Hearsay on Bin Baz
Abd al-Aziz Ibn Baz (1912-1999) was the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia. Ibn Baz was famous for his jurisprudence and obtained the respect of friends and foe alike. As a proponent of the salafiya theology his views often clashed with secular and more liberal views of islam as well as conservative views of Islam from a traditional perspective of the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence. There was a rumor going on in the 1970s that Ibn Baz believed the world was flat. Furthermore, Ibn Baz asked the death penalty for all people who deny the world is flat. This rumor turned out to a lie. Dr. Rashad Khalifa however helped spread the rumor through his Qur’an translation and newsletters. We seek to discover the source of the flat earth claim and examine Dr. Rashad Khalifa’s role in transforming the disinformation.
Dr. Rashad Khalifa first mentioned the flat-earth rumor in the February 1986 issue of the Muslim Perspectives. The information is listed under a section entitled: “ARABS DISMISSED FROM GOD’S GRACE incurring the ultimate curse Sura Muhammad, Verse 38 (19x2)” The article rants against the refusal of Muslim scholars to believe Dr. Khalifa’s supposed math “miracle.” After mentioning a meeting of Saudi scholars in which the claim was rejected, Dr. Khalifa writes ,” Ben Baz, by the way, is the notorious scholar who still believes that the earth is flat (see the New York Times, December 14, 1984).” Dr. Khalifa mentioned the claim again in his Introduction to the “Final Testament” translation of the Qur’an. Dr. Khalifa says that Bin Baz made the statement in 1975. He then produces a quote in English and Arabic from page 73 of the “Ben Baz” book : "If the earth is rotating as they claim, the countries, the mountains, the trees, the rivers, and the oceans will have no bottom and the people will see the eastern countries move to the west and the western countries move to the east." Those who are following will notice that Dr. Khalifa does not cite the source properly as there is no such thing as the “Ben Baz book.” He should have cited the actual source.
Edip Yuksel, self-proclaimed Islamic “Reformer”, a top disciple of Rashad Khalifa (and dissenter from the main Submitter group) helped further spread the information about Bin Baz on his website. Yuksel mentions the Bin Baz quote cited in Dr. Khalifa’s introduction to the Qur’an but has the decency to cite the source from “ The Traditional and Empirical Evidences for the Motion of the Sun and Stillness of Earth, and Possibility of Ascending to Planets)” (The Background and Chronology of the Discovery. 25 Jan 2011 https://19.org/blog/the-background-and-chronology-of-the-discovery/ )
Edip Yuskel mentions Shaykh ibn Baz again in an article from 2012. This article is basically a character attack on Bilal Philips, a student of Bin Baz, and a whole section of the article is devoted to the teacher, entitled: Abu Ameenah’s Shaikh: “Earth is Fixed; or You are Dead”. The title of the chapter in the Bin Baz book is called “Scientific and Narrative Evidence for that the Earth is Fixed, the Sun is Moving and it is Possible to Go to the Planets.” Edip Yuksel writes the following ,” Bin Baz asserts that those who believe that the earth is rotating are kafirs (disbelievers), and if they were Muslims before they become apostate.” At the end of the section Yuksel quotes Bin Baz statement on the flat earth notion that was put into Khalifa’s introduction to the Final Testament.
The original rumor had Ibn Baz proclaim the earth was flat through a fatwa and deniers of this notion would be considered heretics bound for death. Dr. Rashad Khalifa only cited part of the rumor (Ibn Baz saying the earth was flat.) But Edip Yuksel chose to publish both parts of the rumor. The result is that Submitters and Qur’an only followers believe Ibn Baz said something that he did not teach.
Did Ibn Baz really believe the earth was flat? Did the Mufti declare a fatwa on those who refused to assert this belief? A British historian named Robert Lacey writes that Ibn Baz never believed in a flat earth. (Lacey, Robert (2009). Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia. Penguin Publishing Group. pg 89-90) Lacey explained that Ibn Baz was trying to give only an opinion based on experience to why he thought the world was flat. It can be seen that the Ibn Baz quote cited by Khalifa/Yuksel was part of a personal observation and not a denial of scientific realties. Lacey pointed out that Ibn Baz changed his mind in 1985 after he spoke to the first Saudi astronaut to go into space. This was also confirmed in the 2015 issue of Cosmos. (17 February 2015 / Bill Condie. Cosmo Magazine. Saudi cleric declares the Earth has stopped. https://cosmosmagazine.com/people/society/saudi-cleric-declares-the-earth-has-stopped/ )
Dr. Abdul-Wahhab ibn Nasir At-Turairi, an ideological student and Saudi cleric referred to people who attribute the flat-earth belief to Ibn Baz as “rumor mongers.” In fact At-Tuairi points out that Bin Baz issued a fatwa as early as 1966 that the earth was round. This fatwa was based on Ibn Qayyim’s statement that the earth was round. Ibn Qayyim was the top student of Ibn Tamiya, the ideological forefather of the Salafiyya movement. Even if Bin Baz held a flat earth opinion he would have been ridiculed severely by his ideological compatriots since it contradicted Ibn Qayyim’s view.
