We Are the First Thinker to Refute the Powerful Sheikh Al-Shaarawy, in Egypt, and he wrote a Statement to demand Putting our Person to Death!
Published in November 9, 2019
Translated by: Ahmed Fathy
Introduction:
1- It is our fate that our reformist ideas as a thinker precede the ideas of everyone else; we have paid the heavy price as we have been incarcerated and severely persecuted; years later, some people would copy our ideas in Egypt and gain fame and draw benefits; no one gives our person our right as the pioneer of religious reform in Egypt; we have begun walking through the route of preaching reform after centuries of faulty notions and corrupt fiqh; as a torchbearer and a trailblazer, we have paved the way for others and all landmines exploded against our person only; we go on walking relentlessly through the route of preaching religious reform and we never stopped or retreated. We never wait for gratitude or a thank-you gesture from anyone even from those who have ascribed our reformist ideas to themselves; they never give us the credit for our unprecedented writings. This is part of the price we happily pay and we feel quite content; this is the way of peaceful preachers of reform who never ask for rewards from any mortals; they only wait for the ultimate reward from the Dominant Lord God on the Last Day.
2- We write the above because recently in Egypt (in Nov. 2019), controversy have started (again!) about the late sheikh Mohamed Metwalli Al-Shaarawy (1911 - 1998), who was the agent of Saudi Wahabism in Egypt, because his ideas have been mildly attacked by a young female TV presenter through her Facebook account (i.e., within security and safety at her home and NOT through her TV show!). Yet, the words written by her spread within Egyptian media; those who deify Al-Shaarawy were infuriated and attacked the young female TV presenter and defended the 'sacred' sheikh and his erroneous ideas. Of course, they can no longer harm/persecute those who criticize the extremist/Wahabi ideas propagated by Al-Shaarawy; his power has vanished once he died. Of course, within our intellectual endeavors and our suffering, the cultural and religious climate in Egypt has changed since the 1980s until now; i.e., many idols have fallen, many icons have been smashed, and many sacred cows were slaughtered. They include the four sinful pre-Umayyad caliphs, the Arabs who joined the Arab conquests once Muhammad died, Al-Bokhary, imams/authors of the books of the terrestrial/earthly religions of the Muhammadans, Wahabism, and Al-Shaarawy.
3- Within the zenith of his power, authority, and fame in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world, Al-Shaarawy hated our person because we have initiated the virulent attack and severe criticism against his corrupt ideas derived from Sunnite Wahabism. At the time, we lived in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, and the officers of the Egyptian State Security Apparatus resented our very existence and our writings and desired to have the chance to incarcerate our person; at the time, many Azharite clergymen and sheikhs pressurized the Egyptian State and government to silence our person by force or by any means, even if we would be incarcerated or assassinated. They resented our criticizing and undermining their Sunnite religion of Satan through our Quranist writings. Typically, we have taken the initiative to slaughter all sacred cows and this infuriated many butt-hurt worshipers of such sacred cows. Before their inflicting more persecution on our person, we typically surprised them with slaughtering more sacred cows. This is the summary of our lifetime story within the religious reform endeavors. The sacred cow known as Al-Shaarawy is merely one page in our history of peaceful struggle for the sake of introducing religious reform through Quranism.
4- We provide, in the points below, a historical overview of our relation with this sacred cow named Al-Shaarawy.
Firstly: within the period 1985 – 1987:
1- In the early 1980s in Egypt, we joined a 'moderate' Salafist society named (Dawat Al-Haq) and became its premier sermonizer/preacher within its mosques; at the time, we were a 'moderate' Sunnite thinker trying – in vain – to 'reform' the corrupt Sunnite religion and its hadiths. The Egyptian State TV imposed the show of Al-Shaarawy on Fridays; in contrast, within our Friday sermons, we (unintentionally at first) proved him wrong and we proved, using the Quran, that his ideas are false. Many men asked us in amazement how we dared to contradict Al-Shaarawy; we told them we never watched his TV show and never read his books; we are an independent researcher who specializes in what he says; we told them instead of posing such a question to our person, they should have asked Al-Shaarawy why he intentionally contradicted the Quran; they should have told our person if we are wrong or right and to correct us if they possibly can; we told them that holding views that widely differ from those of their favorite sheikh Al-Shaarawy is not to be deemed as a sort of blasphemy or disbelief. Yet, we later on knew that those persons copied our words verbatim to Al-Shaarawy and another famous sheikh; namely, the late sheikh Mohamed Al-Ghazaly (1917 - 1996).
