publish our words without omissions or editing, the interview is either never gets published or published partially, with distorting and twisting our words! We typically wait for a long time and if any interview is not published, we publish it within our website instead, the complete Q&A, and we do so if the interview get published partially, and we notify the readers of the fact, while keeping in mind the restrictions imposed on journalism in the Arab world. Though we esteem those who seek to interview us, the painful fact remains that it is easy for people to read news of massacres almost on a daily basis, but it is extremely difficult for people to read a refreshing interview containing new facts about religion and politics. However strong the reform speech or discourse, it is better than bloodshed, because religious and political reform aims primarily at saving lives of people in our modern age of bloodbaths.     

2- The Egyptian newspaper Al-Bawaba made this interview with us months ago; we waited to see it online, and then we forget all about it and rejected the idea of publishing it on our website as it contains repeated Q&A that appeared online elsewhere within many websites. But suddenly, we have noticed that the Al-Bawaba website has published the interview partially, while distorting some of our words, in the form of a debate with another Salafist person whom we do not know. This is very insulting to our person and we denounce such act. No one dares to debate us without our consent; no one has our knowledge of our field of specialization. It is never an honor to us to debate with an Azharite clergyman or a mufti in the KSA, let alone a nobody! To make matters worse, the newspaper changed our words, making us as if we were saying that the so-called Sunna is a source of legislation in Islam! Thus, they falsely ascribed to us words we never uttered! Another example is that they falsely ascribed to us saying the term (Islamic doctrines), instead of our term (earthly, man-made religions).   

3- This newspaper is run by a bunch of inveterate lairs who are dishonest and know nothing of professional journalism; we wish they never have published this interview in the first place. We never seek to be interviewed by anyone in the press; we never beseech anyone to make us appear in the media. Journalists of Al-Bawaba newspaper were the ones who sought and beseeched us to allow them to interview our person. In fact, such a deed reflects the corrupt age suffered by Egyptians in Egypt now. We will never contact Al-Bawaba newspaper journalists ever again, unless they apologize in their newspaper for their insults against our person!  

4- We publish here in this article the original, complete interview Q&A and then the distorted, incomplete version of the interview that has appeared online within the Al-Bawaba newspaper website.

Firstly: the unpublished original complete interview:

- Question: Who are the Quranists and what notions are distinguishing them from the rest of Muslims worldwide?

1- Quranists whom we talk in their name and on their behalf now who have joined our VA-based IQC within out Quranism website ahl-alquran.com are forming a reformist intellectual trend; they are not a sect or a political party; rather, they are using the Quran as the only criterion and yard-stick to judge and measure all notions, seeking to peacefully reform Muslims. We, Quranists, never impose ourselves or our views on others; we forgive and pardon those who slander and verbally abuse us as much as we can. We never claim we own the Absolute Truth. We wait for God's judgment on the Last Day on us and on our foes, like the rest of all humanity.     

2- Quranists have their methodology in pondering the Quran by using its own set of terminology from within its text, without imposing personal whims, prejudices, or views, as they seek guidance from the Quran. Quranists accept correction and criticism because they are seekers of the Truth. Quranists never assume that their own views are that of Islam; they are their own views/ponderings based on their own reasoning minds; this is why our fatwas/views are open to discussion within comments written by all people on our website.  

3- We have our scientific and objective research method regarding history, heritage, and fiqh schools of Muslims as human thought never to be sanctified and it has its faults and good points. We specialize in Muslims history. The enormous fault of all is to ascribe such man-made thought authored by fiqh scholars to God and Islamic sharia. We bear in mind that their fiqh is filled with discrepancies and contradictions. A worst fault is to ascribe hadiths falsely to Prophet Muhammad; such narratives reflect the eras in which they were authored. Thus, such hadiths are never part of Islam; the whole and complete Islam is the Quran; no one can add to it after Prophet Muhammad's death. By the way, hadiths were written down during the Abbasid Era onwards; to make them part of Islam implies an accusation leveled at Prophet Muhammad that he did not deliver the Islamic message wholly and left parts of it to be completed after his death. These assumed parts are bottomless, shoreless ocean of narratives filled with myths and sharia laws contradicting the Quran and endorse bloodshed. We, Quranists, clear Prophet Muhammad's name of such lies and falsehoods and erroneous legislations of misguidance leading to bloodshed and massacres.  

