Background:

The tape concerns an interview with Dr. ʿAbd al-Muʿṭī Bayūmī, professor ʾUṣūl al-dīn (sources of Islam) and scholar at the Azhar University. He tackles the issue of enlightenment in Islam while criticizing the Islamist views of Shaykh Yūsuf al-Badrī’s. Bayūmī praises Azhar Shaykh Dr. Muḥammad Sayyid Ṭanṭāwī’s efforts in rethinking Islam.

Side A:

ʿAbd al-Muʿṭī Bayūmī criticizes Shaykh Yūsuf al-Badrī’s definition of enlightenment. Al-Badrī claims that enlightenment for  Islamists and Salafis is opposing the complete separation between religion and state and opposing efforts to restrict  the practice of religion to mosques only. Nevertheless, Bayūmī believes that the term enlightenment in the Arabic language and as mentioned in the Qurʾān relates to the enlightenment of the mind and has nothing to do with the relation of religion with the state. He believes that this is the true Islamic definition of enlightenment and it needs to be applied to the Islamic community.

ʿAbd al-Muʿṭī Bayūmī  praises Dr. Ṭanṭāwī as he views him as one of the new liberal thinkers. Bayūmī believes that the Islamic nation needs the new way of thinking, proposed by Ṭanṭāwī, which is called Ijtihād. Thus, Ṭanṭāwī was the perfect choice for the position of Mufti. 

Islamists as al-Badrī and Fahmī Huwaydī oppose Ṭanṭāwī as they believe that the Azhar has lost independence as the government has picked someone who will make fatwās according to what it wants but by revising the fatwās of Ṭanṭāwī,  Bayūmī found that they are made according to the evidence and rules from Islam and has nothing to do with the government.

Bayūmī believes that Ṭanṭāwī is not a puppet of the government but works according to the interests of the Islamic umma (community). He added that the Muslim Brotherhood are opposing him just for the sake of opposition not for his views.

Side B:

Ṭanṭāwī did not comment explicitly on the judicial judgement against al-Badrī, however, he mentioned that he would respect any judgement made by a civil court.  Bayūmī draws a similarity between Ṭanṭāwī and Muḥammad ʿAbduh (1849-1905), a groundbreaking liberal Islamic thinker. Both ʿAbduh and Ṭanṭāwī put the environment in which they are making a Fatwā into consideration like Imam al-Shāfì’ī who changed his fatwā when he moved from Baghdad to Cairo.