Described as the Kaaba of Islamic Sciences.. Has the role of Al-Azhar declined and how is it used in the power struggle with its opponents?

Al-Azhar Al-Sharif enjoys a great status and role in Egypt and the Islamic world, and it is described as the Kaaba of Islamic sciences, but nevertheless it did not escape throughout its history from criticisms, intellectual attacks, and political and media campaigns, some of which are related to political reasons, such as the refusal of Al-Azhar sheikhs to align with the positions and directions of the ruling authority, and some of them relate to holding it responsible. On the prevalence of extremism and its stand against efforts to renew religious discourse.

Since its founding during the reign of the Fatimid caliph al-Muizz Li Din Allah in 970 AD corresponding to 359 AH, Al-Azhar played a major role in the renaissance of Egypt and the Islamic nation, and was a reference and haven for students and scholars from all over the Islamic world, as confirmed by the head of the Literature and Criticism Department at the Faculty of Islamic Studies at Al-Azhar University, Sabri Abu Hussein, who spoke to the "Mawazine" program about the history and march of Al-Azhar.

According to what was stated in the intervention of Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Cairo University, Muhammad Afifi, Al-Azhar was a stronghold of the Egyptian national movement throughout modern and contemporary history. He prompted Napoleon Bonaparte to hit Al-Azhar with bombs and storm it with horses, in an unprecedented precedent in history.

He also played a very important role in the Arab revolt and the 1919 revolution.

Sabri Abu Hussein adds that Al-Azhar had a role in appointing and choosing Muhammad Ali in 1805 and in resisting the tripartite aggression against Egypt in 1956 and in the October 1973 war, stressing that Al-Azhar has always been with its students, scholars and sheikhs in the service of the interest of Egypt.

Despite the role it played in the Egyptian national movement and in defending the nation's causes, especially the Palestinian cause, Al-Azhar was subjected to political and media campaigns, and some criticized the nature of its relationship with the ruling authority in Egypt at certain stages.

The writer and researcher in political sociology, Ammar Ali Hassan - in his intervention in the episode (1/3/2023) of the "Mawazine" program - indicates that there is a permanent conflict between the political authority and Al-Azhar, which was mainly politically established by the Fatimids, who wanted through it to consolidate Their Shiite ideology, and although the leader Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi changed his direction, Al-Azhar continued throughout its history to rotate negatively and positively with the political authority wherever it went, sometimes butting it and at other times ignoring it.

In the recent period, the clash between the political authority and Al-Azhar took a different form - Ammar Ali Hassan continues - as the state is represented by the President of the Republic and some institutions want to extract from Al-Azhar many of his powers, as some invoke the issue of renewal, reform and development to put pressure on him, stressing that this institution must Religious tends to "renew and flexible self-reform that does not look at the interest of the ruler or the ruling elite, but rather the interest of the people and the nation."

For his part, Afifi mentioned in his intervention that the two kings - Fouad and Farouk - used Al-Azhar in their struggle with the Wafd Party and were asking for its support and support for them, and because of this bias, Saad Zaghloul's relationship with Al-Azhar was not strong, and the same was true for Mustafa Al-Nahhas Pasha.

On the other hand, the head of the Department of Literature and Criticism at the Faculty of Islamic Studies at Al-Azhar University stresses that Al-Azhar has nothing to do with politics and political parties.

Dilute the role of Al-Azhar

Ammar Ali returns, in his intervention, to the relationship of the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser with Al-Azhar, stressing that he may have intended to dilute his role through the 1961 law that defines his field of work, which some called the law of nationalization of Al-Azhar, as Abdel Nasser added great burdens to him when he made him a university.

In the same context, he reveals that the writer Taha Hussein met Abdel Nasser and told him that the reform of Al-Azhar requires that he be preoccupied and preoccupied mainly with religious issues and draw from the humanities, in a way that serves these issues, especially in sociology, philosophy, psychology, rhetoric, and the research method.

According to Ammar Ali, there are many universities and colleges in Egypt that teach all sciences, such as philosophy, sociology and economics, but Al-Azhar is the institution that can teach religious sciences in depth and comprehensiveness, and students from all over the world come to it for this purpose, for example, a student does not come from Nigeria or Indonesia to study Medicine and philosophy are in Al-Azhar, but he goes there to receive religious sciences in a broader depth.

Regarding the calls for renewing the curricula of the Al-Azhar Institution, Ammar Ali affirms that Al-Azhar is entrusted with it to keep pace with developments in its religious perceptions or take into account the interest of the nation, and the religious discourse, legal fatwa, jurisprudential opinion, or religious perception must keep pace with life developments on an ongoing basis, indicating that in Sometimes some call on Al-Azhar for renewal within a political framework to blackmail it or to be always in the bosom of power, and demanded that renewal be in the hands of Al-Azhar alone.

While Sabri Abu Hussein confirms that Al-Azhar considers that renewal is necessary from the requirements of Islamic law, but renewal is not in the constants of Islam, but rather in contingent matters, and only those who are firmly grounded in knowledge are renewed, noting that Al-Azhar is keen on renewal, as evidenced by its talk about citizenship and living. The Joint Document and the Human Fraternity Document, which is a new, modern look, as well as the renewal of education curricula in Al-Azhar institutes and colleges.