4- As per the Quran, the term "Sunna" in some verses means God's sharia laws in the Quran and in some other verses, it refers to God's way of dealing with or punishing of disbelievers/polytheists. this means that Sunna is God's only. As for Prophet Muhammad, he is a role-model and sets a good example for us; he has no Sunna of his own. For more details, we refer you to our book titled "The Quran Is Enough and Sufficient Source of Legislation". Words and phrases uttered by Prophet Muhammad are the ones recorded in the Quran in the verses containing the command (Say:...) and the expression (They ask you about...Say...). Thus, the Sunna for Quranists is the Quran per se. God asserts to us in the Quran that the Quran is enough for real Muslims. The difference between Quranists and Sunnites is that the latter insist on hadiths (authored and written 200 years after the death of Muhammad) as being part of Islam as 'oral Sunna'; Quranists disagree with that. Yet, both Quranists and Sunnites agree on one thing: the practical Sunna to Sunna in practice are acts of worship: prayers, pilgrimage, etc. Hence, God will judge us as per the Quran, and NEVER as per lies and fabrications written by Al-Bokhary and his likes.

5- Within such Quranist methodology, we have authored thousands of articles, researches, books, and fatwas on our website; as far as we know, no one before or after us so far has ever written the same quantity and quality of innovative ijtihad writings. We have elucidated several facts of the Quranic Truth never tackled before by anyone else. 

6- Of course, views of Quranist writers on our website differ, but within conditions of our website: 1) never to ascribe hadiths to Muhammad (as we reject them all), and 2) never to deny Quranic facts of Islam; e.g., acts of worship: prayers, fasting, zakat, pilgrimage, etc. The constitution of Quranists is published in English, French, and Arabic on our website. For the English version, you will find it on this link:

 http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=15303  

- Question: Who are the most prominent figures of Quranists worldwide? What are the number of Quranists worldwide and where they can be located? Do they have inner trends that differ from mainstream Quranism?

1- We have begun the Quranist intellectual trend 40 years ago, since 1977, when we took the initiative to debunk Al-Bokhary book and its assumed sanctification inside Al-Azhar. In fact, we are the one to pave the way as a torchbearer, and we paid a heavy price for it. Within the margin of our intellectual jihad, great many changes have occurred in Egypt: many moderate Sunnites are now criticizing some hadiths while retaining Sunna as part of their religion. These critics have made use and benefited from the cultural climate we have established with our sacrifices and intellectual jihad endeavors, as they write now within a comfort zone of safety when they criticize some hadiths of Al-Bokhary and some other related details within a measure of freedom. Azharite clergymen are actually unable to refute Quranism and Quranists or even to come up with new notions, and their defense of their myths includes only persecuting the weak ones by using their authority in Egypt. We feel sorry for reformist thinkers being incarcerated and persecuted because of Al-Azhar; but these thinkers are not Quranists, as they retain their belief in some hadiths; they are in a phase that we have surpassed 20 years ago. Quranists believe only in the Quran as the only source of Islam and Islamic sharia legislations.      

2- Quranists whom we speak now in their name who belong to our website and the VA-based IQC are free individuals who belong to a reformist Islamic school/trend of thought. Their number cannot be counted; they are at least 10 thousand people scattered all over the globe. Each of them is a free individual and a separate school of thought; they are the pioneers of our website. They are the vast majority in terms of intellectual endeavors; as they are more active in religious reform than the vast majority of Salafist Sunnites who are parrots repeating the same hackneyed words and faulty notions, as if they were one person with big tongue and mouth without mind. The same applies to Shiites and Sufis. In contrast, the Quranists are thousands of enlightened minds seeking to introduce reform and progressive stance (see our article in English titled "Who Are The Minority Among Muslims: The Quranists Or The Salafists?" on this link: http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=13594).  

3- There are those claim falsely that they are 'Quranists' but they in fact have no knowledge at all; they dare to reject all acts of worship, esp. the five daily prayers and follow their whims to deliberately misinterpret the Quranic verses. Those persons aim to destroy Quranist trend, we presume. Some of such persons have been expelled from our website for their strange ideas that contradict the Quran and its testimony of (There is no God but Allah). We have authored many articles to refute the claims of such misguided ones.   

- Question: What is your stance regarding books of hadiths and biographies of Prophet Muhammad? If you reject them, may we ask on what grounds? Could you explain this further to us?