2- For sure, Al-Ghazaly was infuriated by our stance against the ideas of Al-Shaarawy and he wrote an article in the Cairo-based Wahabi magazine (Islamic Digest) (or, in Arabic, Al-Mukhtar Al-Eslami) to attack our person; this article of his was titled (the knowledgeable child who is an imposter); he attacked our person and not our ideas; he ridiculed and mocked our person instead of discussing our reformist ideas; we despised him very much for that. Later on, Al-Ghazaly readily made our acquaintance and we got closer; yet, we discarded his 'friendship' once he testified against the late great secular thinker Dr. Farag Fouda (1945 – 1992) after his assassination in Cairo by some Wahabi terrorists in 1992.
3- Al-Shaarawy was more cunning and sly; he never attacked our person in his articles at the time so as not to bring us fame and to avoid drawing the attention of others to our ideas of reform; he took his revenge against us in a different way; he incited his followers inside Al-Azhar University against our person as a professor who worked there at the time. By the way, the Al-Azhar head-sheikh (or 'grand' imam) was Jad Al-Haq (1917 – 1996); he was an ignoramus who made many mistakes in Arabic during his sermons which he read from a piece of paper; he even made many mistakes in pronouncing Quranic verses within such sermons. We used to ridicule him in public and we made fun of his ignorance. We presume that our mockery of him reached him as he hated our guts. Yet, Jad Al-Haq was not the man behind our persecution, incarceration, and our resigning from Al-Azhar University. We knew later on that Al-Shaarawy masterminded all that to wreak his revenge; he caused our being interrogated (in an inquisition-like manner) inside Al-Azhar University; he was behind our being suspended from work in May 1985. Months before these events, we left the Salafist society as we felt its members (who desired to expel our person) considered us as persona non grata. It was obvious that Saudi influence interfered to cause all this despite the fact that at the time, diplomatic ties were severed between the KSA and the Mubarak regime in Egypt. Sadly, Al-Shaarawy was deemed by both Mubarak and the Saudi authorities as a reference in how to deal with our person!
4- We were suspended from work (as a professor at the History Department, Al-Azhar University) for two years (May 1985 – March 1987) during which we delivered our sermons (for free, as always, and this is typical of our person) in different mosques on Fridays; many followers/worshipers of Al-Shaarawy quarreled with our person (and with others among our fellow Quranists) and chased us from one mosque to the other; this is because of the fact that within our sermons, we attacked, ridiculed, and undermined the ideas of Al-Shaarawy without mentioning his name; a friend of ours (the late Egyptian engineer M. Kheir Al-Khateeb) interfered and talked with Al-Shaarawy about our person and gave him copies of some of our books; yet, Al-Shaarawy arrogantly refused to look at our books; he never accepted them as a gift from our friend. As a response, we published our booklet titled (Would Sinful Muslims Get out of Hell to Enter into Paradise?). In this booklet, we contradict and refute the views of Al-Shaarawy (esp. about the so-called intercession) without mentioning his name so as to avoid being persecuted. Yet, the powerful Al-Shaarawy made use of his authority; he convinced the men of the Egyptian State Security Apparatus to confiscate all copies of our booklet despite the fact that it was printed and distributed by the State-owned Al-Ahram Press and Al-Akhbar Press, respectively. In one of his articles, Al-Shaarawy wrote a statement to demand our being put to death in the manner mentioned in the Quranic verse 5:33! Days later, we have been arrested and incarcerated in Nov. 1987.
5- Our arrest was part of the deal negotiated to restore the Saudi-Egyptian relations after years of froideur or rather to thaw/break the ice between the Mubarak regime and the Al-Saud royal family members. This deal was perfected under the auspices of Al-Shaarawy who also attended a conference in Islamabad headed by the Pakistani president the general Zia-ul-Haq; in this conference, our person was declared an 'apostate' and an 'infidel' who deserves to be put to death! This is because they were infuriated by our book titled (Prophets in the Holy Quran: An Analytical Study) which undermines all Sunnite hadiths and refutes the notion of infallibility of Muhammad and other prophets. Another Wahabi conference was held in Jeddah, in the KSA, and it was organized by the so-called Islamic World League; again, in this conference, our person was declared an 'apostate' and an 'infidel' who deserves to be put to death! Besides, the recommendations of such conference included establishing a center in Al-Azhar to defend Sunna hadiths and Sunnite biography of Muhammad. This center was financed with millions of US$ by the KSA; its aim was to refute the claims of Sunna-deniers. All such events preceded the article/statement of Al-Shaarawy in which he demanded our being put to death in the manner mentioned in 5:33; by the way, this article of his was published in the Cairo-based Wahabi newspaper (The Islamic Banner) or, in Arabic, (Al-Liwaa' Al-Eslami); the editor-in-chief of this newspaper was Ahmad Zayn who was one of the worshipers and agents of Al-Shaarawy. The statement of Al-Shaarawy provided an ideal pretext for the Mubarak regime to incarcerate our person in Nov. 1987. During our incarceration, the late Ahmad Zayn continued to attack our person in his articles and he 'refuted' (using Sunnite hadiths) the ideas in our booklet titled (Would Sinful Muslims Get out of Hell to Enter into Paradise?).
