Our Introduction to the Book Titled (Islam and the Reality of the Umma) by the Quranist Yemeni Author Mr. Abdel-Wahab Sinan Al-Nawary

Published in November 13, 2018

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Firstly:

1- Many Quranist writers and researchers, those who write within our Quranism website and those who are independent writers, send their books/researches to us via email while requesting from our person to revise and evaluate them; in most cases, we politely apologize to them because we do not have enough time and effort to do so; there is another reason for refusing their requests; namely, in order to avoid being disappointed by their shallow writings; many of such writings by our dear fellow Quranists are not up to our expectations. What is worst is that some arrogant researchers who have very poor research skills assume that they will teach our person things we have never known before about the Quran; they assume that they are 'geniuses' whose erroneous ideas are 'innovative', 'unprecedented' and 'true'; they keep nagging so that we would specify time to revise and evaluate their shallow writings.     

2- Few among Quranist writers/researchers make our person feel glad to read what they publish on our website; among them, of course, is our dear son, Mr. Al-Nawary, and when he has some opinions which differ from ours, we feel very happy; this proves the fact that the Quranist trend is not like a Sufi order or a Shiite/Sunnite group with a head-sheikh or an imam and his followers/disciples who blindly follow and applaud anything without thinking. Quranists form a trend of thinkers who use their minds to research the Quranic text and bring its gems to readers. The real Quranist researchers know that their writings are far from being perfect and that they need constant revision, criticism, and correction.     

3- The writer of these lines may be the oldest Quranist author with more expertise within the field of research; yet, we are never above being criticized; on the contrary, we need and draw benefits from constructive criticism. Our intellectual career within Quranism has commenced in 1975 when we were an assistant professor at Al-Azhar University; this is when we have decided to remove the dirt of Al-Azhar, with its heritage books of polytheistic traditions, from our mind – to literally use the expression of the very first Egyptian Quranist thinker: the imam Mohammed Abdou who was the head of Al-Azhar and who died at the age of 55 in 1905. In 1975, we have decided to build on the legacy left by the imam M. Abdou by using the Quran as the criterion to judge the Sufi and Sunnite books of heritage and traditions we have studied. As a student, we have excelled in our studying these books at Al-Azhar University; we used to assume that these books contain truths; we know now that they contain nothing but myths. Anyone who reads our books written in the early 1980s will notice the great difference between them and our recent books; we typically tend to leave our earlier books without editing (or with few editing) so that readers in all eras would notice the stages of our intellectual progress. No Quranist authors are prophets/messengers who receive any divine revelation; rather, they are innovative thinkers who seek the Quranic Truth and seek to remove from their minds any quasi-religious myths posing as if they were part of Islam.        

4- It has been our hope – until now – to see that our sons and daughters among our fellow Quranists learn from our writings that we publish on our Quranism website; we do not mean only the contents and ideas of our writings but the attitude to correct oneself and to admit it when one makes mistakes in one's Quranist research. The main feature of Quranist researchers is that they seek the Quranic Truth; they are keen on correcting their faith within their minds and hearts; they have no problem when their ideas are proven wrong by the Quran because they submit to the Quranic Truth. Few of our dear fellow Quranists are very promising as Quranist researchers who have this keenness to seek the Quranic Truth even if it goes against their previous ideas; these few ones include our dear son Mr. Al-Nawary.

  This is why we felt very happy when our dear son, Mr. Al-Nawary, has requested from our person to write an introduction to his book titled (Islam and the Reality of the Umma).

Secondly:

1- When we have read the book of Mr. Al-Nawary titled (Islam and the Reality of the Umma), we felt that our happiness has increased for the following reasons.

1/1: In fact, he fulfills our vision of what a Quranist researcher should be; we have predicted that he will be an excellent Quranist researcher; this book titled (Islam and the Reality of the Umma) asserts this fact; we hope that Mr. Al-Nawary will remain among the leaders of the Quranist trend who will be torchbearers for the next years along with other Quranists worldwide.

1/2: This book titled (Islam and the Reality of the Umma) has saved our person some effort and time; we have always wanted to write a brief, concise book intended for those novices who desire to get to know about the intellectual progress of the Quranist trend of reformist thinkers. Mr. Al-Nawary has accomplished this mission in an excellent manner in his book. 

2- Mr. Al-Nawary is not an ordinary or typical Quranist researcher who master all the tools necessary for ijtihad (i.e., inferring innovative ideas from the Quran); rather, he is a very distinguished and outstanding Quranist researcher who is also a bold, charismatic leader who struggles for the sake of the Quranic Truth; he never wavers in his stances and never fears being outspoken regarding expressing his Quranist and reformist views in Yemen; he never fears being persecuted by the unjust polytheistic Sunnite Wahabis, Shiites, and Sufis in his native country.

3- We sincerely implore and supplicate to the Lord God to protect our son, Mr. Al-Nawary, so that he, as well as our dear fellow Quranists elsewhere, will be among the pillars of our Quranism website who will continue the Quranist reform endeavors initiated by our person.

4- May the Lord God come to the help and aid of all Quranists everywhere.

Signature:

Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour

Springfield, VA, the USA

Nov. 13^th, 2018