Even if Ibn Baz had the correct opinion on the earth this would not excuse him for other anti-science stances he took. Nor would it excuse the Shaykh for other immoral acts in violation of the Qur'an. It is possible that the flat-earth claim was an exaggeration of other statements made. Back in in 1966. Ibn Baz made claims that the earth was stable, spread out and that the sun revolved around the earth. (Weston, Mark (2008). Prophets and Princes: Saudi Arabia from Muhammad to the Present. John Wiley & Sons. p. 196.) The wikipedia entry on the Ibn Baz noted the controversy this caused. Ibn Baz became a laughing stock and the Kig Faisal had the articles burned. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd_al-Aziz_Ibn_Baz) Ibn Baz also made a fatwa to make takfir and kill those who believe the sun is stationary(bn Baz (15 April 1966). "Refuting and criticizing what has been published in "Al-Musawwir" magazine". "Al-Musawwir" magazine (Part No. 3; Page No. 157). The General Presidency of Scholarly Research and Ifta of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.) Such a stance even if scientifically wrong would not justify the death penalty for the holder of that opinion.
Ibn Baz apparently had an opinion about the earth being flat but this was reported to be a personal observation and not an issue of science of Islamic dogma. In any case he changed his mind in 1985 after the shaykh spoke to an astronaut. Assuming Ibn Baz made such a fatwa (which he did not) on the earth in the 1970s, he would have changed the fatwa in 1985 when he admitted he was wrong. But there was no fatwa to change. Furthermore, Rashad Khalifa did not publish his clam about Bin Baz until 1986, roughly a year after Bin Baz changed his mind. Yet, Edip Yuskel continued to spread the rumor years later. As of 2023 the false information is kept on his 19.org website. Ibn Baz might have mentioned false statements and wrong moral observations about other things but this does not justify Dr. Khalifa or Yuksel’s spreading of false information.
Rashad Khalifa considered Ibn Baz an enemy because the later rejected his miracle but also because he was the grand mufti. The high status of Ibn Baz meant that he was the authority on hadith. Rashad Khalifa and Edip Yuksel are harshly against hadith. Khalifa once wrote that “the bulk work of hadith is hearsay” (May 1988 Muslim Perspectives.) Some Quran only folks, Edip Yuksel in particular, have used the term “hearsay” in reference to hadith many times. They want people to be dismissive of hadith by labeling it as “hearsay.” In the world of social media we see how dangerous hearsay could be when rumors spread faster than the speed of light and peoples lives are destroyed for unfounded allegations.
What is an ethical approach we can take to avoid hearsay? The Qur’an mentions the religious dangers of hearsay when it notes Christians who claim to know the bible but really never studied it. Their claim to knowledge was only based on what they heard others say. “2:78 Among them are gentiles who do not know the scripture, except through hearsay, then assume that they know it.” The Qur’an however condemns accepting knowledge through gossip; [Quran 17:36-38] “You shall not accept any information, unless you verify it for yourself. I have given you the hearing, the eyesight, and the brain, and you are responsible for using them. You shall not walk proudly on earth ―you cannot bore through the earth, nor can you be as tall as the mountains. All bad behavior is condemned by your Lord.”
Rashad Khalifa and Edip Yuksel may have dismissed hadith because it was “Hearsay.” But Khalifa and Yuksel had no problem accepting hearsay and participating in it’s decimation when it came to throwing dirt at their opponents. Rashad Khalifa, being a pretended knowledge person about Islam , had a responsibility to examine the rumors about Ibn Baz to see if they were true, regardless of his own animosity towards the shaykh. Dr. Khalifa would have found that Ibn Baz did not hold the type of opinion of science attributed to him if he did a little research. Yet Khalifa, his heirs and Yuskel chose to publish the information for years. It is a shame Rashad Khalifa did not heed the advice in his own translation of the Qur’an. It’s also a shame Khalifa and Yuksel
Proponents of Salafiyya thought often place their conclusions of hadith studies above other considerations such as reason, ethics and the Qur’an.
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