“Authentic Islam” The Religious Profile of Taqī al-Dīn al-Hilālī

240 Pages·2015·3.01 MB·English

“Authentic Islam”
The Religious Profile of Taqī al-Dīn al-Hilālī (1893-1987) as Reflected in his
Fatwas

Proefschrift

ter verkrijging van
de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden,
op gezag van Rector Magnificus prof.mr.C.J.J.M. Stolker,
volgens besluit van het College voor promoties
te verdedigen op woensdag 6 Mei 2015
Klokke 13:45 uur

door
Abdessamad El Amraoui
Geboren te Ouarzazate in 1968
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Promotiecommissie

Promotor: Prof.dr. P.S. van Koningsveld

Overige leden Prof.dr. mr. M.S. Berger
Dr. N.J.G. Kaptein
Dr. Umar Ryad (Universiteit van Utrecht)

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Inhoud
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. 6
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 7
The Origins of the Salafiyya in Morocco and Al-Hilālī’s Conversion ................................................ 9
Previous Studies of Al-Hilālī’s Life and Thought ............................................................................. 17
Research Question, Focus and Sources ............................................................................................. 23
1. Early Years in Morocco (1900- 1921): Studies and Conversion to Salafism ................................ 28
1.1. Early years in Morocco ......................................................................................................... 28
1.2. Conversion to Salafism ......................................................................................................... 34
2. Egypt, India and Iraq (1921-1927): Early Polemics with Sufism and Shi’ism ............................. 44
2.1. Early Polemics with Sufism .................................................................................................. 44
2.2. Polemics with Shi’ism ........................................................................................................... 47
3. India, Afghanistan and Iraq (1930-1936): Polemics against the Aḥmadiyya and against the Niqāb
66
3.1. Polemics against the Aḥmadiyya........................................................................................... 69
3.2. The Ḥijāb ............................................................................................................................... 79
4. Germany (1936-1942): Propagating Salafism and Combatting Colonialism from Europe........... 81
4.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 81
4.2. Fatwas from Europe .............................................................................................................. 84
4.2.1. An Islamic ruling from Europe about drinking wine ......................................................... 84
4.2.2. Living in Europe ................................................................................................................ 87
4.3. Nazi Propaganda .................................................................................................................... 90
4.3.1. Source Materials ............................................................................................................... 92
4.3.2. Call to Jihād Against Colonialism and Imperialism ....................................................... 100
5. Spanish Morocco (1942-1947): First Confrontations with Moroccan scholars and the Issue of
Shaving the Beard ............................................................................................................................... 108
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5.1. Back to Morocco to accomplish a mission .......................................................................... 108
5.2. First Confrontations with Moroccan Scholars ..................................................................... 114
5.3. The Issue of Shaving the Beard ........................................................................................... 116
6. Iraq (1947-1959): The Glory of the Muslim Civilization in Spain ............................................. 120
6.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 120
6.2. The Glory of the Muslim Civilization in Spain ................................................................... 122
7. Post-Independence Morocco (1960-1968): Polemics against the Bahā’īs .................................. 133
7.1. Al-Hilālī’s Experience in Post Independence Morocco ...................................................... 133
7.2. The Bahā’ī Case .................................................................................................................. 139
7.3. The Ruling on the Apostate in Islam: The fatwa “Ḥukm al-murtadd fī al-Islām” .............. 144
7.3.1. Arguments for Muslims.................................................................................................... 145
7.3.2. Argument about non-Muslims ......................................................................................... 147
7.3.3. The Moroccan Scholars and the Bahā’ī Case ................................................................. 149
7.3.4. Al-Hilālī vs‘Allāl al-Fāsī’s Point of View ( The Official Islam in Morocco) .................. 151
7.4. Al-Hilālī’s Discomfort in Morocco and the Invitation of Saudi Arabia .............................. 155
8. Saudi Arabia (1968-1974): Once Again Against Christian Theology......................................... 157
8.1. The Hijab Revisited ............................................................................................................. 157
8.2. An Anti-Christian Pamphlet: ‘The Evangelical Proofs that Jesus is a Human Being and Has
no Share in the Divinity’ ................................................................................................................. 163
9. The Final Phase, Morocco (1974-1987): The Unpublished Collection of Al-Fatāwā al-Hilāliyya
172
9.1. The Final Phase ................................................................................................................... 172
9.2. The Unpublished Collection Al-Fatāwā al-Hilāliyya ......................................................... 178
9.2.1. The Kinds of People or Institutions Who Posed Questions ............................................. 182
9.2.1.1. Al-Hilālī’s Students In- and Outside Morocco ........................................................ 183
9.2.1.2. Al-Hilālī’s Petitioners Who Have Championed Salafism Inside and Outside Morocco
185
9.2.1.3. The Institutions ........................................................................................................ 188
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9.3. Al-Hilālī’s Methodology in Al-Fatāwa al-Hilālīyya ....................................................... 191
9.4. A Forerunner of Fiqh al-Aqaliyyāt (Fiqh of Muslim minorities)? ...................................... 193
Conclusions ......................................................................................................................................... 200
Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 211
Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 225
Samenvatting ....................................................................................................................................... 232
Curriculum Vitae ................................................................................................................................. 240

