Aly Abdolrazeq (1888-1966), an enlightened scholar of Al-Azhar Al-shareef, well known by his daring position against the controversial traditional Islamic symbolic rule known "Al-khelafa'. 

 His life

Aly Abdolrazeq was born in Al-Menya one of the governorates of Upper Egypt (250 km from Cairo), he preserved Al-Qur'an and studied in Al-Azhar from which he earned the certificate of "Al'alamya', the highest certificate. He studied afterwards in Oxford University, and after coming back he was appointed as a judge in Islamic laws. He worked later on as a lawyer and was elected in the 'Parliament', then in the council of the senates, and finally was chosen as a minister of endowments.

 His thoughts

Aly Abdolrazeq issued on 1925 his famous and controversial book 'Islam and the basics of governance' in which he rejected the traditional form of Islamic rule "Al-Khelafa". His book has caused a great dispute at that time and was rejected by both the king of Egypt for his ambitions to bequeath the then fallen Turkish title "Al-Khelafa", as well as the traditional Al-Azhar Sheikhs as an anti-Islamic idea. As a consequence he was expelled from Al-Azhar and his certificate was withdrawn and his remuneration was cut and forbidden from any governmental position.

This book was the first in the Islamic realm that states clearly that Islam is a religion and not a state, and that 'Khelafa' (traditional Islamic rule) does not comprise one of the basics of Islam. He also asserted in his book that matters of political rule and governance are part of our mundane life and not of our religious one. Moreover he insisted that this mundane way of governance is in accordance with Muslims benefits and that there is no clear reference in Qur'an or 'Hadith' (Profit Muhammad's guidings) of how to choose the ruler or how to define his obligations, which was left to us to formulate and define.

His books

·         Islam and basics of governance, 1926.

·         Consensus and Islamic Shari'a.

·         From the intellectual traits of Mustafa Abulraziq.

·         Lectures in Cairo University in the sources of Islamic fiqh for about 20 years.