Seyran Aryfov on “Message on Muslims’ Unity” on the Threshold of the Book’s Presentation

On the threshold of the official presentation of his book “Message on Muslims’ Unity” (in Russian), which is to take place this Friday, 1 March 2019 at 14:00 at Kyiv Islamic Cultural Centre (Conference hall, 5th floor), Seyran Aryfor tells the story of his work on the publication, shares his plans on its follow-on revision and translation, and outlined the circle of prospective readers who can benefit from the book the most.

— Was there any reason to publish the book at this specific moment?

— Frankly, I’ve been working on it for several years, but the problem was that I could do it only in my free time. This is why the book, not that great in volume, was slow the process. It was the God’s will that the book was finished and published by now.

— Who do you expect your readers to be, and how much preparation they should have to make the most of the book?

— I think anyone can read the book, for part of it is clear for mainstream audience without even the slightest background, if they are interested Islam and the reasons of difference of opinions on some theological matters.

But of course it’ll be the most useful for people who are interested in the matters of discord among Muslims we can observe today and know such basic things as differences in Madhabs; have read the Qur’an and Tafsir and know at least basics of hadith (including the difference between authentic hadith and weak hadith), etc.

— Does this book have links to your previous works, and if so — what are those works?

— I can’t rely on my other books for the pure reason this one was the first and yet only. But I had a cycle of articles on the basics of Islam in “Alraid” and “Umma” newspapers and on the respective websites, and having read those articles would give one a good background on the matter.

— The current edition has only 1000 copies. Do you plan to print more copies, or, perhaps, have the work translated to Ukrainian?

— Of course I’m planning to have it translated, but I can’t yet say when exactly, You see, the book needs a follow-on revision even before the second edition, as people with degrees in Islamic Theology I asked to read the book and give me some feedback actually offered some good ideas what could be said better. So of course I will summarize all those good ideas and make some amendments in the text befor having it reprinted or translated.

I think that 1000 printed copies are not that much, so the book doesn’t need additional promotion, as it will be distributed through the free literature stands at our Islamic Cultural Centres. Of course, some copies will be reserved for each of our libraries so that more readers would have an easy access to them. The next edition, I believe, will have more copies, and that’s when we do all the promotion business.

Interviewed by Tetiana Evloeva