Secondly: the usury battle:
1- The Wahabi trend in Egypt headed by Dr. Abdel-Sabour Shaheen and Al-Shaarawy urged thousands of Egyptians to invest in 'Islamic' investment companies (under the banner of 'Islamic' economy) instead of banks; in his televised sermons, Al-Shaarawy asserted that interest rates of banks are deemed as usury prohibited in 'Islam'. Of course, this was a ploy to steal the money of simple, gullible citizens who believed in Al-Shaarawy.
2- Sadly, the secular, civil trend in Egypt failed miserably to face such propaganda (serving the so-called 'Islamic' investment companies) led by the Egyptian media, Al-Azhar, and Wahabi centers in Cairo (esp. the Saleh Kamel center. Saleh Kamel is a Saudi billionaire married to an Egyptian actress/star). Our late secular thinker and friend Dr. Farag Fouda, in his articles, attacked such 'Islamic' investment companies but his voice was drowned by the vociferous Al-Shaarawy-led propaganda and the Wahabi religious discourse.
3- We had to refute Al-Shaarawy by using the Holy Quran; we wrote our first article to prove that not all types of usury are prohibited in the Quran; the Lord God in the Quran prohibits usury practiced instead of paying Zakat/charity/alms to the poor/needy. Usury or moneylending at interest rates is OK, in Islam, within trade provided that two conditions are met: there would be no compound interest rates and mutual consent of parties involved is obtained prior to any business transactions. Of course, usurers or moneylenders who manipulate the poor/needy (by lending them at interest rates instead of paying charity/Zakat to them) are sinners; the poor/needy ones and the witnesses/scribes of such illegal usury are never sinners. In this article of ours, we provide Quranic proofs to such views of ours and we refute Sunnite hadiths and fiqh notions regarding usury because they contradict the Quran itself.
4- This article of ours was published by the Cairo-based State-owned Al-Ahbar newspaper; it caused much debate and controversy; people said that we proved Al-Shaarawy wrong and that he was undermined and slapped by our person; this is because our article has refuted his arguments against usury. Furious, Al-Shaarawy and his Azharite agents drove an Azharite sheikh/clergyman, Dr. Abdel-Moaty (the dean of Osol Eddine [or theology branches] Faculty in Al-Azhar University), to write an article to refute our ideas using hadiths and fiqh notions; we have ridiculed Dr. Abdel-Moaty in an article (published in Al-Ahbar newspaper) titled (O sheikh Abdel-Moaty! Beware of the Lord God's Wrath!); a third article of ours (also published in Al-Ahbar newspaper) has been about the permissible types of usury and how Azharite clergymen fail to understand and ponder on the Quran. Azharite sheikhs continued to attack our person in a series of articles published in the Cairo-based Al-Wafd newspaper (run by Al-Wafd political party). The 'grand' imam or head-sheikh of Al-Azhar at the time interfered and filed a complaint against our person at the Egyptian State Security Apparatus. When we were interrogated by officers there, our views and responses made logic; we were released on the same day and the complaint was cancelled. Our response has included that our articles defend the Egyptian State and the Egyptian economy; we said that the head-sheikh of Al-Azhar had several bank accounts which need to be checked and that he accepted to use the Egyptian currency though it is issued by the Egyptian Central Bank; why would he contradict himself and assert that dealing with banks is prohibited in 'Islam', then?! We said we have no bank accounts at all; we objectively defend the Egyptian banks while seeking no rewards from anyone.
5- Our articles bore fruit at last; Al-Shaarawy and the grand mufti at the time (Dr. M. Sayed Tantawi who persecuted our person later on and who died in 2010) held meetings with major Azharite clergymen and sheikhs who, in their turn, contacted the Egyptian government and an agreement was reached; namely, the grand mufti issued a fatwa that bank deposits are OK and permissible, provided that the Mubarak regime would stop our person from writing articles in Al-Akhbar newspaper and all State-owned newspapers; this is why Al-Akhbar refused to publish our third article about usury and the crisis of lack of morality (published later on within an independent newspaper).