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Acknowledgements
This work would not have come to light without the help generously offered by many.
For help on the scientific level, I am indebted to Dr Umar Ryad for putting me in
contact with Al-Hilālī’s family and helping me to get access to some of Al-Hilālī’s archive. I
hereby submit my gratitude to Al-Hilālī’s grandson, ‘Abd al-Ghanī Būzakrī , who helped me
to gain access to Al-Hilālī ’s personal archive which made it possible for me to conduct this
research. I also thank Muḥammad Kadewi, George Muishout and Ronald Kron for reading my
chapters and Rosemary Robson-McKillop for editing my English writing.
My family has supported me tremendously during this research. I dedicate this work to
my dearest mother, Aicha Fadil for her kindness, tenderness and for her endless support. I am
most grateful to my wife, I could not have done any of this study without her support and
patience. My daughters Fatima Zahra and Maryam, my sons Imran and Taqī al-Dīn were a
source of motivation and inspiration during my work. Lastly and not least my brothers,
Muḥammad, Noureddine, Said, Abdelhadi and my sisters Naima and Nazha deserve many
thanks for their encouragements, advice and for sharing with me the most memorable
moments in life. This work is in memory of my father Ali El Amraoui.

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Introduction
On 22 June 1987, the internationally renowned Moroccan religious scholar Taqī al-Dīn Al-
Hilālī passed away at the advanced age of ninety-seven. Many of Al-Hilālī’s friends eulogized
him. Among them was Shaykh Ibn Bāz , Saudi Arabia's leading cleric for twenty-five years,
who in his Tuḥfat ‘al-Ikhwān bi-Tarājim Ba῾ḍ al-A῾yān (Gift to the Brethren on the
Biographies of Some Eminent Scholars) said :

Al-Hilālī lived ninety-seven years just short of two months and some days. Wherever
he was he gave his all for the sake of calling people to Allāh, May He Be Exalted. He
visited many countries For a period of time, he called people to Allāh in Europe and
also in India and on the Arabian Peninsula, as well as teaching at the Islamic
University in Medina… He wrote many books. In his early life, he used to be a Tijani
disciple, then Allāh saved him from this Sufi Order; he responded to the claims of the
Tijani Order and he showed its defects…. A throng of people attended the funeral
prayer when he died. He was buried in the cemetery of Casablanca. May Allāh make
possible meeting him in Paradise.1

One of the important Moroccan religious personalities who eulogized Al-Hilālī was
‘Abd Allāh Guennūn (d.1989), who recalled that in the late nineteenth and at the beginning of
the twentieth century since they used to worship shrines people had strayed far away from
practising authentic Islam. Guennūn stated that in these dark moments, Taqī al-Dīn Al-Hilālī
came to call people to pure monotheism, free of any taint of heresy which would spoil it.
Guennūn says that is why many people followed Al-Hilālī. Nevertheless, some people
displayed an aversion, even enmity, towards him because of his preaching:

He was openly waging a holy war against the disbelievers. He would never make an
implicit speech resorting to metaphors; on the contrary, he would explicitly label
anyone who worshipped a shrine a disbeliever. He used, may Allāh grant him mercy, to
be very intransigent in matters of Islamic jurisprudence; and he used to incite people to
fight the four Islamic schools of legal thought which represent Islamic jurisprudence...
His war against the heresies and the abominable acts exposed him to many tribulations.

