BOOK REVIEW

Global Mufti—The Phenom-enon of Yusuf al-Qaradawi
Edited by Jakob Skaovgaard-Peterson & Bettina Graf
Hurst & Co, London
262 Pages


The Qatar-based Egyptian Yusuf al-Qaradawi is among the most globally well-known Islamic scholars. It might be something of an exaggeration to label him as the 'global mufti'—which is what the very title of this book hails him as—but his enormous influence in Islamic scholarly circles is undeniable.

This book is a collection of essays on Qaradawi's life and works. Introductory chapter provides a broad overview of his life. Born in a poor rural family in Egypt in 1926, Qaradawi studied at Cairo's Al-Azhar, after which he shifted to Qatar as emissary of his alma mater. It was there that Qaradawi established himself as a noted scholar and activist, traveling widely across the world and establishing a number of Islamic institutions. The editors provide a pen-portrait of a passionate, scholar-activist, seeking to revive the rapidly disappearing tradition of socially-engaged ulema, who Qaradawi believes, should lead Muslims in the 21st century. They account for the wide reverence in which Qaradawi is held in many Muslim circles by pointing to his charismatic personality, his innovative approach to, and use of, modern methods of communications (such as television and the Internet), his eagerness to discuss and deal with issues of contemporary social and political concern, his championing of a contextually-relevant understanding of Islam that can engage with issues of the day, his distance from ruling regimes (in contrast to his many fellow ulema), and his advocacy of Islam of the 'middle-path'. Readers are offered a general survey of Qaradawi's writings and fatwas illustrating his manner of departing from the obsession of many traditional ulema simply with issues of ritual and personal law to engage with complex and pressing social and political concerns. This point is further elaborated upon in the following chapter, by Bettina Graf, where she discusses the 'state of research' on Qaradawi and examines writings about the Qaradawi by both Western as well as Arab scholars, including some hardliner self-styled Salafists, who regard Qaradawi as too liberal for their liking.

Despite his relative openness, Qaradawi is, Jakob Skovgaard-Peterson reminds us, a scholar trained in the traditional mould of Al-Azhar before it was nationalized by the Nasser's secularizing regime. As such, he continues to insist that the ulema have the foremost role in leading the global Muslim ummah. Qaradawi's keenness to goad the ulema towards social and political engagement is evident from the number of institutions he has established or heads. At the same time, he remains critical of aspects of traditional madrasa training, such as what he underwent in his years at Al-Azhar, including reluctance to engage in ijtihad or independent reflection, obsession with the medieval and minutiae fiqh formulations, absence of modern sciences and languages, and lack of sufficient exposure to contemporary developments. He bitterly opposes the tendency of numerous traditionalist ulema and their institutions—al-Azhar being no exception—to supinely accept the diktats of dictatorial regimes.

Hussam Tammam's essay reminds us of Qaradawi's long-standing association with the Brothers. He shares the Brothers' understanding of Islam as a 'complete system', but, at the same time, has been critical of their excesses—including, and particularly, the extremists among them, such as Syed Qutb, who Qaradawi has critiqued in several of his writings for their radical utopianism that hungers for violence as a means to bring about social transformation, but which, far from producing any positive results, has only led to further spirals of violence and repression.

Repeating some of the arguments in the introductory chapter, Motaz Al-Khateeb looks at the factors that have made Qaradawi what he terms an 'authoritative reference' for many Sunni Muslims. This is further explored by Alexandre Caeiro and Mahmoud al-Saify, who describe Qaradawi's activities in Europe, and the responses to these by European Muslims, the European media and European states. In this regard, they discuss the innovative efforts Qaradawi has made in developing a fiqh for minorities and appropriate fiqh responses to the problems Muslims face as citizens of non-Muslim countries; the role of numerous Europe-based Islamic scholarly institutions with which Qaradawi is associated; and the different ways in which different sectors of the European media and governments have reacted to him, (some praising him as 'moderate', others branding him as a 'fundamentalist' or worse).

In part, Qaradawi's fame rests on his willingness to use modern means of communications to spread his views, which is what Ehab Galal deals with when he examines Qaradawi's programmes on TV channels, notably Al-Jazeera. Through his content analysis of these programmes, he concludes that Qaradawi's popularity has much to do with the ways in which he creatively engages with the media to deal with pressing issues in an accessible manner, and not just arcane fiqh rules about ritual and personal deportment that most traditionally-trained ulema specialize in.

Central to Qaradawi's understanding of Islam are his views on women, moderation and public welfare. Barbara Stowasser examines Qaradawi's fatwas on women, where she shows how he seeks to maintain a delicate balance between traditionalist views on gender-related issues, on the one hand, and, on the other, the need for women to play a more socially-engaged role. Bettina Graf examines the concept of wasatiya in which he uses to argue for what he regards as the Islamic 'middle-path' of moderation between key Western values and total opposition to them, a path that eschews, even condemns, terrorism at the same time as it vociferously opposes imperialism. The concluding essay by Armando Salvatore, purports to discuss Qaradawi's approach to the concept of maslaha or public welfare as a tool for developing more flexible and appropriate fiqh responses to contemporary conditions. However, Salvatore's arguments are dense, almost opaque, which makes his essay—at least so this reviewer found it—quite incomprehensible, quite in contrast to the other essays in this volume.