About Sayyid Al Qimni
About Sayyid Al Qimni
About Sayyid Al Qimni
Sayyid al-Qimni
Egyptian Muslim thinker and historian
16 Apr 2004, by Dr. A. A. Ahmed - Masters student researching Sayyid Mahmoud Al-Qimni
Sayyid Mahmoud al-Qimni was born on March 13, 1947 in the city of Al-Wasita, south of Egypt (1). His
father, Sheikh Mahmoud al-Qimni graduated from Al-Azhar University. Sheikh al-Qimni was a very
religious traditionalist Azharite and always dressed in a traditional way. In his large house, Sheikh al-
Qimni organized religious gatherings to substitute for his days in Al-Azhar. Most of those gatherings took
place during the month of Ramadan. Although Sheikh al-Qimni was a very religious man he was also
open-minded to other people's opinions. Accordingly, he adopted the ideas of the Egyptian reformist
Muhammad Abduh.
After studying philosophy al-Qimni joined al-Azhar University and studied Islamic history. The defeat of
Egypt by Israel in 1967 was a turning point in the life of al-Qimni. He wanted to find the reason for the
defeat and this led him to concentrate his life on studying Islam and other religions. He undertook
thorough research on Islamic sciences such as Fiqh, philosophy, and kalam in different schools of
thought, but did not decide to be a writer until 1985. His writings were concentrated on the critical study
of Islam and Islamic discourse. However, the occupation of Kuwait by Saddam's troops changed the
attitude of al-Qimni from being a Nasserite who believed in a single Arab community to one who focused
on the Egyptian community. In other words, Egypt as a nation replaced Egypt as an Arab country. At this
junction, liberalism became a belief and dogma for al-Qimni. Three books al-Qimni read while he was
studying philosophy at Ain Shams University, which influenced his intellectual life were Spinoza by Dr.
Fouad Zakaria; Towards A Wider Horizon by the late Abkar al-Asqaf; and The Adventure of the Ancient
Mind by Faras al-Sawah.
Al-Qimni was concerned to understand the cause of Egypt's 'backwardness'. In that respect, he said 'what
disturbs me most is the backwardness of my nation and its civilized defeat. Every project I take is meant
to discover some unknown cause for the reason of Egypt being behind other civilized nations' (3). At the
same time, he wanted to re-write the Prophet's Sira (life) and the holy text in accordance to their historical
development, which led to the foundation of a political Islamic state at the time of Muhammad. He
discusses this in his first book, al-Islamiat. In his books Al-Ustoura Wa Al-Turath (The Myth and
Heritage) and The Story of Creation, al-Qimni traces the origins and roots of myths and how they found
their way in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. One of the main projects which al-Qimni is currently
undertaking is the re-organisation of the Quran in a chronological order. According to al-Qimni, the
present Quran was arranged by caliph Uthman like walls starting from the longest Surahs to the shortest
ones. Due to this arrangement 'the Nasikh verses became near the Mansokh verses, a second law before a
first law, the verse of peace near the verse of war, and the verses of freedom of faith mixed with the verses
which made Islam compulsory and no other faith would be accepted' (4). Therefore, the ordinary Muslim
cannot understand the Quran without a Mufasir (an interpreter) and a Mufti. Al-Qimni believed that this
was a key reason for the monopolisation by a group of scholars who claimed that their interpretation was
the only right one. Any other interpretation was considered Kufr (unbelief). Through this interview al-
Qimni expressed his views as follows:
4- Muslim scholars do not want to recognize woman's rights and label her as deficient in religion and
intellect.
5- The concept of Jihad is a communal and racist idea and is rejected by the modern time.
6- What the early Muslim Mujahdeen had done in those countries they had invaded need to be apologized
for today.
