How MBS’ vision 2030 will shape the future of Islam -By Yakubu Almustapha

With utmost disheartenment that later turned out into tears running down my cheeks, coupled with nothing in the back of my mind except craving for salutary reformations which would lead to the open of a new page for Islam, were certainly the sober moods that tormented me all through the time period I spent on watching a short documentary about the ongoing sectarianism war in Syria.

In merely 40 minutes long video footage, in which a friend of mine showed me when I paid him a visit, is all about deadly war that is being fought between the Ba’athist Syrian Arab Republic led by President Bashar Al-Asad, and well armed rebellion groups that formed an alliance with purpose of deposing him after overstaying in what the coalition regarded as totalitarian regime.

While watching the ghoulish documentary that is still haunting me repeatedly, my psyche became engrossed with indiscriminate killings of a number of innocent victims ranging from all ages. Not to mention of how the stunning ancient Arabian city was almost totally destroyed by act of incendiarism, committed by those who to my bewilderment claimed the same faith with each other just because of insignificant differences that could be traced to ideological leanings.

It’s a fact that, this catastrophe originated from the famous 2010 Arab uprising which metastasized across the Middle East and North Africa as a result of the demand for change by the phalanxes of mainly Arabian natives. But the Syrian’s pro-democracy protest transmuted and escalated into a full-scale war majorly between the Sunnis and Shias’ sects aggravated by outside meddlesomeness.

Suddenly, a wave of hope swept through my sensory nerves, after I became knowledgeable about the interview granted by Muhammad bin Salman a.k.a. MBS, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. Because his remarks was clear signal that a reformatory action is in the offing.

This hot button interview was first aired by Al-Arabia television channel on 27th April, and thereafter reported by many print and non-print media outlets across the Arab world which till date, is the topic of discussion in every nooks and crannies of the Muslim dominated nations.

The shocking interview was conducted during commemoration of the fifth anniversary for vision 2030 of the Kingdom’s economic and social program. During that special session, the Crown Prince touted his projection for diversifying the economy covering investment in non-oil sectors. However, the controversial part of the blowout came into effect when the interviewer Abdullah Al-Mudaifer asked about his opinion on the concept of moderation in the application of Shari’a law.

To that response, MBS categorically stated that the constitution of Saudi Arabia is the Qur’an and the Sunnah. And then talked extensively about hadiths, where he unconditionally adopted ‘Mutawatir’ (reported by multiple narrators) as trustable sayings of Prophet that will be implemented in the conduct of Islamic law alongside Qur’an. He also asserted that the veracity and reliability of ‘Ahad’ (reported by one narrator) hadiths should be looked into, while rejected ‘Khabar’ (report not attributed to Prophet) hadiths entirely, but added that unless if benefits is derived from it for humanity.

This nonetheless, isn’t part of the exclusive interview that grabbed my attention and raised my spirit of hope. The word catching in the whole session, is where bin Salman in response to another question said:

“There are no fixed schools of thought and there is no infallible person. We should engage in continuous interpretation of Quranic text and the same goes for the Sunnah of the Prophet PBUH, and all fatwas should be based on the time, place, and mindset in which they are issued.”

In any case, even if MBS is objected in one way or another for openly denouncing some hadiths. I think it could not be denied that all the insurgent groups such as Boko Haram and ISIS, have relied on the interpretation of the Qur’anic text and hadiths from predecessor scholars to justify their perpetual inflicting of the bloody carnage in the name of sanctifying the religion. Hence the need to review those opinions, so as to be in conformity with contemporary realities.

It is for this reason in 2017, King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz of Saudi Arabia signed a decree which will see the establishment of the ministry that will vet some of the hadiths in order to counter terrorism. The center will be based in Madina and would be operated at the behest of conglomerate of eminent scholars from around the world.

Despite the fact that I’m not in the position to gives direction to the scholars on how the they will approach the task of cleansing the unwanted part of the creedal issues. I have a hunch that the basis will focus more on peaceful coexistence, thus any verdict passed by scholar that is in sharp contrast to Q49:10 “a believers are but one brotherhood,” should be unequivocally weed out and dumped in a dumpster.

Similarly, they should discard any books guiding the principle of ideology, whose contain disregard the stipulation of Q3:103 which says: “hold fast to the cord God and let nothing divide you.”

The teaching of Prophet Muhammad PBUH concerning the bond of brotherhood among the believers, in line with the famous hadith: “A Muslim is a brother of another Muslim” should be accordingly accommodated.

Almustapha writes from Bauchi talk2almustapha016@gmail.com