Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy

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Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy (Arabic: محمد سيد طنطاوى) (born 28 October 1928) is the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque and Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar University. He has been described as "perhaps the foremost Sunni Arab authority",^[1] "acknowledged as the highest spiritual authority for nearly a billion Sunni Muslims",^[2] and "a supreme authority."^[3]

He joined the Alexandria Religious Institute in 1944, and became a member of the faculty of Ausol Aldeen in 1968. In 1972 he became a member of the faculty of Arabic & Islamic Studies at the Islamic University of Libya. In 1980 he moved to Saudi Arabia where he became chief of the Tafsir branch of the Postgraduate studies branch at the Islamic University of Madinah. He returned to Egypt in 1985 when he became Dean of the Faculty of Ausol Aldeen in the prestigious Alexandria Religious Institute.^[4]^[5]

In 1986 he was appointed as Grand Mufti of Egypt on his 58th birthday, 28 October 1986. He held this position for almost ten years, until he was appointed Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque and Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar University by the President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, on 27 March 1996. [1]^[4]^[5] The Al-Azhar Mosque is one of the most influential and important Sunni Muslim institutions.^[4]^[5]

He has taken a line against Suicide bombings, and unlike his compatriot Yusuf al-Qaradawi, he has condemned the use of suicide bombings against Israelis, rejecting the argument that all Israelis were legitimate targets because at some stage they would all carry a gun.^[2] In 2003 he called suicide bombers "enemies of Islam", adding "people of different beliefs should co-operate and not get into senseless conflicts and animosity. Extremism is the enemy of Islam. Whereas, jihad is allowed in Islam to defend one's land, to help the oppressed. The difference between jihad in Islam and extremism is like the earth and the sky" ^[6]

Speaking after the September 11, 2001 attacks he said "It's not courage in any way to kill an innocent person, or to kill thousands of people, including men and women and children."^[7] He said that Osama bin Laden's call for a Jihad against the west was "invalid and not binding on Muslims", adding "Killing innocent civilians is a horrific, hideous act that no religion can approve". He said the Qur'an "specifically forbids the kinds of things the Taliban and al-Qaida are guilty of". ^[8]

He is somewhat conservative, and is opposed to Women as Imams in mixed Congregations during Friday prayers (Jumu'ah).^[9] He also called Haydar Haydar's book, ‘Feast for Seaweed’, blasphemous. ^[10] In 2001 he issued a fatwa banning women from acting as surrogate mothers or from receiving frozen sperm from dead husbands.^[11]

Tantawy completed a seven thousand page exegesis of the Qur'an (Al-tafser al-waset). This Tafsir took over ten years to complete.^[3] He has also written Bano Israel (Jacob's Son's) and Muamlat Al-bank ( Bank's Dealings ).^[4]^[5]

Tantawy recited the Salatul janazah at the funeral of Yasser Arafat in 2004, during which he said that "Arafat has done his duty as a defender of the Palestinian cause, with courage and honesty".^[12] During the controversy of the French headscarf ban in schools, he issued a Fatwa allowing Muslim Girls to take off their Hijabs while attending school, using the lesser of two evils principle.^[13] He has issued a fatwa which allowed abortion in cases where a woman had become pregnant through rape, though this created controversy and Mufti Ali Gomaa said Tantawy was wrong, and that irrespective of how the life was created, after 120 days an abortion becomes haram, forbidden.^[14] Tantawy has also seen himself in opposition to some other clerics over his stance against female circumcision, especially in 1997 when he said "The Ulema of Islam are unanimous in agreeing that female circumcision has nothing to do with religion" and revealed his own daughter had not been circumcised.^[15]