Al-Qimni controversially argued that the occupation of Arabs in Egypt should be counted as the longest
foreign occupation in the world (5). The backwardness of Egypt came, he believed, from the acceptance of
this Arabic occupation and the adoption of the Arabic culture. This view undoubtedly stirred discontent
amongst the religious traditionalists in Egypt. Referring to a speech delivered by al-Qimni on the
International Book Exhibition in Cairo on Jan 14, 2004, The Muslim Brothers newspaper (al-Akhwan al-
Muslmoon) argued that the speech was meant to demolish all the pillars of Islam (6). The newspaper
stated further that al-Qimni had said the first Muslim invaders had stolen all the treasures of Egypt and
therefore Egypt should not be called an Arab and Muslim country any more. Islam should not be the
official religion of Egypt and the Sharia laws should not be considered the main basis for the Egyptian
constitution. In an article called 'Doubtful Books,' in al-Watan newspaper, Abd Allah al-Samti said
'writers like Khalil Abd al-Karim, Sa'id al-Ashmawi, Sayyid al-Qimni, al-Sadig Nihum, and Nawal al-
Sa'adawi want people to believe that the Quran is not revealed but the word of Muhammad'. For these
writers Muhammad was just a great man and not the seal of the prophets (7). In another interview
conducted by Hala Mahmoud for Middle East Times, the interviewer stated, 'Sayyid Al Qimni deals with
early Islamic history like no other Egyptian historian will dare. He saves himself from being labelled
either an apostate or a tool of the West by only using sources approved by Al Azhar, but many of his
conclusions would make Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd blanch. Works such as Al Hizb Al Hashimi (The
Hashemite Faction), Al Dawla Al Mohamadiya (Mohammedite State), and Hurub Dawlat Al Rasul (The
Wars of the Prophetic State), trace the tenets of Islam to political pressures rather than revelation, while
books like Al Nabi Ibrahim (The Prophet Abraham) find a secular explanation for the myths of the earliest
Prophets' (8)
When Mahmoud asked al-Qimni whether he faced any physical or verbal attack by the radical Islamists,
he replied, 'Ideologically and physically. First there was Fahmi Howiedy in Al Ahram. He said I am more
of a risk than Salman Rushdie in an article entitled 'Pluralism without going beyond the bounds' in March
1989. He wrote, 'They differ from [Rushdie's] books in the degree of the insult, but not in the essence'; 'It
damages what is sacred'; and 'we must stop this writing.' He only referred to me as SQ but he mentioned
my books by name. Four years ago, in Al Islam Watan (Islam is a Nation), a general in the Interior
Ministry, Essam Eddin Abdel Azayem wrote, 'Oh Lord, please do not allow anyone like this man into our
land. They destroy our religion and give birth to unbelievers.' (A Quranic verse) Dr. Mohammed Ahmed
Al Musayyar, in Al Nour of July and August 1992, wrote 'Someone shut this voice up.' In 1989, after the
Howeidy article, I was driving in [the Giza village] of Badrshein when someone shot at me with a
Kalashnikov. I had kids with me. It was a warning. If they wanted to kill me, they could have' (9).
Al-Qimni was counted by Samir Sarahan as one of the provocative thinkers in Egypt due to his 'written
revisionist histories of the era of the Prophet' (10). In a long debate in the Al-Gazeera Radio, between him
and Kamal Habib, a radical Islamist, Al-Qimni said that 'we are at the bottom of the sea of darkness
because we teach our children at school only Islamic religion and Arabic language' (11) In other words, the
education system in Egypt and other Arab countries produced people who know how to pray and speak.
Besides that, Al-Qimni believed the educational curriculum in Muslim countries produced terrorists (12).
Some of the information about Sayyid Mahmoud Qimni was taken from an interview conducted with him
by Abd Al-Gadir, Asharif Abd al-Fatah while he was in the hospital and from other internet websites.
(4) ibid p 3
(5) Al-Muhsin Feb 26, 2004, p 1
(6) al-Akhwan al-Muslmoon, Jan 1, 2004, p 1
(7) Al-Samti March 15, 2002, p 1
(8) Mahmoud, Middle East Times, p 1
(9) ibid p 4-5
(10) Sarahan Feb 5, 1998, p 1
(11) ibid p 15
(12) ibid p 11
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