In the Name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Preface

At the beginning of the nineties, I faced a severe battle against extreme poverty and against traditionalist adversaries. My adversaries included the Sufis, the Salafis, the Sunnis, and the Azharites; as well as their religious, educational and da’wah institutes, both in Egypt and internationally. Additionally, I bore the brunt of the heavy-handed repressive, and ever watchful Egyptian governmental agencies which sought me out, and hunted me down like prey.

I was – and remain – against the way people are implementing Islam. Naturally, they denied me of my sustenance, and plagued my life with continuous terror, which they inflicted shamefully. However, if the peaceful thinker was to go to prison, especially Egyptian prisons, even if it be for a few weeks, the experience will never leave him. He continues to bear the experience and memories inside of him no matter h to bear the experience and memories inside of him no matter how long he lives. He remains recollecting the memories, especially if he was, like me, not of much material wealth, and not knowing what will happen to his children if the authorities were to return him to the depths and darkness of their prisons. He even knows what awaits him from the prison guards, most of whom are extremists, and are his adversaries in religion who see their efforts against him as their opportunity of revenge. Just like the supposedly moderate sheikh Sayyid Saabiq (who is the sheikh of the Muslim Brotherhood), when he gave a fatwa in his most famous book Fiqh al-Sunna (The Jurisprudence of the Sunna) with regard to the apostate; and they see me as a fervent apostate. My adversaries are those among the religious extremists and the corrupt, tyrannical politicians. Yet, even though they dispute with each other, they agree on one thing: pursuing and persecuting me.

 The idea of imprisoning me for the third time with any charge possible, allowed them to realise their dream of getting rid of me for good, so my blood will be spilt among the masses of prisoners. It was also an evil habit of Egypt’s National Security to apprehend me every so often to frighten and terrorise me, especially with the real possibility of a National Security official extending my stay for one extra night in their unofficial prisons, in which they gather victims to torture (as is their usual daily routine). Most of the victims are extremists who long for revenge and jihad, and my presence among them realized everyone’s dream of being rid of me. I experienced these utopian prisons only for 2 days in 1988, however, God Almighty spared me the worst of the adversities therein.

Extreme poverty, coupled with state terror and the threats of extremists, didn’t in any way stop my productivity nor my insistence on continuing the peaceful struggle to reform the Muslims with Islam. And the evidence rests in the fact that this book was internationalized in 1991 after an incident which I haven’t yet mentioned; most of the details are known to those who took it upon themselves to print and publish this book. Further details were disclosed in al-Ahraam al-Araby newspaper by the journalist Ilhaam al-Majeely close in time to the occurrence of the events:

As far as I know, an enlightened Muslim in Germany wrote to The Scientific Institute for the Studies and Research of The Green Book in Libya suggesting that they publish my books. He also informed them of my battles with the Sunnis and of my weekly essays in the Ahrar Newspaper. At the time, Gaddafi was at the fore of the anti-traditionalist Sunni movement, whilst my adversaries in Egypt were making up stories about relations between him and myself. Yet not one of them thought about the implications of such a claim: for how is it that I endure poverty in Egypt? And why is it that I don’t emigrate to one of the Libyan universities so that I may live a nice and easy life along with my associates and students.

They fail to understand that the free thinker can never be a pawn for any oppressive ruler. An oppressive authority could resort to printing a book of mine out of need, or could even exhort others to publish it – only if that was in its interests. However, its own scholars can’t come up with a similar work. This is what happened with some of my books which proved the incompatibility between Islam and extremism. Example, the Egyptian authorities celebrated my book The Punishment of Defection – which I wrote after the imprisonment of my friend Dr. Faraj Fawda, which shows with clear cut proofs that punishing the defector with death contradicts Islam. Thus, it was published many times because the punishment of defection was proposed by terrorist organizations to the Egyptian authorities and encouraged them with attempts of assassination. For this reason, the criticism of the sheikhs of al-Azhar against this book was moderate. Indeed, in 2002 they issued a fatwa that the punishment of the defector is not death, but merely that he is required to repent.

The case was the same with Gaddafi’s government in Libya which saw that some of my books might strengthen the cause of the mad general in the way of culture, research, and in the media. In any case, this exceptional encounter was set from the beginning to be a relationship between two opposing ideologies. They are the ideology of repression/despotism, and enslavement which doesn’t expect from the cultured writer to be anything but a puppet pulled by its strings. However, the free thinker elevates himself from such limitations because he reads history objectively, and has applied his reasoning to it, and he sees how the striving pen is eternalized and always succeeds against the sword of transgression. These two ideologies can never agree with each other.

An high-ranking Libyan official phoned me, and we agreed that I should author for them a book entitled The Qur’an: Enough as a Source for Islamic Legislation, and after two weeks exactly, I had completed it, then I gave it to them. The renowned journalist al-Majeely, who followed up this affair with me given his links with the Libyan leadership, said at the time that Gaddafi had read the book and he liked it, so he agreed to it being published on the condition that its title is changed to “Why The Qur’an?”, and on the condition that the name of the author should be “Dr. Abdullah al-Khalifa”. I agreed, so long as they didn’t change anything in the main body of the text. It was then agreed that publishing the book would take place in Cairo so that it would be distributed in Egypt first. A woman working at the publisher’s printers was taken aback when she read a page from the book so she informed an investigator from the National Security. They then held back all the copies of the book and sent one copy to Al- Azhar. It was then agreed that the book should be confiscated if they found outthat I was the real author of the book. They then actually transported every copy of the book to dump them near the border. Soon after, the book was published in Libya, however, a Libyan Sunni group oversaw its publishing. This inevitably led to Gaddafi agreeing to confiscate the book because the fashion of rejecting the Sunna had waned with him, and he became busied in other amusement. So too, had everyone else become too busy to remember my financial entitlements which we had agreed upon.

Here lies the book before you, dear reader, after fourteen years of seizure. A clear proof is presented to you herein, so that no claim to ignorance can be made. After reading this book, the facts will be made clear, whilst ignorance will wane, then there will be one decision to make willfully and knowingly: either disclaiming Bukhari and others like him and supporting God Almighty and His honourable messenger, or, supporting Bukhari and the other imams of hadith in their injustice towards God The Most High and His honourable messenger. Every one of us is free in what he decides, and he will be accountable before God on the Day of Resurrection about what he chose for himself, then, he will find his reward either as an eternity in paradise, or, an eternity in the flames.

This is a grave affair, and an even graver responsibility.

Have a happy New Year.

Ahmed Subhi Mansour

January, 2005.