Grand Mufti: Without science and knowledge mankind is doomed

“Nowadays in the globalizing world it is more and more spoken about policy, material and financial benefits, and strategies how to they can be obtain, but we are here for the satisfaction of the Almighty Allah and we speak about science and knowledge. These are two foundations without which mankind is doomed”, said the Grand Mufti Dr. Mustafa Hadzhi. He was at the presentation of the Doctoral Thesis of Dr. Kadir Muhammed, lecturer at High Islamic Institute (HII) – “Ekmelüddin Babertî and his concept of kalam (Islamic dogmatic, fn. ed.)”, which took place in a hotel in the capital. According to the religious leader of the Muslims mentioning the era of scientists who also had political, economical and worldly problems, we have to note the fact that despite everything they took the pen and wrote books. When we meet up close with their biography we see that they had a great blessing in their life.

“Babertî is the author of about 40 works. Today we do not have the habit to read and we can hardly find people who have read even ten books. Not speaking about writing, it requires efforts and work, for which today we claim that always are not enough”, said the Grand Mufti.

According to him the ideal to be of use for the people through science is a traditional Muslim feature but it is covered with ash which the today’s generation must clean and revive. The Grand Mufti greeted the author of the academy of work and wished him success in his future academic work, and he also thanked the University in Bayburt, Turkey, with the kind assistance of which the work was published.

“It is my pleasure to present to your attention the book of Dr. Kadir Muhammed, which was recently published under the title “Ekmelüddin Babertî and his concept of kalam” from the University of Bayburt in Turkey. The published work is a doctoral thesis of Dr. Muhammed, defended by the author in year 2011 in the Turkish University Uludag in the city of Bursa. His book is published in Turkish language”, said during her presentation Dr. Emine Bayraktarova, lecturer at HII.

According to her Dr. Kadir Muhammed is among the few Islamic theologians in Bulgaria who devoted their scientific work on topics in the field of kalam. The author has articles, participations in symposiums and international conferences related to issues treating the science of kalam.

“The works and the scientific achievements of Dr. Muhammad are an important contribution for forming and development of scientific core of Islamic scholars in Bulgaria which has the potential to be established as authority on the different fields of Islamic theology”, further said Dr. Bayraktarova.

She said that the topic chosen from the author and related to the views of the Islamic scholar Babertî in the field of kalam is original, because it was not previously an object of studies from other authors. The work has an important scientific contribution and having in mind the significance of the views and the work of Babertî for the understanding of the kalam tradition.

The book of Dr. Muhammed consists of an introduction, four parts and conclusion. The introductory part deals with topics related to the life of Ekmelüddin Babertî and his works. The author gives a place of the works of Babertî in the field of kalam as at the same time acknowledges the readers also with these, which are not related to the kalam science.

Beside this to represent the views of Babertî on different topics, related to kalam, the question the answer of which the author is looking for is to which school belongs Babertî. The author come to the conclusion that in his works Babertî exposes the views of schools out of ehli sunna, he refutes them and in this way he identifies the Islamic religion with the views of ehli sunna.

And in this context the main conclusion to which Dr. Muhammed comes, is that Babertî adheres to the Sunni interpretation of faith, the principles and the management in the field of kalam. The author emphasizes that the aim of Babertî is to draw the attention to the fact that not everything can be understood and solved through mind. According to Dr. Muhammed, Babertî brought to the foreground the Hanefi Maturidi line and it is leading in all his works.

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