THE later years of the scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi coincided with a couple of decades of my adult life. I read his works but never had the opportunity to meet him in person. In 1999, he was in Bangladesh for a short visit.
I was in the country's capital Dhaka but was not aware of his stopover there. Later, I spoke with some people who had attended an indoor session with Qaradawi in the city.
Though the trend is now changing, traditional Islamic gatherings are mostly gender exclusive (all male or all female). In cases where both men and women participate, such Islamic events are generally gendered spaces wherein the latter are often relegated to the margins. Women attend such gatherings from behind the curtain or in a designated secluded area within the venue.
The Qaradawi event in Dhaka was gender inclusive. Maintaining a decent distance and gender etiquette, women were seated next to men and were equally visible in the audience. Qaradawi began his speech with a remark on the gender inclusivity of the gathering and said: Hadhal Islam (this is Islam).
This sentence has reverberated among many of those who attended the event and has remained fixed in their memories. What Qaradawi meant is that the position and social status of women in Islam are not inferior to those of men.
The next opportunity that came my way to see Qaradawi in person occurred in July 2004. I was studying for a doctoral degree at the University of Portsmouth in England.
On July 5, 2004, on an invitation from the then Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, Qaradawi went on a week-long trip to the UK to deliver speeches at various events, on the heels of a number of previous visits.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews was at the forefront of those who were opposed to Qaradawi's visit. They launched a campaign against him and tried to preclude his entry into Britain and, once he was in the country, sought to have him deported.
The controversy surrounding his visit generated discussion and debate across the political and ideological spectrum in Britain.
For weeks, Qaradawi made headline news in the British press. There were arguments and counter-arguments from two opposing quarters on him. Living in Portsmouth, I was following all this with interest.
The initial media reports on Qaradawi were predominantly unfavourable, and it seemed at one point that his visit would be cancelled. However, he arrived safely, and gradually the positive media reports on him gained prominence.
His trip was considered a great success.
The pinnacle of Qaradawi's UK trip in 2004 was a conference at City Hall, London. The mayor Ken Livingstone welcomed Qaradawi and invited him to return to the UK in October that year. Livingstone characterised Qaradawi as a "man of tolerance and respect" and regarded the negative media campaign against the latter as "xenophobia and hysteria".
One charge that Qaradawi's opponents in Britain brought against him was misogyny. I could not reconcile this indictment with what I had read in his works on gender issues, especially in The Status of Women in Islam. Nor did such an allegation resonate with the comment he made in the Dhaka event on women's participation in public life, as mentioned above.
Critics of Qaradawi also trumpeted the claim that the late Qatar-based Egyptian writer promoted extremism. Having read his works, such as, Islamic Awakening between Rejection and Extremism, I found this charge preposterous. It shocked many people who were acquainted with Qaradawi's writings and/or listened to his speeches, or at least had an inkling of his ideas and views.
A Guardian (UK) article titled, "If Qaradawi is an extremist, who is left?" (July 9, 2004) aptly describes the strangeness of associating Qaradawi with extremism. On July 9, 2004, during a Friday khutbah (sermon) at the London Central Masjid in Regent's Park, Qaradawi posed these rhetorical questions about those who wanted him expelled from Britain:
"Do they know me? Have they ever read my works? I have given hundreds of lectures, appeared on scores of TV programmes. Have they ever watched these?"
One worshipper who attended the Friday khutbah commented: "He's a very middle-of-the-road, well respected, very moderate scholar, and I found it soothing to listen to him."
When I joined International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) as an academic in June 2010, I felt that the name Qaradawi was buzzing up and down the campus. That is partly because months ago in late December 2009, he had visited Malaysia to receive the prestigious Tokoh Maal Hijrah Award from the Malaysian government. That was his last trip to the country.
His visit and the award bore special significance for IIUM, as Qaradawi donated 40 per cent of his RM100,000 worth award to the university's economically challenged students. He handed over the money to the then IIUM Rector Prof Syed Arabi bin Syed Abdullah Idid.
Born on Sept 9, 1926, Qaradawi passed away on Sept 26, 2022 and left a legacy of scholarship and activism as well as a mark of generosity. With his passing, I believe, ill-informed controversies will no longer cloud his intellectual contributions; rather, academics and researchers will engage with his works more dispassionately and objectively.
The writer teaches English and postcolonial literature at International Islamic University Malaysia. Email: mmhasan@iium.edu.my