1- Within real Islam (i.e., Quranism), one believes in Only One Discourse: God's Word: the Quran itself. "...Which discourse, besides this, will they believe in?" (7:185); "Woe on that Day to the rejecters. In what discourse, beyond this, will they believe?" (77:49-50); "These are God's Verses which We recite to you in truth. In which discourse, after God and His revelations, will they believe? Woe to every sinful liar. Who hears God's revelations being recited to him, yet he persists arrogantly, as though he did not hear them. Announce to him a painful punishment." (45:6-8).

2- The only true history of the Prophet Muhammad is found exclusively in the Quran. The biographies of him contain nothing but lies; the first liar who wrote the first Muhammad biography is M. Ibn Ishaq during the Abbasid Era, and he wrote things he fabricated that could never have occurred. Others after him followed his footsteps by inventing other narratives that added to the imaginary character of Muhammad that has nothing to do with his real character in the Quranic text. Muhammad in the Quran was sent as a mercy to the humankind (see 21:107), but the Wahabi Sunnites made him (by virtue of the hadiths ascribed falsely to him) as a source of terror to all people worldwide!    

3- We, Quranists, clear the name of Muhammad of such lies and fabrications that tarnished his image, and Quranists suffer media blackout and persecution because they clear the great name of Islam, hijacked by Wahabi terrorists and criminals, from the lies and falsehoods of Middle-Age heritage and Wahabi crimes. 

4- Both of the so-called Sunna hadiths and biographies depend on a laughter-inducing myth of the series of dead narrators. How could this be ever verified! This is utter nonsense!

5- Thus, millions of hadiths/narratives are passed off that way as if the Prophet Muhammad uttered them; with the passage of centuries, such hadiths have increased exponentially in number. This is sheer madness! Congregations in mosques readily glorify the name of Prophet Muhammad once a hadith is mentioned to them in sermons; as if the hadith is uttered five minutes ago by the prophet himself! This is utter nonsense and balderdash!    

- Question: You have criticized Al-Bokhary book in many of your writings; why, in your opinion, do some people sanctify and revere this book? What are other books of hadiths revered in the same way by Muslims today? 

1- Al-Bokhary book has been criticized in terms of its series of narrators during the Abbasid Era of Ijtihad, but it has been turned into a holy infallible book within the Mameluke and Ottoman eras of imitation. The Mameluke sultans used to attend annual recitals of Al-Bokhary book every Ramadan in Cairo.

2- Within the 20^th century in Egypt, some hadiths of Al-Bokhary book have been criticized timidly, by people like the sheikh Abdel-Rahman Al-Wakeel, the former head of Supporters of Al-Sunna Society, whose criticism focuses on the text of some hadiths like the one about the fly, the one about a Jewish sorcerer harming Muhammad, and the one bout Muhammad pawning his shield to a Jewish man.

3- When we were a 'moderate' Sunnite seeking reform and sifting through Sunna hadiths in the early 1970s, we have criticized Al-Bokhary book using a new methodology: to use the Quran as the criterion or yard-stick to judge hadiths. This proved to us that all hadiths of Al-Bokhary are false that this author is an arch-enemy of Islam. In fact, Al-Bokhary undermines God, Islam, and Muhammad by repeating several hadiths scattered all over his book, phrased in a way to make repeated hadiths with slight variations appear to be 'true'. Later on, we have declared in 1987 that Quranism is true Islam, as the Quran is sufficient in itself as the source of Islam, its sharia laws, and its higher values.

- Question: Could you please explain to us how come Muslims sanctify copies of the Quran but they hate its verses?

1- Copies of the Quran are now ornamental items for benediction everywhere in daily life of most Muslims.

2- In fact, We mean that most Muslims have abandoned and rejected the Quran, while keeping scattered copies of it everywhere to gain 'benediction'. Most people prefer to believe in books authored by men and they make such books control meanings of Quranic verses and be placed above the Quran itself. For instance, most Muslims disregard about 150 Quranic verses that deny the so-called intercession of Prophet Muhammad in the Hereafter, as they stick to few hadiths asserting such mediation and intercession. Some extremist Sunnites assume that Sunna hadiths replace the Quranic legislations; this means that Al-Bokhary book and other narrators of hadiths are placed above God and the Quran! This is worse than Prophet Muhammad's people during his lifetime who abandoned the Quran.

3- Indeed, the persecution suffered by Quranists who aim at religious reform by resorting only to the Quran is proof that our persecutors hate the Quran and disbelieves in it. 

