Afifi al-Akiti | |
|---|---|
محمد عفيفي العقيتي | |
 Al-Akiti at Oxford | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | (1976-06-17)17 June 1976 (age 49) |
| Nationality | Malaysian |
| Era | Modern |
| Main interest(s) | Theology |
| Notable work(s) | Defending the Transgressed by Censuring the Reckless against the Killing of Civilians et al. |
| Alma mater | Queen's University Belfast (BA) Worcester College, Oxford (MSt,DPhil) |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Islam |
| Jurisprudence | Shafi'i |
| Creed | AshariSunni |
| Muslim leader | |
| Awards | Clarendon Scholarship |
Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti (born 1976), also known asShaykh Afifi,[1][2] is the KFAS Fellow in Islamic Studies at theOxford Centre for Islamic Studies.[3] He is also the Islamic Centre Lecturer in Islamic Studies at theFaculty of Theology, University of Oxford,[4] and is a Fellow ofWorcester College, Oxford. He is the firstMalay to be appointed to such a position in this university.[5] Elsewhere, he is a visiting professor ofUniversiti Teknologi MARA in Malaysia. He has also received widespread media recognition across the globe.[6]
In 2010, Afifi al-Akiti was appointed Privy Councillor to theState of Perak, Malaysia, by the Crown Prince of Perak,Raja Dr Nazrin Shah.[7][8]
Afifi al-Akiti is listed inThe 500 Most Influential Muslims since 2010.[9][10][11][12] In 2009, along withProfessor Muhammad Abdel Haleem and theIIIT, Afifi al-Akiti was shortlisted for the Annual UK Muslim Awards, in one of its 15 coveted Awards for Excellence, theAllama Iqbal Award for Creativity in Islamic Thought.[13] In 2011, Afifi al-Akiti was awarded theDarjah Paduka Mahkota Perak (PMP), the Malaysian equivalent to theBritish CBE.[14][15] In 2012, he was the sole recipient of theDarjah Dato' Paduka Cura Si-Manja Kini (DPCM) in that year'sSultan of Perak Birthday Honours List, which carries the Malaysian title of Dato'.[16][17]
Afifi al-Akiti, who comes fromMalaysia, is trained as a theologian and philologist in both the Islamic and Western traditions: educated originally at the feet of theulema of the Muslim world, he subsequently received aFirst Class degree inScholastic philosophy and theHistory of science from theQueen's University Belfast, where he was awarded various scholarships to read for his Masters and Doctoral degrees at Oxford University. His areas of expertise are Islamic theology, philosophy and science.[18]
Afifi al-Akiti completed hisDPhil in Medieval Arabic Philosophy from Oxford University as a Clarendon Scholar in 2008. His thesis is a study of the Madnun corpus attributed to Islamic theologianal-Ghazali (d. 505/1111). His findings are based on a survey of nearly 50 medieval Arabic manuscripts. Besides acquainting scholars with this body of source material, his three-volume study presents a critical edition of this corpus, ta manual on metaphysics and natural philosophy called theMajor Madnun.[19][20]
On 23 July 2005, just days after theLondon bombings, Afifi al-Akiti wroteDefending the Transgressed by Censuring the Reckless against the Killing of Civilians (Arabic:Mudafi' al-Mazlum bi-Radd al-Muhamil 'ala Qital Man La Yuqatil), the foreword of which was described byGibril Haddad as a "fatwa" or a "response by a qualified Muslim scholar against the killing of civilians".[21] Furthermore:
Upon reading Shaykh Afifi's fatwa do not be surprised to find that you have probably never before seen such clarity of thought and expression together with breadth of knowledge of Islamic Law applied (by a non-native speaker) to define key Islamic concepts pertaining to the conduct of war and its jurisprudence, its arena and boundaries,suicide bombing, the reckless targeting of civilians, and more.[21]
This work was freely available on the Internet.[2][22][23] It was written in response to a statement issued by the radical groupal-Muhajiroun, which refers to the9/11 hijackers as the "Magnificent 19", and claims that while Muslims who live in the West are not allowed to wage war against the government, Muslims who live elsewhere do not face the same prohibition.[24] The leader of al-Muhajiroun,Omar Bakri Muhammad, argues that the British government broke a "covenant of security" with its Muslim citizens by introducing anti-terror legislation and indefinite detention of terror suspects. British Muslims therefore had a right to consider themselves at war with the government, he claims.[25] Countering this argument, Afifi al-Akiti says that Omar Bakri has no authority to issue such a war directive as only a Muslim government could issue one. If a Muslim were to carry out such an attack, he would be a murderer and not a martyr or hero.[26]
Defending the Transgressed was subsequently published as a book by Aqsa Press (Birmingham) and Warda Publications (Hellenthal, Germany) in September 2005. A year later theDefending the Transgressed appeared (as second edition) inThe State We Are In[27] – a collection containing contributions on the same topic by other notable Muslim scholars, including the likes ofHamza Yusuf andAbdallah Bin Bayyah. Its third edition is published in 2009 as part of the OxfordAmnesty Lectures(OAL) 2006 series,War Against Terror.[28]
So far,Defending the Transgressed has been translated into a number of languages including German,[29][30] Spanish,[31] Albanian[32] and Swedish.[33]
Perak
Commander of theOrder of the Perak State Crown (PMP) (2011)[34].svg)
Knight of theOrder of Cura Si Manja Kini (DPCM) –Dato’ (2012)[35]
Selangor
Knight Commander of theOrder of the Crown of Selangor (DPMS) –Dato’ (2015)[36]| International | |
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