OPEN LETTER TO AK HOOSEN

                Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh

I always believe that you do not judge a person based on what the media portrays them to be. In this era of fake news, it has become too easy to discredit and slander someone without providing verifiable information. Social media, radio stations, newspaper articles and a variety of other mobile communications apps are used to disseminate this abuse resulting in a very wide audience, locally and globally, becoming recipients of this defamation.

On the internet, I found your website (https://muftiakhoosen.net/) which meticulously details your very inspiring biography (My Story) – your numerous academic qualifications and your personal achievements. 

Not many religious scholars have letters of endorsement and testament from luminaries such as the late Maulana Yunus Patel, Mufti Ridha-ul-Haq Saheb and Moulana Cassim Sema. Equally impressive is the fact that you were a student of eminent scholars and giants of our Deen like Moulana Maseehullah Khan, Jalalabad, India, Haji Farouq Saheb, Sukkar, Pakistan, and Moulana Qamruzzaman Saheb, AIlahabad, India, amongst others. You have also received Ijazah (permission) and Khilafat from Mufti Ridha-ul-Haq Saheb and Ml Qamruzzaman Saheb. 

 
Your biography also indicates that you studied at some of the leading Islamic institutions like Allama Yusuf Binnoori’s Newtown Madrassah, Darul Uloom Karachi and Jamia Farooqia. Furthermore in 1988 you enrolled for an MA degree at Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) where you completed a thesis titled: Imam Tirmidhi’s Contribution to Hadith. In 1990 you graduated with an MA degree cum laude(with distinction) from RAU.

As you frequently say: “this is all documented, it is not propaganda”.

On the internet, I found an equally impressive CV of one, Ahmed Fazel Ebrahim. Mr Ebrahim sadly passed away recently.

(https://independent.academia.edu/AhmedFazelEbrahim/CurriculumVitae)

His CV states that he studied at Newcastle Darul Uloom, Miftah-ul-Ulūm Jalalabad, Madrasah Arabia Islamia Azaadville, Dar-ul-Uloom Karachi Karachi, Pakistan, Newtown Karachi Dar-ul-Ulūm Karachi, Pakistan. He also studied in 1998 at RAU (Rand Afrikaanse Universiteit) Johannesburg.

Amongst the works that Mr Ebrahim has edited, includes, “Khutabāt-ul-Ahkām” (Friday Sermons) by Maulāna Ashraf Ali Thanwi. It was eventually published by Madrasah Arabia Islamia, Azaadville.

An interesting entry in his cv reveals that he edited a draft Ph.D thesis on Sunan Nasāi. The thesis was “unaccepted for accreditation due to insufficient research by the writer.” The writer of the thesis was none other than “Ustadh, A.K. Hoosen, Darul Uloom, Newcastle, Natal.”

This is all documented, it is not propaganda!

Now what does this say about your scholarship?

Senior academics who I spoke to said that at its worst no supervisor of a Phd thesis would not recommend accreditation, unless the quality of the research is so poor, mediocre and has absolutely no redeeming factors that would allow for a pass.

In other words supervisors will try their very best to recommend accreditation, but only at the very last resort would they reject a thesis. This is indeed astounding! You, who frequently quotes from Sunan Nasai, apparently were so abject in your research that your supervisor could not find anything, something minute, miniscule, an iota, reparable in your lamentable thesis. 

This raises serious concerns about your scholarship or more the lack of it! Why was this documented information (not propaganda) not included in your cv? Did you attempt to rewrite your thesis again? I am sure you knew Fazel Ebrahim very well and he would not have been exaggerating when he says that your thesis has “insufficient research”.

This then begs the question, did you write both your MA thesis personally? How is it possible that you receive a cum laude for an MA thesis and then get summarily rejected for a poor piece of research for a Phd? Should not questions be asked on the authenticity of your MA research? Were you the author?

This is not slander or propaganda, just documented history.

It is intriguing why Ahmed Fazel Ebrahim would include such an entry in his cv? Obviously you knew Mr Ebrahim otherwise you would not have asked him to edit your thesis. And for someone you had befriended to expose your mediocrity means that there could be more to his revelation than meets the eye!

Is it then valid to inquire about the quality of all your other scholarship and fatwas? What does it tell the public about your ability to provide intelligently researched arguments for the basis of your fatwas? What does it say about the quality of your academic qualifications?

In ending, can you please let us know your opinion on what Maulana AS Desai has to say about “Islamic radio stations”. Maulana Desai, writing in The Majlis, calls Al Ansaar radio station “ANSAARUSH SHAITAAN THE HELPERS OF THE DEVIL”. He further writes that “By participating with the radios of the Devil, the Ulama are actually aiding and abetting in sin and transgression. They confer respectability and acceptability to a thoroughly vile, evil, corrupt and immoral medium. They wash garments with urine
and believe that the clothes have become taahir/paak.”

You are a regular presenter on Al Ansaar so I am sure you are worried about what your mentor has said. Why are you still on this radio station? Is the Capital Group paying huge amounts of money to Al Ansaar to give you a show? Is the Capital Group paying you also? You have confessed that they have paid for your Markaz Sahaba studios.

We ask you to please respond to these questions based on documented information, not propaganda! 

Salaams and best regards.

Abbas Mahomed
Houghton