- Question: Are there any traces of the Quranist trend within Islamic heritage in the Middle Ages? 

1- We object to describing heritage as 'Islamic'; it must be ascribed to its authors: Sunnite heritage, Shiite one, and Sufi one.

2- Strangely, those who deify and sanctify such heritage never understand it; we specialize in it, and thousands of our online books, researches, and articles bear witness of that. All heritage books are man-made and reflect culture and whims it their authors, and NOT Islam; such books have nothing to do with Islam, and they contradict the Quran.

3- As per our specialization in the history and heritage books of Muslims, we find traces of earliest Quranist trend that began with the scholar Abou Hanifa who rejected hadiths altogether and refutes Al-Shafei who depended on hadiths, and Al-Shafei wrote to refute views of Abou Hanifa. Yet, the trend of rejecting hadiths faced hadiths fabricators in the worst way: by fabricating more hadiths that warn against narrating and writing down hadiths and praise the Quran. This added more hadiths to the whole types of them! For further details, we refer you to our article on earliest Quranist trends in the Middle Ages. Thus, Quranists of the 20^th century did not begin in vacuum or from scratch, as they have built on such old trends.    

- Question: Why are you objecting to the phrasing of Azan (call for prayers) of today's Muslims? What is the Quranist phrasing in your view?

- Answer: We refer you to our article on how phrasings of Azan changed and developed within the ancient eras. The Quranist phrasing of it must never contain any names of mortals beside God. the phrasing is as follows: (God is the Greatest! God is the Greatest! I testify that there is no God but Allah! Gather for prayers! Gather for goodness! God is the Greatest! God is the Greatest! I testify that there is no God but Allah!).

- Question: Why do you consider that Prophet Muhammad is not the best of all prophets and messengers of God?

- Answer: We did not write this exactly; within our book titled "Prophets in the Quran" (published on our website) that caused our first clash with Al-Azhar University in 1985, we have written that all prophets and messengers of God must be equal before our minds as per the Quranic command of never to make distinctions among them. God is the Only One to judge who were the best ones in comparison to other prophets/messengers. This is  metaphysical topic we (and all people) cannot discuss at all. 

- Question: Why are you denying the torment of the grave? Why is it considered by you as a myth dealt with as fact by most Muslims of today?

1- We refer you to our book (in English) titled " The Myth of the Torment Of the Grave", found on this link: http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=101

2- This book was published before in Arabic in Cairo in 1993, proving that this mythological notion is taken from Pharaonic mythology. and we assert here briefly to you that the vast majority of notions of Sunnites, Sufis, and Shiites contradict the Quran. Most of the Muhammadans deify and sanctify things and mortals and allow the prohibited items and prohibit lawful items. For instance, some people prohibit singing though it is never prohibited in the Quran, and endorse massacring innocent souls!    

- Question: Why some Azharite clergymen accuse your person of being an apostate? What are the main landmarks of your intellectual life?

1- They have their own religion and we have ours.

2- We began our intellectual endeavors by scrutinizing Sufism in our PhD thesis while we were an assistant professor at Al-Azhar University, and this led to our being persecuted for three years. The struggle eventually led to our omitting 2/3 of the thesis, but all of it is published on our website. Later on, we strove to sift through hadiths to reform the so-called Sunna at first, but we were interrogated for two years (1985-1987) within inquisition like Azharite interrogation. We resigned from Al-Azhar University and then we were imprisoned for three months in 1987. Later on, we have reached the fact that Islam is only the Quran: Quranism is the only true Islam. Our book "The Quran Is Enough and Sufficient Source of Legislation" was published in Cairo in 1990, and it is published on our website in Arabic, English, and French.

3- If the Egyptian regime adopts what we preach and call for, Al-Azhar will be reformed and the Wahabi danger will be combated (esp. its spectrum of Salafists, the terrorist MB, and other countless Wahabi terrorist organizations). When Quranist reform is applies, Egypt will regain its leadership as a pioneer country on all levels, instead of naming the KSA, established in 1932, as the 'bigger sister' of Egypt, as the millennia-old Egypt is the mother of the whole world civilization and the most ancient nation on earth.

4- It is a shame that we had to get out of Egypt for good, while Egypt opens its doors for Wahabi ignoramuses and liars!

- Question: How do you view the way Al-Azhar deals with Azharite and non-Azharite reformist thinkers?

