IN MEMORY OF DR MALIK BADRI

IN MEMORY OF DR MALIK BADRI (الله يرحمه )
I have just received the very sad news of the death in Malaysia, of the distinguished Sudanese Islamic scholar, Dr. Malik Badri (الله يرحمه ). May Allah have Mercy on his soul and forgive him his sins. May He grant that he might sleep peacefully in his grave, and that he might be raised on Judgement Day, and by His Kindness and Mercy, be blessed to enter Jannah. Ameen!
I will forever cherish his memory as one of my truly great teachers. I read his pioneering book in Islamic psychology, The Dilemma of Muslim Psychologists, when I was still a college student in my native island of Trinidad. It thrilled me, and opened my appetite, as great books do, for more knowledge on the subject.
I was truly honoured to meet Dr. Badri in person for the first time in 1987, when we both attended an International Conference on Islamic Education in Cairo. Despite his status as the most highly acclaimed and internationally recognized Islamic scholar in Islamic Psychology, he took time to sit with me at that conference to try to satisfy my thirst for more knowledge from the author of that great book. His humility and charm, and simplicity of style in discussing with me subjects of profound importance, were all signs of a great teacher, and a great servant of Allah Most High.
I realized over the years that Dr. Badri was gifted by Allah Most High with internal Nūr, or light, with which to penetrate the reality of things, and hence was never deceived by appearances. His profound psychological analysis of the reality of modern Western civilization made a significant input, in later years, assisting me in my own work in Islamic eschatology.
When I visited the International Islamic University in Malaysia for the first time, in 1991, and renewed my fraternal scholarly ties with a great teacher, he honored me by inviting me to deliver a lecture at the university. My incipient expertise in ‘Islam and International Affairs’ was in great demand, and the invitation was repeated several times at the university, and again at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, when he became Dean of the Institute.
We spent numerous memorable evenings together in small gatherings at private residences, sharing dinner in Malaysia, with other learned scholars, all of whom had a common trait – they were independent thinkers and were not muzzled with 9/11 chains around their necks. It was always a thrilling experience for me to sit in those informal gatherings with Muslim scholars whose scholarship ranged from the Qur’ān and Hadīth to Psychology, Sociology, Economics, History, Philosophy, and Politics to my own International Affairs, and who could exchange views with mutual respect and fraternal scholarly decorum.
I invariably emerged from those long and fascinating dinner discussion sessions with more knowledge. I tried to learn from Dr. Badri the abiding value of humility, charm and simplicity of style, while discussing difficult subjects. It was at one of those sessions that he gave me an autographed copy of a recent book of his, entitled Contemplation: An Islamic Psycho-spiritual Study.
I turned to Dr. Badri in 2002, to ask him to write the Foreword of my book entitled Jerusalem in the Qur’ān; and then again, soon after, to write the Foreword of another book of mine entitled The Quranic Method of Curing Alcoholism and Drug Addiction. On both occasions he responded positively to my request.
The 9/11 terrorist attack on America had just occurred as Jerusalem in the Qur’ān was being prepared for publication. It was a book which turned to the Qur’ān to expose Dajjāl’s fraudulent State of Israel. It was a time when many scholars, particularly those resident in the USA, were afraid to even mention my name. Twenty years later they are still too afraid to even mention my name. But Dr. Malik Badri was not afraid, at that moment in time when the war on Islam and Muslims had grown from a storm to a tempest, to accept my invitation and to write what is now recognized as a historic Foreword to a book which became my bestseller. Dr. Badri was not afraid to call a spade a spade – and that is the profile of a true scholar.
In his Foreword to my book on The Quranic Method of Curing Alcoholism and Drug Addiction, Dr. Badri was uncompromisingly forthright in exposing the danger posed by modern Western civilization. The insatiable demand for drugs in the West was exposed as a symptom of an unbalanced secular civilization which had lost its way, and was yet was adamantly refusing to the take the road to recovery and to health offered by the Qur’ān.