Orientalists ‘spreading false views on Islam’

A leading Islamic scholar, and a winner of the King Faisal International Prize for Islamic Studies, has slammed orientalists in the West for spreading false information about the religion.
Muhammad Mustafa Azmi, who specializes in Hadith studies, said: “Their false and misleading works are now called research but have no valid arguments.”
He was speaking at a workshop organized by Lajna Ilmiya, a Riyadh-based body formed by graduates from Darul Uloom Deoband, the renowned Islamic seminary in India, on Friday.
“Nowadays their voices are louder than others; they are read and heard all over the world. All their misleading work is called research and even some groups of educated Muslims are influenced by them,” he said.
He urged Islamic teachers to preach righteousness and truth.
Azmi is best known for his critical investigation of the theories of orientalists Ignác Goldziher, David Margoliouth and Joseph Schacht and is currently a professor emeritus at King Saud University.
“If we had followed the Qur’an and Hadith in our education, the misleading gossip of the enemies of Islam would not have influenced many of us.”
Earlier, he also urged the Ummah to use the Hijri calendar as the government is doing in the Kingdom, or alongside the Christian calendar.
Azmi is the first person to computerize the Hadith in the Arabic language, was an associate professor at Umm Al-Qura university, visiting scholar at the University of Michigan, and visiting fellow at St. Cross College, Oxford.
Much of his work has focused on correcting the inadequacies of Western scholarship on Hadith literature, especially highlighting the fact that there was already intense literary activity involving Hadiths during the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
Lajna Ilmiya hosted the workshop entitled “From the Cradle to the Grave” to spread awareness among schoolchildren about Islam’s rich history.
It also hosted an Islamic quiz competition for students. A huge number of Indian and Pakistani expatriates, including women and children, attended the event.