- Answer: Azharite clergymen are ignoramuses who have power and authority but lack knowledge; in contrast, Quranists have deep knowledge but they are weak, persecuted, and suffer media blackout. Azharite clergymen they cannot refute or argue against Quranist views, as Quranists have more knowledge. Each of the two parties wage the war by tools they have: Quranists have knowledge and strong arguments and refutations of hadiths and Sunna, while Azharite men face Quranists with detention, imprisonment, and incarceration by accusing them of the laughter-inducing accusation of showing contempt of religion.  

- Question: What is your view of graduates of Al-Azhar University of today? Are they models of moderate Muslims who cope with our modern age and face extremist views that reject the other?

1- When we were an assistant professor at Al-Azhar University (1980-1985), we used to be astonished from the ignorance of many professors who insist on making students more ignorant than they are. This is the main reason of our persecution; we desired to impart real Quranist knowledge to our students. Those ignorant students are now, after 30 years, the professors of Al-Azhar University, and all of them are brain-washed and controlled by Wahabism; thus, they combine ignorance and the culture of terrorism.    

2- There is no goodness to be expected from such professors of today at Al-Azhar University, unless radical reform of Azharite curricula and reform of Al-Azhar Law are introduced. 

- Question: How do you view the status of Copts now and how Al-Azhar would discuss within conferences the persecution of Copts in Egypt and the acceptance of the other?

1- We did not suggest such conferences; would illiterate people hold a conference on medical advancement?!

2- Al-Azhar is controlled by Wahabism, and Wahabi culture of terror spread in Egypt is the reason of persecution of Copts who are victims now of Wahabi Egyptians.

3- we refer you to our article in English titled "The Weak, Poor Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Christians Have No Supporters at All!" found on this link on our website:

(http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=15790)

- Question: Why are you allowing Muslim women to marry Jewish and Christian men? On what grounds did you base your stance here? Why most Muslims prohibit such marriages?

1- We base this view on the Quran itself: "Today all good things are made lawful for you. And the food of those given the Scripture is lawful for you, and your food is lawful for them. So are chaste believing women, and chaste women from the people who were given the Scripture before you, provided you give them their dowries, and take them in marriage, not in adultery, nor as mistresses. But whoever rejects faith, his work will be in vain, and in the Hereafter he will be among the losers." (5:5), Islam is the religion of justice; since Muslims can eat food of the People of the Book and marry their women, the People of the Book can eat food of Muslims and marry Muslim women. The only condition is that the Jewish or Christian husband (or atheist or of any other denominations) must be peaceful in terms of behavior; any peaceful person is a Muslim in terms of demeanor, regardless of beliefs and creeds. Any terrorists who commit massacres are never Muslims; they are disbelievers and polytheists in terms of violent behavior and marrying such terrorists is prohibited.   

2- The Sunnite sharia laws contradict the Quran, because scholars assumed that they must hate, fight, and humiliate the People of the Book, let alone marrying from them! This is applied by ISIS terrorist now, in the same way as within the eras of caliphs. This is the same Salafist fiqh propagated and taught by Al-Azhar University as well until now. 

3- Islam (i.e., Quranism) is the religion of peace, mercy, justice, rights of people, and human dignity.

- Question: What are the featured of reformed religious discourse needed in the Islamic world today?  

- Answer: What we preach in our website; i.e., to show the contradiction between higher Quranic values (justice, mercy, charity, dignity, absolute religious freedom, etc.) and Quranic sharia in comparison to the current state of sharia laws of heritage books of Muslims, especially the Sunnite Wahabi books. All judgments regarding religion are postponed to the Day of Judgment before Almighty God.  

- Question: Can Al-Azhar perform the needed reform of religious discourse?

1- No; in a forum held in the early 1990s within the Egyptian Enlightenment Society in the office of the late Dr. Farag Fouda, held after his assassination there to challenge the terrorists, we talked about Al-Azhar and enlightenment; Dr. Saad Eddine Ibrahim was among the attendees and we saw him for the first time there; he asked us why Al-Azhar is the center of obscurantism and backwardness and yet, enlightened persons sometimes graduated from it, like our person. The answer we provided is that there is a huge abyss between the Quran and heritage books. If Azharite people adhered solely to the Quran, they would be rebellious imams of enlightenment like the late M. Abdou. As for those who waste their time and mind over heritage books, they are ignorant herd who never know about real Islam. Thus, reforming 1.5 billion of Muslims entails reforming 300 million of Arabs, and this entails reforming 80 million Egyptians, and this eventually entails the radical reform of Azharite laws and curricula.         

