Abdallah bin Bayyah

Shaykh
Abdullah bin Bayyah
عبدالله بن بيه
Chairman of the UAE Council of Fatwa
Incumbent
Assumed office
30 May 2017
Preceded byOffice established
Personal
Born1935 (age 88–89)[1]
Timbédra, Mauritania
ReligionIslam
NationalityMauritania, United Arab Emirates[2]
DenominationSunni
JurisprudenceMaliki[3]
CreedAsh'ari
Muslim leader
Based inKing Abdul Aziz University
Influenced
Websitebinbayyah.net

Abdallah bin Mahfudh ibn Bayyah (Arabic: عبد الله بن المحفوظ بن بيّه, born 1935) is a Mauritanian Islamic scholar, politician and professor of Islamic studies at the King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, who serves as the chairman of the UAE Council for Fatwa.[4][5][6]

He is a specialist in all four traditional Sunni schools, with an emphasis on the Maliki Madh'hab. Currently he is the president of the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies.[7] Bin Bayyah is involved in a number of scholarly councils including the Islamic Fiqh Council, a Saudi-based Institute. He was also the vice-president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars.[8] from which he resigned in 2014.[9][10] He was also a member of the Dublin-based European Council for Fatwa and Research, a council of Muslim clerics that aims to explain Islamic law in a way that is sensitive to the realities of European Muslims.[11] For over two decades, in relation to the latter two institutions, he worked closely with the Egyptian scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi.[5] However, after the Arab Springs, Bin Bayyah distanced himself from Qaradawi and the International Union of Muslim scholars, instead founding the UAE-based Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies.[12] The Forum has attracted huge controversy for its close ties to the UAE government as well as Bin Bayyahs personal support for authoritarian leaders.[13][14][15]

  1. ^ John Gallagher, Eric D. Patterson, Debating the War of Ideas, p 51. ISBN 0230101984
  2. ^ "الإمارات تحصر الفتوى في مجلس يرأسه عبدالله بن بيّه.. وجدل". Arabi21 (in Arabic). 16 January 2022.
  3. ^ Gerhard Böwering, Patricia Crone, Mahan Mirza, The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought, p. 347. ISBN 0691134847
  4. ^ John Gallagher, Eric D, Debating the War of Ideas, p 51. ISBN 0230101984
  5. ^ a b al‐Azami, Usaama (July 2019). "'Abdullāh bin Bayyah and the Arab Revolutions: Counter‐revolutionary Neo‐traditionalism's Ideological Struggle against Islamism". The Muslim World. 109 (3): 343–361. doi:10.1111/muwo.12297. ISSN 0027-4909. S2CID 202966459. Archived from the original on 2021-12-31. Retrieved 2021-08-30.
  6. ^ "UAE Council for Fatwa's Members". The UAE Council for Fatwa. Retrieved 2023-09-17.
  7. ^ "Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies". Archived from the original on 2015-04-03. Retrieved 2015-04-02.
  8. ^ Members list (Arabic) Archived January 27, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ "404". elkhabar.com. Archived from the original on 2014-08-21. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  10. ^ "Middle East Online: Qaradawi's deputy resigns from Union of Islamic Scholars". Middle East Online. Archived from the original on 2016-03-01. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  11. ^ List of Members of the European Council for Fatwa and Research Archived August 12, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ "Rivals in the Gulf: Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Abdullah Bin Bayyah, and the Qatar-UAE Contest Over the Arab Spring and the Gulf Crisis". Routledge & CRC Press. Retrieved 2022-01-05.
  13. ^ "UAE's forum for 'promoting peace' is another cynical PR initiative". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  14. ^ 5Pillars (RMS) (2018-12-16). "Traitors in our midst: The scholars of colonisation". 5Pillars. Retrieved 2023-03-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ Al-Azami, Usaama (2023). Islam and the Arab revolutions : the ulama between democracy and autocracy. Hurst Publishers. pp. Chapter 4 Bin Bayyah Support to Opposition. ISBN 978-1-78738-822-2. OCLC 1359915242.