Religion Islam Name Abdallah Bayyah Era Modern history Movement Sufi Titles Sheikh | Jurisprudence Maliki Denomination Sunni Role Professor Region Saudi Arabia | |
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Born 1935 (age 79–80) Timbedra, Mauritania (then French West Africa) Similar People Hamza Yusuf, Habib Ali al‑Jifri, Habib Umar bin Hafiz, Yusuf al‑Qaradawi, Zaid Shakir Profiles | ||
Parents Shaykh Mahfoudh Ben Bayah | ||
Ristalks shaykh abdallah bin bayyah fiqh of reality
Abdallah bin Mahfudh ibn Bayyah (born 1935) is a Mauritanian professor of Islamic studies at the King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Contents
- Ristalks shaykh abdallah bin bayyah fiqh of reality
- A conversation with shaykh abdallah bin bayyah
- Early career
- Islamic Law
- Sufism
- On extremism
- Other
- Publications
- Responsibilities and positions
- Medals and awards
- References
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. Bin Bayyah is involved in number of scholarly councils including The Islamic Fiqh Council, a Saudi-based Institute, he was also the Vice-President of International Union of Muslim Scholars. from which he resigned in 2014. He is also a member of the Dublin-based European Council for Fatwa and Research, a council of Muslim clerics that aims at explaining Islamic law in a way that is sensitive to the realities of European Muslims.
A conversation with shaykh abdallah bin bayyah
Early career
Bin Bayyah was born 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, the judge Shaykh Mahfoudh; meanwhile, he studied Arabic with Shaykh Mohammed Salem bin al-Sheen, Quran with Shaykh Bayyah bin al-Salik al-Misumi.
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. 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. Hamza Yusuf serves as his translator.
Islamic Law
Bin Bayyah is said by some Sufis to be a scholar of uṣūl al-fiqh (Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence) today and have competency in all four Sunni juridical schools. Some Muslims look upon him as one of the symbols of moderation and centrism. The West, and especially Western government, has taken his views and fatawas as a source and reference for Muslim minorities living in those countries.
Sufism
Bin Bayyah is a promoter of Tasawwuf (Sufism). 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).
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 “Sufism”, just as the discipline of Shar`i rulings was called Fiqh."
On extremism
Bin Bayyah is one of the signatories of the Amman Message, which gives a broad foundation for defining Muslim orthodoxy. 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, a theological refutation of the practices of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Other
Shaykh Bin Bayyah was quoted by President Barack Obama during his speech before U.N security council 2014. He was ranked amongst the 500 most influential Muslims from 2009 - 2013.