Draft:Hassan al-Turabi

Hassan al-Turabi
File:Hassan al-Turabi.jpg
Name	Hassan al-Turabi
Other Names	{{{other_names}}}
Personal Details
Birth Place	Sudan
Brith Date	1932
Death Place	{{{death_place}}}
Death Date	2016

Sheikh Hassan al-Turabi is considered one of the prominent religious-political figures of Sudan and one of the famous Islamic leaders of the world, and among the renowned figures in the field of contemporary Islamic thought and jurisprudence.

Birth and Death

Hassan al-Turabi was born in 1932 in the city of Kassala in eastern Sudan into a religious and affluent family affiliated with the Al-Badiriyah tribe. His father was a judge and a Sufi order Sheikh. Al-Turabi passed away on March 5, 2016, corresponding to Esfand 1394 SH.

Academic Life

In childhood and under his father's tutelage, he learned Arabic language sciences and Sharia, and also memorized the Quran. Al-Turabi continued his law studies at the University of Khartoum from 1951 to 1955, received his master's degree from the University of Oxford in 1957, and obtained his PhD from the Sorbonne University, Paris in 1964. He was fluent in four languages: Arabic, English, French, and German.

Works

1. Tajdid al-Din
2. Al-Tafsir al-Tawhidi
3. Manhajiyat al-Tashri
4. Al-Mar'ah bayn Ta'alim al-Din wa Taqalid al-Mujtama
5. Al-Siyasah wa al-Hikmah: al-Nuzum al-Sultaniyah bayn al-Usul wa Sunan al-Waqi
6. Darurat al-Naqd al-Dhati li al-Harakah al-Islamiyah
7. Al-Salah Imad al-Din
8. Tajdid Usul al-Fiqh
9. Al-Din wa al-Fann
10. Qada' al-Wahdah wa al-Hurriyah
11. Tajdid al-Fikr al-Islami, 10 - al-Mustalahat al-Siyasiyah fi al-Islam
12. Al-Harakah al-Islamiyah wa al-Tahdith
13. Al-Harakah al-Islamiyah fi al-Sudan
14. Al-Iman wa Atharuhu fi al-Hayah
15. Al-Harakah al-Islamiyah, al-Tatawwur wa al-Nahj wa al-Kasb...

Political Activity

After graduation, Hassan al-Turabi returned to Sudan and from the beginning, by changing appearances while preserving principles, he established several organizations and parties with various names including Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Charter Front, National Islamic Front, and finally the Popular Arab and Islamic Congress. He managed to continue his political activities in every period. He initially joined the Islamic Charter Front; the Islamic Charter Front was the first party established by the Islamic movement of Sudan – possessing Muslim Brotherhood thoughts. Five years later, the Islamic Charter Front found a more significant political role, and al-Turabi became the Secretary-General of this Front in 1964. Al-Turabi was active in political conditions where the main players were the Ansar and Khatmiyyah tribes with a Sufi background, and they supported the Umma and Unionist parties which held secular thoughts.

The Islamic Charter Front was active until 1969 when "Jaafar Nimeiry" staged a coup. After that, members of the Islamic Charter Front were arrested, and al-Turabi spent seven years in prison. He was released from prison after the reconciliation of the Islamic movement of Sudan with Nimeiry in 1977. The Nimeiry government declared Islamic Sharia laws in 1983, and afterwards, it turned against the Islamic Charter Front – its partner in power. The people opposed this matter with legal actions such as the dissolution of the Sudan Parliament and also with demonstrations that led to the popular revolution against Nimeiry in 1985.

A year later, al-Turabi formed the National Islamic Front and also ran for parliament but was not victorious. In June 1989, al-Turabi's party launched a military coup against the elected government of Al-Mahdi and elected Omar Hassan al-Bashir as the President of Sudan. In 1991, he founded the Arab-Islamic Popular Congress Party, which included representatives from 45 Arab and Islamic countries, and he himself was appointed as the Secretary-General of this Congress.

He has experienced the position of Minister of Justice and Minister of Foreign Affairs, as well as the Presidency of the Sudan Parliament. Al-Turabi stood against foreign interference in the region under the pretext of liberating Kuwait during the Iraqi invasive attack in 1990, and this same matter led to tension in his relations with the West and some Arab countries.

In late 1999, al-Turabi disagreed with the Salvation Government over issues including corruption, lack of consultation, freedom, dissolution of parliament, leadership of the "National Congress", the plan to select state governors by appointment of the President rather than direct public vote, and the manner of dealing with the issue of Southern Sudan. He was ousted by Omar al-Bashir and afterwards became the most famous opponent of the government.

On June 31, 2001, he formed the Popular Congress Party, and most leaders and figures of the National Salvation Revolution and senior government officials resigned from their positions. In 2001, he was arrested because his party had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement. He was arrested again in March 2004 on charges of coordinating his party's efforts to overthrow the government.

Most Important Opinions and Views of Dr. Torabi

1. The intellectual axis of Sheikh Hassan Torabi within the realm of religious modernism was essentially a form of revisionism in Islamic matters and interaction with society based on the understanding of realities and the importance of the issues of time and place in examining current and legal affairs. Based on this principle, he believed that the gate of Ijtihad is not closed and Ijtihad cannot be limited only to the four Imams of the Sunni schools of thought; rather, every knowledgeable Muslim who is aware of the times and master of the principles of Sharia can perform Ijtihad on everything and innovate. In this regard, he emphasized the issue of "'Urf" (custom), which holds a special place in Shia jurisprudence, as one of the sources of legislation, and also considered the issue of "Istishab" as one of the sources of legislation;
2. Torabi believed that the traditional and old method of inferring rulings and legislation required for administering Islamic countries is not sufficient; because the conditions of our time are not the same as the conditions and needs of past centuries, and reliance on those methods is no longer constructive and sufficient for our era;
3. Torabi referred to Sunni jurisprudence as rigid and non-dynamic due to practical avoidance and distancing from Ijtihad, and did not consider limiting the understanding of religion or jurisprudential heritage to the tradition of the pious predecessors as responsive to the needs of modern man. In this regard, Torabi laid the groundwork for the proposal of the "New Science of Principles" to open the gate of dynamic Ijtihad, and in this vein, published a book titled Tajdid Usul al-Fiqh and called for creating transformation in the jurisprudential heritage with regard to fixed elements—the Book and the Sunnah—and compatible with environmental, cultural, social, and material differences… It must be accepted that Torabi, in this path, also issued specific and odd fatwas in various fields which incurred the wrath of Wahhabi muftis and some of the traditional sheikhs of Al-Azhar;
4. In criticism of Sunni jurists, Torabi claimed that it makes no sense for a group as Muftis and Jurists to deprive the rest of the people from this important matter [understanding Sharia]; rather, any Muslim by acquiring the conditions and ranks can reach this status and there is no necessity to be a graduate of Al-Azhar University or the Islamic University of Medina…;
5. He essentially believed that the allegiance of Muslim Brotherhood organizations in the world and other Islamic countries, only with the Egyptian Guide, residing in Cairo, is not compatible with Islamic principles and makes no sense; rather, while preserving principles and loyalty to the intellectual foundations of the Brotherhood, the Muslim Brotherhood of each country should have its own Guide within that country connected with the leadership in Cairo, which of course later this idea was accepted by assigning the new title "Al-Muraqib al-Am" for the leaders of Brotherhood organizations in other lands.