CAIRO — Egyptian preacher Abdullah Rushdy has issued a fatwa prohibiting males from collaborating in bodybuilding competitions and displaying “awrah,” the intimate elements of the human physique as outlined in Islam.
The fatwa got here after Egyptian bodybuilder Mamdouh “Big Ramy” Elssbiay gained the Mr. Olympia 2021 bodybuilding championship held in Orlando, Florida, on Oct. 10. This was Massive Ramy’s second win in a row on the most outstanding bodybuilding championship on this planet.
Rushdy, who identifies himself as a researcher within the affairs of religions and sects at Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, tweeted on Oct. 11, “Males are prohibited from collaborating in bodybuilding championships and displaying intimate elements, which ought to be coated based on the Sharia.” He referred to as for practising sports activities with out violating the foundations of the Sharia.
In a Facebook video on Oct. 12, Rushdy tried to justify his place, saying, “I’m not saying no to sports activities, however the guidelines of the Sharia should be revered when doing so. … Awrah for males contains the physique elements between their navel and knees, and it’s all the physique for ladies, besides for his or her face and arms.”
He added, “I counsel younger males to not apply bodybuilding due to this and ladies shouldn’t take part in any competitors that requires them to point out elements of their our bodies.”
Ahmed Karima, a professor of comparative jurisprudence at Al-Azhar College, rejected Rushdy’s fatwa. “God didn’t make males’s our bodies a way to sedition,” he mentioned, including that the rule solely applies to worship.
In a television interview on Oct. 14, Karima additional defined the distinction. “Farmers elevate their pants above their knees whereas watering the land or feeding animals. This occurs to be widespread in some industries as properly.” Sportswear, he mentioned, “is a customized and never a type of worship, so males is not going to find yourself in Hell for sporting them. Customized is a help for Islamic Sharia.”
“Rushdy is so narrow-minded that he selected to talk about awrah and ignored the truth that [Big Ramy] gained a world championship, in addition to he ignored the significance of sports activities and a wholesome physique,” Egyptian author Bahey Eldin Morsi advised Al-Monitor. “The Egyptian individuals have been so glad for Massive Ramy for profitable Mr. Olympia 2021; his achievement has introduced them pleasure.”
Morsi refused to “invoke lust in all elements and conditions of life,” calling for “disregarding such fatwas that disturb Egyptian achievements.”
Upon his arrival at Cairo Airport on Oct. 19, Big Ramy was welcomed by a delegation from the Egyptian Ministry of Youth and Sports activities, along with many individuals from his hometown.
Rushdy’s previous controversial statements have included linking sexual harassment to girls’s outfits, which prompted some to accuse him of justifying harassment, defending harassers, and blaming girls.
In line with Egyptian media reports, Al-Azhar confused that Rushdy doesn’t symbolize it, and he has not beforehand labored throughout the Sheikhdom of Al-Azhar or any of its analysis facilities.
Media experiences have additionally confused that the opinions of Rushdy and different graduates of Al-Azhar College don’t replicate the spiritual institution, stating that solely Al-Azhar Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb and the official Al-Azhar our bodies converse for it.
In February 2020, the Egyptian Ministry of Endowments introduced that Rushdy was dismissed from his preacher place and prevented from giving spiritual classes in mosques. He was referred for questioning, based on the ministry, following a publish by which he criticized coronary heart surgeon Magdi Yacoub for being a Christian, saying that “his deeds on this world are of no worth within the afterlife.”