2- In our book titled "The Cursed Religion of ISIS" (found in English on this link: http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=73), we give details of such needed reform as Al-Azhar in its current state is bringing terrorism, obscurantism, and backwardness to Egypt and hindering all progress of all types.

- Question: Are Islam and secularism contradicting each other? Why? Can Islamic sharia laws be changed to cope with modern-age secularism? How?

1- Our writings assert that Islam is a secular religion by its nature; there is no room for clergymen and theocracy in Islam (Quranism). Islam is against the misuse of religion in politics. We refer you to our book titled "A Warning for Muslims against Mixing Religion with Politics". 

2- The real Islamic sharia laws are the Quranic sharia legislations, which contradict the laws of scholars and imams of the Muhammadans, esp. Sunnites. Our thousands of articles, books, and researches in Arabic and in English assert this fact. Among these books are "On the Meaning of Naskh", "Islamic Shura: Direct Democracy", "On the Quranic 'Interpretation' of Al-Qurtubi", "On Malik and his Book (Al-Mowata')", "Hisbah: A Historical Overview" (found in English on this link: http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=99), and "The Judicial Authority between Islam and the Muhammadans" (found in English on this link: http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=100). This is explained in brief in our YouTube videos subtitled (into English) of the show titled "Exposing Salafism" (found on this link: https://www.youtube.com/user/ahlalquran1/videos?view=0&flow=list&sort=da), as we explain in these videos how Quranism (i.e. real Islam) contradicts Wahabi Sunnite Salafism in many topics, such as dress codes and ornaments for women.

Secondly: the distorted, incomplete version of the interview published (in Arabic) on Al-Bawaba website:

http://www.albawabhnews.com/2585245

Headline: (Al-Bawaba Organizes the Debate between the Quranists and the Sunnites)

Subheading: (Leader of the Quranists: "We Demand that President Al-Sisi Adopts our School of Thought to reform Religion" .. "Most Muslims Deify and Sanctify Copies of the Quran" .. "Sunna is the Second Source of Islamic legislations")

Written by: Ahmad Wanees

  After President Al-Sisi has demanded from leaders of religious institutions in Egypt to reconsider many issues of fiqh that are the bases of the thought of terrorist organizations, many reformers called for burning of books of heritage and to never allow such books to circulate among Muslims as such books are like time-bombs that carry false hadiths that turn the youths into ISIS terrorists. On top of all reformers who assert this point of view are Quranists who deny and reject Sunna and hadiths, while insisting that only the Quran is enough as the source of legislations in Islam, a view rejected by Al-Azhar.

Subheading: Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour:

 To discuss this topic, Al-Bawaba held this debate between Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour, leader of Quranists who lives in the USA, and Saleh M. Abdel-Hameed, an Azharite fatwa-committee member, so that both sides of the issue show their vision of reforming religious discourse in Egypt. Dr. Mansour, the Islamic thinker and leader of Quranists, says that most Muslims deify and sanctify copies of the Quran as sources of benediction, without pondering its verses at all and that most of them create and imaginary deified figure of Prophet Muhammad, unlike his true portrayal found exclusively in the Quran. he asserts further that the reformist religious discourse needed badly within the Islamic world must show the discrepancy between Quranic values and sharia laws and the sharia laws formulated by those who issue fatwas based on books of heritage. Dr. Mansour maintains that resorting to hadiths written down during the Abbasid Era implies an accusation leveled against Prophet Muhammad that he died without delivering the whole message of Islam. Refuting the accusations leveled at him by some Azharite clergy of being an apostate, Dr. Mansour says they have authority and power but they cannot refute or argue against Quranist views, and this is why they  intimidate reformist thinkers by the silly, laugher-inducing accusation of showing contempt of religion. The following is our questions posed to Dr. Mansour, followed by his answers.

- Question: Who are the Quranists and what notions are distinguishing them from the rest of Muslims worldwide?

