Date | 25 August 2016 27 August 2016 | –
---|---|
Location | Grozny, Chechnya, Russia |
Also known as | Grozny Conference Chechnya Conference The World Islamic Сonference 'Who are Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah?' |
Organized by | Shaykh Ahmad Kadyrov Regional Charitable Fund Foundation for Chechen Islamic Culture and Education Tabah Foundation Muslim Council of Elders[1][2] |
Participants | Over 200 Muslim scholars-theologians and religious leaders from various Islamic schools of thought from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Morocco, Kuwait, Sudan, Qatar, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Britain, Russia, South Africa, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan[2][3][4][5] |
Previous event | Sufism: Personal Security and State Stability[6] |
Website | Official website |
The 2016 conference on Sunni Islam in Grozny was convened to define the term "Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah",[7] i.e. who are "the people of Sunnah and majority Muslim community",[8][Note 1] and oppose Takfiri groups.[10] The conference was held in the Chechen Republic capital of Grozny[11] from 25 to 27 August 2016, sponsored by the president of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, and attended by approximately 200 Muslim scholars from 30 countries, especially from Russia, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Kuwait, Sudan, Jordan, etc. at the invitation of Yemeni scholar, Ali al-Jifri.[7][12]
The conference was dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the birth of Kadyrov's father, Akhmad Kadyrov, the first President of Chechnya.[13][14]
The conference was notable for defining Sunni Islam in the final communiqué of the conference as including Ash'aris and Maturidis in theology (Aqidah), Hanafis, Shafi'is, Malikis and Hanbalis in jurisprudence (Fiqh), and people of spirituality (Sufis) - but not the Wahhabi or Salafi movements.[7][8] It condemned Salafism and Wahhabism as "misguided" sects, along with off-shoot extremist groups such as ISIS, Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Muslim Brotherhood and others.[3][15]
The conference definition stated:
“Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah are the Ash'aris and Maturidis (adherents of the theological systems of Imam Abu Mansur al-Maturidi and Imam Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari). In matters of belief, they are followers of any of the four schools of thought (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i or Hanbali) and are also the followers of the Sufism of Imam Junaid al-Baghdadi in doctrines, manners and [spiritual] purification."[16]
Sunni Islam also includes the "Ahl al-Hadith" who adopt the principle of tafwid (Consignment). The definition further explained the true Athari position:
"The scholars who belonged to the Ahl al-Hadith adopted either the position of tafwīd on the issue of God’s attributes or the position of ta’wīl (interpretation), with tafwīd more commonly adopted. Both positions are validated by the Ash`ari and Maturidi schools. The anthropomorphists (mushabbiha) and the corporealists (mujassima) are those who interpreted the Quran’s ambiguous verses (mutashābih) in a literal sense and imputed a physical form to God. The Ahl al-Hadith did not legitimate anthropomorphism and corporealism as valid doctrinal positions. Cases where individual hadith scholars held these positions are rare exceptions and unrepresentative of the Ahl al-Hadith school as a whole."[17]
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