1 Ibn-Bāz (2009), 70-71.
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May Allāh grant him mercy, he used to be a distinguished scholar and a great expert on
language.2

Many newspapers also published articles in commemoration of Al-Hilālī. In one of its edition
entitled : Ma Huwa Nașīb Ihtimām I‘lāminā bi Rijālatinā al-A‘lām ( How much interest do
our media devote to our great national figures? ), Al-Thawra (The Revolution) wrote :

The Salafi preacher and leader of Islamic journalism in Morocco, one of the heroes of
true Islamic nationalism, the great scholar, Dr Muḥammad Taqī al-Dīn al-Hilālī has
recently passed away... Indeed, Al-Hilālī, may Allāh grant him Mercy, still lives on in
every Muslim heart...3
The Moroccan Journal Al Mithāq (The Covenant) added:

Two qualities characterized Dr Muḥammad Taqī al-Dīn al-Hilālī: strong argumentation
and rapid persuasion. He acquired these characteristics because he was an expert in the
Quranic Science. He had a wide knowledge of the Sunna, and his discourse was both
eloquent and beautiful. He had acquired profound knowledge thanks to the great
scholars he had met during his travels in the East and the West. Al-Hilālī wrote and
translated many books on preaching, culture and literature…4

The Indian journal, Ṣawt Al-Umma (The Voice of the Nation), published an article under the
title: ‘Min A‘lām al-Salafiyyīn: Khātimatu Shāhid Qarn: Kayfa Wada‘at al-Maghrib al-‘Ālim
al-Mujāhid Dr Muḥammad Taqī al-Dīn al-Hilālī’ (One of the great figures of Salafism: the
end of a witness to a century. How has Morocco taken leave of the battling scholar Dr
Muḥammad Taqī al-Dīn al-Hilālī?), going on to qualify Al-Hilālī as the scholar ‘who made
use of the opinions of all Islamic schools of thought provided they agree with the Sunna, and
without privileging any school over another.’5 Among other piece of information it reported:

2 Al-Sabtī (1993), 129.
3 Al-Thawra newspaper, Tiṭwān: 1987, 224.
4 See also Anonymous: “Al-‘Alim al-jalil al-duktur al-Hilālī fi dhimmat Allah,” al-Furqan, 4, (1987), 107.
5 Sawt Al-Umma’ al-Hindiyya, “Khātimatu Shāhid Qarn: Kayfa Wada‘at al-Maghrib al-‘Ālim al-Mijāhid Dr
Muḥammad Taqi al-Dīn al-Hilālī,” Vol1. 2 (1987), 45-54.
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…Four days before passing away, when his health was very fragile, Taqī al-Dīn al-
Hilālī told his wife and his stepdaughter: ‘If I can’t stand up, then carry me and take
me out so as to continue the Jihād for Allāh’s Cause, and call people to Islam... The
Islamic funeral prayer in absentia was performed for him in many countries, including
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, India and Morocco. This is how Al-Hilālī passed away.6

The aim of this study is to deepen our understanding of the personal religious profile
of this remarkable twentieth-century preacher of ‘authentic Islam’ within the wider spectrum
of the prevailing currents of Salafism and Wahhabism in the same era. The study commences
with an introduction, beginning with a discussion of the Origins of the Salafiyya in Morocco,
to enable the reader to understand Al-Hilālī and his conversion to Salafism as a chain in a
longer historical tradition in Morocco, stretching back to the early nineteenth century (1). This
discussion will be followed by a survey of Previous Studies on Al-Hilālī’s Life and Thought
(2). In conclusion, the Research Question, Focus and Sources (3) will be sketched.
The Origins of the Salafiyya in Morocco and Al-Hilālī’s Conversion
The ideas of the Moroccan Salafi Movement can be traced back to the Wahhābī School,
which was founded in the Arabian Peninsula by Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhāb (1703-
1792) . 7 During the second half of the eighteenth century, the presence of Wahhabism made
itself strongly felt in the circles of the ‘Alawite Sultans of Morocco. The success of the
Wahhābī experiment coincided in particular with the reign of two sultans,8 namely
Muḥammad Ibn ‘AbdAllāh (1757-1790) and Mawlāy Sulaymān (1792-1822). The current
Moroccan Salafi leaders consider the former to be the main precursor of their Movement in
the country.9 The year 1811 can be considered to be the date of the introduction of the

