On Monday 28 of Ramadan1441 corresponding to May 10, 2021 during his working visit to Malaysia, His Excellency Professor Koutoub Moustapha Sano, Secretary General of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy, accepted the International Center for Fatwas and Halal’s invitation to deliver a virtual lecture entitled: “Promoting Jurisprudence from the Perspective of the Academic Professor, Minister and Secretary General of the Academy.”

His Excellency began his lecture by shedding light on an important scientific milestone in his Academic career, which he started a quarter of a century ago as a lecturer, then an assistant professor, then an associate professor, then a professor, and indicated in the meantime that this period was characterized by the predominance of thinking, contemplation, reflection, and innovation. He focused his attention during this period on writing research, books, preparing studies and events, and participating in international scientific conferences and symposia around the world, noting that his vision of the outside world was at this stage an ideal one based on the belief in the possibility of achieving the desired reform and change easily and quickly and within a record period of time. He spent sixteen (16) years of his life in this period, which he described as the most stable psychologically, mentally, and socially. Then the second milestone was when he returned to his country as Minister of Religious Affairs, Minister of International Cooperation, then Minister at the Presidency for Diplomatic Affairs and Diplomatic Advisor to the President of the Republic. His Excellency explained that this period also posed a challenge to him as he was searching for different ways and means to apply many Shariah rulings and teachings to the living reality in his country, whose constitution stipulates that it is a secular country that stands at the same distance from all religions and does not allow it to oblige people with the provisions of the Shariah, based on the principle of freedom of religions and beliefs. Hence, His Excellency emerged from this period with the belief of the importance of starting from the Shariah objectives when trying to apply the Shariah rulings on social, political, economic, and intellectual realities, and he also strongly believes of the utmost importance to start from a number of the purposes of revelation, especially taking into account progress and balance between good and evil. His Excellency spent twelve (12) years in the aforementioned ministries, and he tried hard to carry out a number of reforms in many vital areas such as strengthening the relations of cooperation, partnership and friendship between his country and countries of the Islamic world. He has also developed the performance of ministries, highlighting the fact that mastery, creativity, transparency, productivity, and innovation are essential features of management and reform. He also sought to change perceptions about the relationship between religion with politics, and about the ability of intellectuals with a religious culture to hold higher ministerial positions.

Then His Excellency spoke about the current milestone that he started months ago in his capacity as Secretary General of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy, which is, in fact, a scientific, intellectual and political institution that combines the two previous milestones, and requires a sophisticated combination of thought and management, and politics, and a reconciliation between theory, application and practice through political and scientific institutions inside and outside the Islamic world, given that the Academy is a scientific reference to which the member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Muslim societies all over the world resort to in order to clarify the Shariah rulings on issues that concern them. He emphasized that he is continuing to benefit from the first two milestones for the sake of advancing this institution and promoting it among the world’s leading scientific institutions capable of shaping thought, giving opinion, and rationalizing practice in total harmony and integration between jurisprudence, application, and practice.

His Excellency concluded his lecture by stressing the importance of the Jurist’s involvement in the social, political, and economic life in order to bring about the required change and reform in an organized and well-planned manner taking into account priorities, and rules of progression. His Excellency then answered the questions and inquiries of the attendees, the most prominent of which was the response to the skeptics about the efficiency of the vaccines against Covid 19 based on the conspiracy theory, where His Excellency explained that questioning the effectiveness of these vaccines is nothing more than an adventure that the jurist should not be involved in, especially that doctors and scientists agree on its efficiency and its ability to prevent from Corona virus, and to reduce its impact in the event of infection, which means that it must be sought to combat this pandemic.