The Impacts of the Contemporary Sunnah Approach on Politics, Law and Education in Modern Egypt
Authors: ÖZTEKİN Adil 
Published: December 2022

Contrary to those who support the traditional idea of sunnah, reformists who adopt the contemporary understanding of sunnah have given more importance to the text analysis and criticism, meaning and interpretation of the narrations. These thoughts and actions of the reformist movement significantly affected many areas of social life. Thanks to their reformist structure, which caused them to focus on the issues that are closely related to the societies, they made suggestions and recommendations on many issues including politics, law and education. The ideas and discussions of the reformist approach about politics caused them to divide into two. While some said that religion does not claim to be a state, the others said that Islam has a state claim, though not in the form of a religious state, but in the form of an Islamic state, which is different from it in nature. The new situations brought by the modern age have made it necessary to make some legal reforms in Egypt. In this context, a rapid legislative work has been initiated. While these studies were being carried out, the field of sharī‘a law narrowed day by day with the influence of the West, and the modern legal system gained strength instead. However, the Azhar scholars did not take kindly to this work on the grounds that the new draft law did not comply with the Sharī‘a. In response to this attitude of the Azhar scholars, the state took the path of building local courts based on Western laws. However, some scholars have proposed to draft a new Islamic law that will be the result of collective work. While legal reforms and codification studies were carried out in Egypt, the role of sunnah in this context was discussed. In this context, discussions focused on the legal value of sunnah. Three main approaches are noteworthy in these debates in Egypt:

1. The approach that argues that sunnah has no legal value.

2. The approach that divides the Sunnah into two, one with legislative value and the other without it.

3. The approach that argues that the entire Sunnah has a legal value.

The reformists attributed the backwardness of the Islamic nation to the fact that Muslims moved away from the mentality of criticism and adopted the spirit of imitation. They argued that a serious improvement should be made in the field of education in order to rectify this situation. In addition, the scientific and cultural exchange, realized thanks to the students sent by the state to the West, added a new dimension to education in Egypt. In this respect, improving and developing the level of education in Azhar and other institutions has become one of the priorities of the state and the reformist movement. Thus, they aimed to reduce the stagnation and bigotry that dominate educational institutions. Thanks to the efforts of the state and reformers, Dār al-Ulūm and Madrasat al- Ḳaḍā al-Shar‘ī and various educational institutions were established to reform religious education, especially al-Azhar, and to update the curriculum in educational institutions. To this end, a number of laws have been enacted and put into practice. Reformists tried to convey their thoughts to the society through various means by forming public opinion in order to achieve the goal of change they desired in social life. His efforts in this context have sometimes been appreciated by various segments of society, and sometimes they have been subjected to severe criticism. The ideas of the reformist approach went beyond the borders and mostly affected the intellectual circles. Although it contributed to serious inquiries and some transformations, it could not achieve the expected effect in the eyes of the public due to various reasons.