6- The three articles of ours plus the article about sheikh Abdel-Moaty are grouped in one article of ours titled "The Usury Battle", found in English on this link within our website:
http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=6251
It is found in Arabic on the following links within our Quranism website and the Modern Discussion website:
http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/show_article.php?main_id=689
http://www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=83487
Thirdly: our direct attack against Al-Shaarawy within an article titled (Sheikh Al-Shaarawy: An Economic Vision):
This article of ours was published by the Cairo-based (Al-Ahrar) independent newspaper in May, 1994; we have written this article as a response to the confiscation of our book (published by Akhbar Al-Yom monthly series of books) titled (Egypt in the Holy Quran) (found in English on this link: http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=97 + in French on this link: http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=154). Ahmad Zayn was behind the confiscation of all copies of our book from the bookstores; he was a worshiper and an agent of Al-Shaarawy; he resented the fact that our book sold very well while books of Al-Shaarawy were no longer popular. Some honorable pens in the Egyptian independent newspapers (e.g., Al-Ahaly) and magazines (e.g., Al-Hilal) denounced such confiscation committed for no apparent reason. Of course, later on, it was transpired that Al-Shaarawy was behind this confiscation of our book. We have attacked Al-Shaarawy directly within an article of ours titled (Sheikh Al-Shaarawy: An Economic Vision), in Arabic, found on the following links within our Quranism website and the Modern Discussion website:
http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/show_article.php?main_id=7093
http://www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=230060
Fourthly: the major battle: the press trial of Al-Shaarawy:
1- Within the 100th number of the Al-Ahrar newspaper issued in Nov. 1997, several pages were dedicated to what was called "press trials" of iconic figures in Egypt in the fields of literature, acting, press, political life, and religious preaching. Al-Shaarawy was the among the ones held in trial and we acted as his attacker/accuser while an Azharite sheikh, namely, Mansour Ebeid, defended him. Our words were copied verbatim by Al-Ahrar newspaper as we attacked Al-Shaarawy and his Wahabism. Our words are published later on in April 2007, in Arabic, within our Quranism website and the Modern Discussion website:
http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/show_article.php?main_id=1647
http://www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=94748
2- To wreak his revenge against our person, Al-Shaarawy made his son Ahmad Al-Shaarawy (who undeservedly headed the Cairo-based Islamic Researches Council) incite the officers of the Egyptian State Security Apparatus to arrest and incarcerate our person; they did not do so; this is because within our interrogation by them, we have said that our presence in this press trial of Al-Shaarawy was for his own benefit; if other attackers would have replaced our person, they might have exposed the dark side of the life of Al-Shaarawy as a homosexual pedophile.
3- When we have published this article (about the press trial of Al-Shaarawy) within our Quranism website and the Modern Discussion website, the resulting virulent attack and an avalanche of verbal abuse and insults against our person drove us to suspend the feature of writing comments below our articles within our page on the Modern Discussion website.
4- Our response has been to write an article titled "About Al-Shaarawy, Again", found in Arabic on the following links within our Quranism website and the Modern Discussion website:
http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/show_article.php?main_id=1680
http://www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=95255
Lastly:
1- Despite the above points, we, Dr. A. S. Mansour, have rendered a great service to Al-Shaarawy who died while never knowing anything about it; his followers have never known about it either; we reveal this story of this service here for the first time.
2- Within a private meeting with some secular friends of ours in Cairo, Egypt, they talked about the homosexual adventures of the pedophile Al-Shaarawy who preferred male adolescents and kids; they told our person that the special policemen of the Ministry of Interior videotaped him while he had sex with male adolescents and male kids so that they would embezzle him anytime they liked so that they guarantee his submission to them and his obeying their every command when threatened by such videotapes when the occasion would arise to threaten him one day. One of these secular friends proposed that they would hire a homosexual hairless male youth to get nearer to Al-Shaarawy to seduce him so that their sexual encounter would be videotaped by the secular trend in Egypt and hundreds of copies of such a videotape would later on be distributed secretly to expose and scandalize Al-Shaarawy the agent of Saudi Wahabism. This way, this idol will fall forever and no one will believe in him. All secular friends in such a meeting approved of the idea and cheered and laughed; we protested angrily and told them that the Wahabi ideology must be refuted and faced with the Quranist ideology; we told them that such dishonorable method of spying on someone's private life is never fit for honest, secular thinkers who love Egypt; we threatened to sever all ties with them and to expose them as the authors of such a plot; they discarded this devilish idea but not out of fearing our person; rather, they feared that their plot might fail and be exposed and they will never be able to face the Egyptian public. Hence, the devilish idea of videotaping Al-Shaarawy during a homosexual encounter was rejected mainly because of our objection.
3- We have been an honorable foe to a creature who lacked honor.