Hai’a chief: Kaust an ‘extraordinary move and huge accomplishment’
By Majid Al-Mufadhali
‘Ikhtilat’ supported
by Ahadeeth, says
Sheikh Al-Ghamdi
MAKKAH – The head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Makkah has added his voice of support to the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Kaust) and addressed the issue of “ikhtilat” – the mixing of the sexes – that has prompted numerous scholars and commentators to speak out in recent months.
“The term ‘ikhtilat’ in this usage is a recent adoption that was unknown to the early people of knowledge,” Sheikh Ahmed Al-Ghamdi said in a lengthy interview with Okaz.
“Mixing was part of normal life for the Ummah and its societies.”
“The word in its contemporary meaning has entered customary jurisprudential terminology from outside,” Al-Ghamdi said.
“Those who prohibit the mixing of the genders actually live it in their real lives, which is an objectionable contradiction, as every fair-minded Muslim should follow Shariah judgments without excess or negligence,” Al-Ghamdi said.
“In many Muslim houses – even those of Muslims who say mixing is haram – you can find female servants working around unrelated males,” he said.
Weak Ahadeeth
Sheikh Al-Ghamdi proceeded by citing numerous Ahadeeth – sayings of the Prophet – to support his position.
“Those who prohibit ikhtilat cling to weak Ahadeeth, while the correct Ahadeeth prove that mixing is permissible, contrary to what they claim,” Al-Ghamdi said.
On Kaust, Sheikh Al-Ghamdi described the university as an “extraordinary move and huge accomplishment to be added to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s record and the history of the Islamic Ummah”.
“It is a great step which the Ummah can look up to in recapturing its role in civilization and its scientific honor,” Al-Ghamdi said.
“It wouldn’t be too much to say that the scientific theories influencing nations have forgotten the creative role of the Islamic world for hundreds of years, leaving the Islamic world dependent on others, introverted, eaten away by difference and sectarian and ethnic disputes and self-interest, making in some parts the religion of Allah a pasture for discord, contention, and enmity in the course of turning in on itself and taking up fanaticism for unsubstantiated views to the point where differences have become part of a sorry program,” Al-Ghamdi said.
Sheikh Al-Ghamdi said the “blessed university” would help realize the “great hopes and ambitions of Muslims”.
“The university represents a natural extension of our Islamic civilization which led for a long time all the theoretical and corporeal sciences,” he added.
