Yusuf Al-Qaradawi and his legacies

Noor Muhammad Mudaqeeq*

Since the demise of Shaykh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi (26 September 2022), may Allah be pleased with him; I have read several articles portraying differentiated views about him. Indeed, Shaykh Qaradawi was one of the most renowned mujtahid scholars and Alim of Islam of his time. His contributions and writings will surely keep on being one of the essential resources as well as the topic of research itself, even long after his demise. Of course, some people could express their condolences by acknowledging his scholarly contributions, while others chose to savagely attack his personability instead. I felt it might be unfair to ignore some of the good things the late scholars did; I am obliged to highlight some events regarding his character and life to the readers.

1.      The lifestyle of personalities such as Shaykh Dr Yusuf Al-Qaradawi is full of motivation and inspiration. He spent almost 75 years of his long life to activities that were upstanding and beneficial for him as well as the improvement of the state of society. He wrote a lot of literature, gave lectures to students, travelled to Eastern and western countries, did collaborative work with İslamic foundations, founded the World Union of Muslim Scholars, served his time as the president, participated in meetings of the utmost importance, debated with people of different beliefs and ideologies, and appeared on television and spoke to the audience in an influential and captivating manner. He attracted millions of people’s attention and won their hearts.

2.      In the beginning, Shaykh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi was an official member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and started his activities within this organisation’s framework. But as time passed, he realised that participating in the internal affairs of any one political party or group would only serve to confine him and narrow his vision. Even though he left Muslim Brotherhood, he didn’t cut off all his ties with the organisation. Furthermore, he had such strong ties that he can even be considered the organisation’s theorist. Likewise, he also had a strong bond with the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hasan Al-Banna, till his last days. On the other hand, Shaykh Qaradawi has also criticised the ideology and activities of the Muslim Brotherhood, especially some of the doctrines started by Sayyid Qutub.

3.      During the period in which the members of the Muslim Brotherhood were being suppressed, Shaykh Qaradawi got an opportunity to go to Qatar. Because of this, a famous speaker from Egypt, Abdulhamid Kashk, in his speeches, criticised Yusuf Al-Qaradawi and similar personalities, saying that they didn’t stand together with the people of Egypt, fled the country in the most challenging times and took refuge in the gulf countries for a more comfortable and prosperous life. He even went as far as to call them “The shaykhs of petrol”. But the following events showed how right Shaykh Qaradawi was in his decision. If Shaykh Qaradawi had stayed in Egypt and hadn’t gone to Petrol-rich Qatar, none of his legacies would have survived. By moving to Qatar, he was free from the oppression of the regime of Egypt and was also able to continue and improve his enthusiastic works, free of the fear of making a living. If Shaykh Qaradawi hadn’t left Egypt- even though he is one of the most prominent scholars- he would probably stay as one of the scholars from Azhar. Later, when Qatar started to improve its economy, the newspapers, radio and television there gave him some popularity. In 1996, with the establishment of Al-Jazeera Tv, Shaykh Qaradawi got the platform to reach millions of viewers around the globe.

4.      One of the things that made al-Qaradawi shine even more, was his fluent writing style and the clarity of his expression. He had great expertise in Arabic and wrote more than 100 books. These books cover a variety of fields, including Islamic jurisprudence, ideologies, and politics. Naturally, the essence of these books is different. Even when he suffered from the physical weakness of old age, he was still busy writing actively like he was in his youth and didn’t stop until his last breath. The books written by Shaykh Qaradawi in the field of Fiqh are of special importance. His unparalleled expertise in İslamic Jurisprudence is the main difference between him and other scholars of the last century.

5.      The first book by Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi in the field of Fiqh is “The halal and haram in Islam”. This book caught the attention of huge masses in the first years of its publication. The main reasons for these reactions were some fatwas mentioned in the book. Because the approach adopted by Dr. Qaradawi in the book was a “facilitating approach”. Some Saudi Arabian Shaykhs who criticised the books suggested that the book’s name should be changed to “The lawful and the lawful in Islam”. Shaykh Qaradawi replied, suggesting that they themselves write a book and call it: “The prohibited and the prohibited in Islam”. Today, most of the issues mentioned in the book have been resolved. But back when the book was published, these issues were thought to be complicated and challenging to solve. Shaykh Qaradawi believed that to breathe new life into ijtihad and solve new problems, all of the potential presented by ijtihad had to be pursued. The fields of ijtihad and ifta in the Islamic world will forever be indebted to him and will remember him as a brave mujtahid.

6.      The world of politics is as complicated and mysterious as it gets, and the people who cannot comprehend politics may find themselves in places they don’t want to be. On the other side, a person responsible for the intellectual and spiritual leadership of a society may find himself in need of acquiring positions in active and serious political topics. Dr. Qaradawi sometimes knowingly, sometimes unknowingly, took sides with some movements and groups and helped them strengthen their positions. Those groups who weren’t interested or concerned ideologically about Qaradawi’s work accused Shaykh Qaradawi of being part of a play of intelligence agencies and tried to paint him as a person unable to maintain prestige and academic confidence.

7.      He was accused of being a non-moderate and sometimes supported radical ideologies. First, it is important to note that determining laxity and extremism is extremely hard and to come up with a definition agreed upon by everyone is next to impossible. Secondly, let’s look at the ideologies and actions of radical religious groups that have emerged in some Muslim Countries and examine them. We understand the importance of Scholars like al-Qaradawi in the Islamic world and how significant and effective they are/can be. Al-Qaradawi is one of the first and major persons to notice and criticise the İslamic groups who supported extremism. It can be said that no one else would have been as effective as Shaykh Qaradawi in preventing extremism among Islamic groups. The reason is that he has faced similar ideologies and can find and correct the gaps leading to extremism.

8.      Dr. Qaradawi was exceptionally talented. Undoubtedly, these abilities gave him an edge over others.In the meantime, however, we cannot ignore the role of the weekly “Al-Sharia wal-Hayat” program broadcasted on Al-Jazeera TV in making Sheikh Qaradawi public. Al-Jazeera TV, estimated to have tens of millions of viewers in Arab countries and other parts of the world, provided Sheikh Qaradawi with a broad platform to convey his views everywhere. In today’s world, we cannot ignore the role of media in raising or lowering the image and prestige of personalities. 

9.      One of Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi’s controversial fatwas is that it is permissible to carry out “martyrdom(?)/suicide operations” against the occupying Israelis. He determined some restrictions and conditions for this fatwa to be permissible and wanted to limit it to certain situations. However, some western countries didn’t like this fatwa, and Sheikh Qaradawi was denied travelling to the USA and England. Others have pointed out that it incites violence and provides a document for extremist groups to justify their suicide operations. But in reality, these extremist groups don’t need the fatwa of shaykh Qaradawi; they have their muftis to make their fatwas. One wonders why they don’t follow his fatwas, where he condemns their violent actions.

10.   During his nearly 60 years in Qatar, Yusuf al-Qaradawi wrote numerous articles and books and produced ideas/thoughts.Sheikh Qaradawi’s writings have always been popular, and his books have been among the bestsellers. All his life, he lived as a leader of temperance. He had relations with people and parties in a variety of fields. He always stood with /was there for the oppressed and Muslims.  

He did all he could to fulfil his responsibility, and now it is our turn…

*This writeup was translated from Turkish to English language by Rikesh luitel