- Answer: We have begun the Quranist intellectual trend 40 years ago, since 1977, when we took the initiative to debunk Al-Bokhary book and its assumed sanctification inside Al-Azhar. In fact, we are the one to pave the way as a torchbearer, and we paid a heavy price for it. Within the margin of our intellectual jihad, great many changes have occurred in Egypt: many moderate Sunnites are now criticizing some hadiths while retaining Sunna as part of their religion. These critics have made use and benefited from the cultural climate we have established with our sacrifices and intellectual jihad endeavors, as they write now within a comfort zone of safety when they criticize some hadiths of Al-Bokhary and some other related details within a measure of freedom. Quranists whom we speak now in their name who belong to our website and the VA-based IQC are free individuals who belong to a reformist Islamic school/trend of thought. Quranists are not a sect or a political party; they only seek to resort to the Quran as the only criterion to introduce peaceful reform to Muslims worldwide. Quranists never impose themselves their views on anyone. Quranists pardon as much as they can those who slander and verbally abuse them. Quranists do not claim they have the absolute truth of anything; rather, they wait for Almighty God's judgment on them, on their foes, and on all human beings on the Day of Resurrection.      

- Question: What is the Quranists' view of Sunna?

- Answer: Quranists have their methodology of pondering the Quran within its own terminology without having a prior notion or prejudice to be imposed; we research the Quranic text objectively seeking guidance. Quranists accept criticism and correction as they are seekers of the Truth. Quranists never assume that their views are those of God or of Islam, but a personal viewpoints owned by whoever adopts them. This is why our fatwas/views are open to discussion within comments written by all people. We have our scientific and objective research method regarding history, heritage, and fiqh schools of Muslims as human thought never to be sanctified and it has its faults and good points. The enormous fault of all is to ascribe such man-made thought authored by fiqh scholars to God and Islamic sharia. We bear in mind that their fiqh is filled with discrepancies and contradictions. A worst fault is to ascribe hadiths falsely to Prophet Muhammad; such narratives reflect the eras in which they were authored. Thus, such hadiths are never part of Islam; the whole and complete Islam is the Quran; no one can add to it after Prophet Muhammad's death. By the way, hadiths were written down during the Abbasid Era onwards; to make them part of Islam implies an accusation leveled at Prophet Muhammad that he did not deliver the Islamic message wholly and left parts of it to be completed after his death. These assumed parts are bottomless, shoreless ocean of narratives filled with myths and sharia laws contradicting the Quran and endorse bloodshed. We, Quranists, clear Prophet Muhammad's name of such lies and falsehoods.          

- Question: Quranists are accused of denying Sunna of Prophet Muhammad; what have you got say about that?

- Answer: As per the Quran, the term "Sunna" in some verses means God's sharia laws in the Quran and in some other verses, it refers to God's way of dealing with or punishing of disbelievers/polytheists. this means that Sunna is God's only. As for Prophet Muhammad, he is a role-model and sets a good example for us; he has no Sunna of his own. For more details, we refer you to our book titled "The Quran Is Enough and Sufficient Source of Legislation". Words and phrases uttered by Prophet Muhammad are the ones recorded in the Quran in the verses containing the command (Say:...) and the expression (They ask you about...Say...). Thus, the Sunna for Quranists is the Quran per se. God asserts to us in the Quran that the Quran is enough for real Muslims. The difference between Quranists and Sunnites is that the latter insist on hadiths as being part of Islam as 'oral Sunna'; Quranists disagree with that. Yet, both Quranists and Sunnites agree on one thing: the practical Sunna to Sunna in practice are acts of worship: prayers, pilgrimage, etc.  

- Question: What do you think of Al-Bokhary book?

- Answer: Al-Bokhary book has been criticized in terms of its series of narrators during the Abbasid Era of Ijtihad, but it has been turned into a holy infallible book within the Mameluke and Ottoman eras of imitation. The Mameluke sultans used to attend annual recitals of Al-Bokhary book every Ramadan in Cairo. Within the 20^th century in Egypt, some hadiths of Al-Bokhary book have been criticized timidly, by people like the sheikh Abdel-Rahman Al-Wakeel, the former head of Supporters of Al-Sunna Society, whose criticism focuses on the text of some hadiths like the one about the fly, the one about a Jewish sorcerer harming Muhammad, and the one bout Muhammad pawning his shield to a Jewish man. When we were a moderate Sunnite in the early 1970s, we have criticized Al-Bokhary book using a new methodology: to use the Quran as the criterion or yard-stick to judge hadiths. This proved to us that all hadiths of Al-Bokhary are false that this author is an arch-enemy of Islam. In fact, Al-Bokhary undermines God, Islam, and Muhammad by repeating several hadiths scattered all over his book, phrased in a way to make repeated hadiths with slight variations appear to be 'true'. Later on, we have declared in 1987 that Quranism is true Islam, as the Quran is sufficient in itself as the source of Islam, its sharia laws, and its higher values.     

