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Umar Sulaiman Al-Ashqar

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Umar Al-Ashqar
Personal life
Born1940
Nablus, Mandatory Palestine
Died10 August 2012(2012-08-10) (aged 71–72)
NationalityJordanian Jordan
Alma materAl-Azhar University
Religious life
ReligionIslam
DenominationNeo-Salafism

Umar Sulaiman Al-Ashqar (Arabic: عمر بن سليمان الاشقر; 1940 – 10 August 2012)[1] was a Neo-Salafi[2][3] scholar associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.[4] He authored several books about matters on Islamic creed.

Biography

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Sulaiman Al-Ashqar was born 1940 in Palestine.[5] He was a descendant from a family known for Islamic scholars and authors in Kuwait and later Jordan.[6] He was one of the most influential writers in Jordan, where he also served as a professor in the Faculty of Islamic Law at the University of Jordan and the Dean of the Faculty of Islamic Law at Zarqa University.[7] Before his expulsion from Saudi Arabia in the sixties, he was a disciple of Ibn Baz.[8] Even though he was commonly known to oppose physical coercion of religious law, after violent events between activists and merchants of the Medina market, he was accused of being a member of the Hizb ut-Tahrir and put to prison for several months until expelled.[9] After his expulsion from Saudi Arabia, he worked in Kuwait and earned a doctorate at the Al-Azhar University.[10]

Creed and theology

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Publications

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He authored a number of books on Islam. Among them eight monographs on Islamic creed, including 'in the Light of Quran and Sunnah' (Silsilat al-'aqida fi daw' al-kitab wa-l-sunna).[11] In 1998, the Saudi publisher al-Dar 'Alamiyya li-l kitab wa-l-sunna' agreed to translate eight volumes of the series into twenty-five languages, including 'Endtime', a work about Islamic Eschatology, first published in English in 1999.[12]

Eschatology

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In his writings 'The Last Day' (al-Yawm al-akhir), he outlines the doctrines of Islamic Eschatology as it has become mostly accepted in Salafi circles. Diverging from previous authors, al-Ashqar does not apply hadith-criticism and does not considered different degrees of soundness of narrations.[13]

In contrast to some proto-Salafis, such as Ibn Qayyim, who served as a inspiration for his methodology, he rejects the doctrine of "annihilation of hell" (fanāʾ al-nār).[14]: 284  In his interpretation of related hadiths, he asserts that only those who stick close to the Quran and the Sunnah go to paradise, while those considered deviant, such as Mu'tazilites and Kharijites go to hell temporarily, while groups he considered wholly outside the fold of Islam such as Isma'ilis, Alevites, and Druze, go to hell forever.[14]: 285 

In regard to a famous hadith stating that the "majority of inhabitants of hell are women", he defends the piety of women.[14]: 285  Rather than blaming women's piety, he states that women are subject to uncontrollable passions and suffer from intellectual deficiencies.[14]: 285 

On angels, jinn, and devils

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Al-Ashqar's 'Alam al-jinn wa'l-shayatin became a major source on for many Salafi authorities, on matters of jinn and devils, including many scholars of the Egyptian authorities of the Ansar al-Sunnah.[15] Here, al-Ashqar disagrees with the majority of Classical Sunni authorities in that the devils were originally angels, and sides with an originally minority view held by Hasan al-Basri i.e. that the jinn are of the genus of Iblis.[16]

Similarly, al-Ashqar disregards many other hadiths around angels traditionally accepted.[17] He furthermore neglects past scholars who held such views.

For al-Ashqar, humans, angels, and jinn belong to the three beings designated as muqallaf, i.e. beings holding legal responsibilities.[18]

References

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  1. ^ Umar Sulaiman Al-Ashqar's obituary (in Arabic)
  2. ^ Richard Gauvain Salafi Ritual Purity: In the Presence of God Routledge 2013 ISBN 978-0-710-31356-0 page 302
  3. ^ Lange, Christian, editor. Locating Hell in Islamic Traditions. Brill, 2016. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctt1w8h1w3. p. 129
  4. ^ Ovamir Anjum1 Salafis and Democracy: Doctrine and Context p. 21
  5. ^ Kendall, E. (Ed.). (2018). Reclaiming Islamic Tradition: Modern Interpretations of the Classical Heritage. Edinburgh University Press. p. 250
  6. ^ Kendall, E. (Ed.). (2018). Reclaiming Islamic Tradition: Modern Interpretations of the Classical Heritage. Edinburgh University Press. p. 250
  7. ^ Kendall, E. (Ed.). (2018). Reclaiming Islamic Tradition: Modern Interpretations of the Classical Heritage. Edinburgh University Press. p. 250
  8. ^ Kendall, E. (Ed.). (2018). Reclaiming Islamic Tradition: Modern Interpretations of the Classical Heritage. Edinburgh University Press. p. 250
  9. ^ Kendall, E. (Ed.). (2018). Reclaiming Islamic Tradition: Modern Interpretations of the Classical Heritage. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 250-251
  10. ^ Kendall, E. (Ed.). (2018). Reclaiming Islamic Tradition: Modern Interpretations of the Classical Heritage. Edinburgh University Press. p. 250
  11. ^ Kendall, E. (Ed.). (2018). Reclaiming Islamic Tradition: Modern Interpretations of the Classical Heritage. Edinburgh University Press. p. 251
  12. ^ Kendall, E. (Ed.). (2018). Reclaiming Islamic Tradition: Modern Interpretations of the Classical Heritage. Edinburgh University Press. p. 251
  13. ^ Kendall, E. (Ed.). (2018). Reclaiming Islamic Tradition: Modern Interpretations of the Classical Heritage. Edinburgh University Press. p. 254
  14. ^ a b c d Lange, Christian (2016). Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions. Cambridge United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-50637-3.
  15. ^ Richard Gauvain Salafi Ritual Purity: In the Presence of God Routledge 2013 ISBN 978-0-710-31356-0 page 302
  16. ^ Richard Gauvain Salafi Ritual Purity: In the Presence of God Routledge 2013 ISBN 978-0-710-31356-0 page 73
  17. ^ Stephen Burge Angels in Islam: Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti's al-Haba'ik fi Akhbar al-malik Routledge 2015 ISBN 978-1-136-50473-0 p. 13-14
  18. ^ Powers, P. R. (2006). Intent in Islamic Law: Motive and Meaning in Medieval Sunnī Fiqh (Vol. 25). Brill. p. 12


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