6 See also Anonymous, “Al-‘Alim al-jalil al-duktur al-Hilālī fi dhimmat Allah,” al-Furqan, 4, 10 (1987). 7. See
also Al-Sabtī (1993), 129.
7 Muḥammad Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhāb thought that Najd was infested with corrupt beliefs and religious practices
repugnant to the fundamentals of the True Religion. He had discovered that the people had abandoned their faith,
and was convinced that Muslims should inevitably make changes in their lives and tread the path of the Pious
Predecessors. Prince Muḥammad bin Saud offered him all help and every assistance to carry out his task .See Ibn
‘Abd al-Wahhāb (1999), 42.
8 Zeghal (2005), 42.
9 Ibn Zaidan (1937), 358.
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Wahhābī doctrine in Morocco. After receiving a letter from the Saudi ’amīr Sa‘ūd I (d. 1814),
urging Tunisians to adopt Wahhabism, the Mufti of Tunis, forwarded a copy of it to Sultan
Sulaymān.10 In fact, scholars are not quite sure about the identity of the author of the message.
As Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhāb had died in 1792, King Ibn Sa‘ūd himself is believed to
have been the author of the letter, which contained an exposition of the articles of faith of the
Wahhabi Movement.11 Sultan Sulaymān seemed to have nurtured a great respect for
Wahhābīsm, which angered many ‘Moroccan ‘ulamā’ including those in Fes.12
Muḥammad Ḍarīf says that both Sultan Mawlāy Sulaymān and Sultan Muḥammad ibn
‘Abd Allāh, who declared himself to be Malīkī by rite and Ḥanbalī by faith, were sympathetic
towards Wahhabism and were not loath to use it as a tool to undercut the influence of Sufi
brotherhoods and reinforce their own power.13 Muḥammad Ḍarīf continues by specifically
saying that Muḥammad Ibn ‘Abd Allāh had used Wahhābīsm to counter Sufism.14 This
assumption still needs to be scientifically confirmed, especially in the light of the fact that it is
well known that the Sultan greatly respected Sufis and their symbols.15
In 1812, Mawlāy Sulaymān sent his son, Ibrahim, to Mecca with a group of Moroccan
scholars both to perform the pilgrimage and to discuss some theological issues with the
Sa‘ūdis. As a consequence of this encounter, the Wahhābīs reached an agreement with the
Moroccan delegation. The Moroccans accepted the Wahhābī principle which adjured that it is
compulsory to comply with the teaching of the Qur’ān and the Sunna.16 Mawlāy Sulaymān
was also inspired to write a treatise in which he sharply criticized the Sufi orders, warning
Muslims against their innovations and forbidding both visiting the shrines and holding
festivals (mawāsim).17 These strong measures are the reason that the later Salafis in Morocco
have looked upon Mawlāy Sulaymān as one of the forerunners of their Movement.18
Nevertheless, despite the fact that he repeatedly attacked the Darqāwiyya Order, he was
himself a disciple of the Nāşiriyya tarīqa. Moreover, he received and honoured the founder of

10 Abun-Nasr (1987), 247-264.
11 Abun-Nasr (1963), 93.
12 Al-Sā’ih (1969), 38.
13 Ḍarīf (2010), 110.
14 Ibid.
15 Zeghal (2005), 41.
16 Abun-Nasr (1963), 94.
17 Abun-Nasr (1963), 95.
18 Abun-Nasr (1963), 93.
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