H.E. Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb, Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, received H.E. Prof. Koutoub Moustapha Sano, Secretary General of the Academy, on Tuesday 17 Dul Quida 1444, corresponding to June 6, 2023, at the Mashyakha headquarters of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, in Cairo.

At the start of the meeting, Al-Imam Al-Akbar welcomed His Excellency and the accompanying delegation and thanked them for their visit, hailing the qualitative leap witnessed by the Academy in its activities and programs, and he also praised its recent 25^th session, held in Jeddah, in the month of Sha’aban 1444, which addressed many important issues and contemporary problems, in particular the resolution calling for children of unknown lineage to be joined to their parents if the latter have been proven to be their parents by one of the modern methods recognized by Sharia, such as DNA testing, and that it is obligatory for their biological parents once proven to take them into their care.

For his part, The Secretary General expressed his sincere thanks, and appreciation to the Grand Imam for the good reception and warm welcome, underlining the Academy’s willingness to strengthen relations of cooperation, partnership, coordination and communication with a long-established scientific institution such as Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, a university and mosque, and praising the scholars that Al-Azhar has given to the Academy.

His Excellency then took the opportunity to inform His Eminence of the importance the Organization of Islamic Cooperation attaches to the participation of Al-Azhar’s eminent scholars in the delegation of Ummah scholars that will be visiting Afghanistan the next month to discuss with the Afghan ruling authority and scholars the issue of education for girls and women, stressing the well-known prestigious scientific status of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, a university and institution of higher learning. His Excellency concluded his speech by renewing his thanks, appreciation and gratitude for his virtues, praying to the Lord to preserve his virtues and benefit the Ummah and all the world with his enlightening thought, abundant knowledge and high morality.

The meeting was attended by Dr. Abdullah Mabrouk Al-Najjar, Academy member and Al-Azhar representative on the Academy Council, and Mr. Amjad Ibrahim Mustafa Al-Mansi, Head of the Protocol Department at the Academy.