- Question: What do you mean exactly by saying that most Muslims deify and sanctify copies of the Quran but they hate its text?

- Answer: We mean that most Muslims have abandoned and rejected the Quran, while keeping scattered copies of it everywhere to gain 'benediction'. Most people prefer to believe in books authored by men and they make such books control meanings of Quranic verses and be placed above the Quran itself. For instance, most Muslims disregard about 150 Quranic verses that deny the so-called intercession of Prophet Muhammad in the Hereafter, as they stick to few hadiths asserting such mediation and intercession. Some extremist Sunnites assume that Sunna hadiths replace the Quranic legislations; this means that Al-Bokhary book and other narrators of hadiths are placed above God and the Quran! This is worse than Prophet Muhammad's people during his lifetime who abandoned the Quran. Indeed, the persecution suffered by Quranists who aim at religious reform by resorting only to the Quran is proof that our persecutors hate the Quran and disbelieves in it.   

- Question: Why some Azharite clergymen accuse your person of being an apostate?

- Answer: They have their own religion and we have ours; we began our intellectual endeavors by scrutinizing Sufism in our PhD thesis while we were an assistant professor at Al-Azhar University, and this led to our being persecuted for three years. The struggle eventually led to our omitting 2/3 of the thesis, but all of it is published on our website. Later on, we strove to sift through hadiths to reform the so-called Sunna at first, but we were interrogated for two years (1985-1987) within inquisition like Azharite interrogation. We resigned from Al-Azhar University and then we were imprisoned for three months in 1987. Later on, we have reached the fact that Islam is only the Quran: Quranism is the only true Islam. Our book "The Quran Is Enough and Sufficient Source of Legislation" was published in Cairo in 1990, and it is published on our website in Arabic, English, and French.

- Question: How do you see now Al-Azhar and reformist thinkers?

- Answer: Al-Azhar clergymen have authority and power but they cannot refute or argue against Quranist views, as Quranists have more knowledge but they are weak. Each of the two parties wage the war by tools they have: Quranists have knowledge and strong arguments and refutations of hadiths and Sunna, while Azharite men face Quranists with detention, imprisonment, and incarceration by accusing them of showing contempt of religion. The earthly Islamic doctrines of Sufis, Sunnites, and Shiites differ with one another, but they agree on their contradicting the Quran itself. Most of them deify and sanctify things and mortals and allow the prohibited items and prohibit lawful items. For instance, some people prohibit singing though it is never prohibited in the Quran, and endorse massacring innocent souls!    

- Question: Do you think that your Quranist trend of thought will help solve the crisis of reforming the religious discourse in Egypt? 

- Answer: If the Egyptian regime adopts what we preach and call for, Al-Azhar will be reformed and the Wahabi danger will be combated (esp. its spectrum of Salafists, the terrorist MB, and other countless Wahabi terrorist organizations). When Quranist reform is applies, Egypt will regain its leadership as a pioneer country on all levels, instead of naming the KSA, established in 1932, as the 'bigger sister' of Egypt, as the millennia-old Egypt is the mother of the whole world civilization and the most ancient nation on earth. By the way, "reforming/changing religious discourse" is a wrong term of politics; this ''change'' might be to the worse, such as replacing Wahabism with Shiite or Sufi ideas. The correct term is "religious reform", which is intertwined with political reform. Any reform must be based on reforming the Law, the Constitution, and many legislations issued in Egypt, so that the freedom of thought and expression and religious freedom are guaranteed. Reforming Al-Azhar is tackled by us in many of our books published on our Quranism website, titled "The Seven Principles of the Real Islamic Sharia and How to Apply Them", "The Cursed Religion of ISIS", and "A Witness of the Earliest Months of The Presidential Term of The Egyptian President Al-Sisi". We refer you as well to our separate articles authored recently on our website. The reformist religious discourse the Islamic world needs now is one about showing the contradiction between the Quranic sharia legislations and higher values (e.g., justice, charity, mercy, dignity, and absolute religious freedom) and the current state of sharia laws of heritage books of Muslims, especially the Sunnite Wahabi books. All judgments regarding religion are postponed to the Day of Judgment before Almighty God