In my name, in the name of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, and in the name of the family of our teacher and leader after the Prophet of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), we extend our condolences to the beloved State of Qatar—its people, its Emir, and its government. We also extend them to the Islamic world, all Muslims, and indeed, all of humanity, on this grave and difficult occasion. Truly, our hearts are heavy with sorrow, our souls are wounded, and our eyes shed tears. Yet, we say nothing but that which pleases our Lord. How could we not, when we have lost a sun from the suns of Islam, the renewer (mujaddid) of the fourteenth Hijri century, and the imam of moderation and centrism? We have lost an eminent scholar, a great encyclopedia, and a leader who intertwined jurisprudence, da'wah, the objectives of Shari'ah, activism, and education.

Bukhari, Muslim, and other hadith scholars narrated with their chains of transmission that the Prophet of Allah (PBUH) said: "Allah does not take away knowledge by snatching it from the hearts of His servants, but He takes it away by the death of the scholars, until, when no scholar remains, people take ignorant individuals as their leaders. They are asked, and they issue fatwas without knowledge, thereby going astray and leading others astray."

In his commentary on the verse of Allah Almighty, “Have they not seen that We set upon the land, reducing it from its borders? And Allah decides; there is no adjuster of His decision. And He is swift in account.” (Ar-Ra'd: 41), Ibn Abbas said: "The land is ruined by the death of its scholars, jurists, and righteous people."

Hasan al-Basri (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "The death of a scholar creates a void in Islam that nothing can fill." When Imam al-Bukhari heard the news of the death of his teacher, Imam al-Darimi, he wept profusely until his tears soaked his beard, and he expressed his sorrow in a poem, the beginning of which translates to:
A mourner must ask what can be done for a sorrowful person… The tears of grief and sorrow can achieve nothing.
Their loved ones weep and mourn for them… But has that ever brought any of them back?

Here, I take as an example the words of our great mother, Al-Zahra (may Allah be pleased with her), who said:
Calamities have rained down upon me… Had they fallen on bright days, they would have turned into darkest night.

However, we find our solace and consolation in the fact that, in our Islamic faith—praise be to Allah—death is not the final stage, but a station in the journey of a long life, for the soul is immortal. By the will of Allah, we will meet our teacher in our dreams. After that, we hope, by the grace of Allah Almighty, to be reunited with him under the shade of the throne of the Almighty, on a day when there is no shade but His. And then, through the generosity of our Lord, in the highest Firdaws in the company of our beloved Prophet (PBUH).

Dear brothers and sisters, for forty years I was honored to be close to our teacher. What I witnessed in him, besides his leadership in knowledge, da'wah, education, and activism, was a person of noble character and a pure heart. This is how I saw him, without sanctifying anyone before Allah. I saw that he possessed a noble, refined, and immaculate character. He had a pious and God-conscious heart. His tongue was pure, clean, and chaste. In his gatherings, I heard neither backbiting nor duplicity. I bear this witness (and I do not sanctify anyone before Allah), and by the will of Allah, our testimony is accepted, as stated in Sahih al-Bukhari that "it became obligatory."

Truly, he lived for Islam and only for Islam. He lived for the beauty, majesty, perfection, and greatness of Islam. He lived to convey the suitability and applicability of Islam for all times and places. Islam was his cause and his purpose, the subject of his mornings and evenings, his beginning and his end. He was a sincere soldier of Islam, for which he was imprisoned and tortured. He lived as a wise and capable leader, a blessed pioneer. He lived for reform and was a great reformer. He lived for the revival of his Ummah. The righteous loved him, and he drew their hearts to him. He dedicated his life to the causes of his Ummah, especially the cause of Palestine. He was a lover of Palestine in the fullest sense of the word, a selfless devotee of Al-Aqsa Mosque. He yearned to liberate Al-Aqsa, with us and other struggling leaders by his side. This was his wish, a wish I heard from him many times, and he instructed us to remain steadfast on this path.

My dear brothers, today we bid farewell to a scholar—a scholar who was an entire nation in one man. Seventy years ago, he wrote about himself in a "Nūniyyah" poem:
Light is in my heart, and my heart is in the hand of my Lord… My Lord supports me and elevates me.
I live holding fast to the rope of my faith… and I will die with a smile to keep my religion alive.

We bear witness that you held fast to your religion. Neither wealth, nor status, nor power, nor public opinion could influence you or divert you from your path. I bear witness that throughout your blessed and prosperous life, you held fast to your faith. Yesterday, your pure soul was returned to its Creator with a smile, so that your religion may live on.

We, all of us in the International Union of Muslim Scholars and all scholars, pledge to Allah Almighty to live for the causes you lived for: serving the great religion of Islam and the Muslims. We place all our hope in Allah Almighty to address you with His words: “O reassured soul, return to your Lord, well-pleased and pleasing [to Him]. And enter among My [righteous] servants, and enter My Paradise.” (Al-Fajr: 27-30).

We all testify that you are among those about whom the Lord says these verses.

May the peace of Allah be upon you, our teacher, the teacher of moderation and centrism, O you who spread and clarified the methodology of Islamic moderation and conveyed, through nearly two hundred books, that Islam is the only solution.

O Allah, we beseech You by Your beautiful names and lofty attributes, by Your greatest name—Allah, there is no god but He, the Ever-Living, the Self-Sustaining, the Almighty, the All-Wise—and by every name with which You have named Yourself, or revealed in Your book, or taught to any of Your creation, or kept in the knowledge of the unseen with You, to forgive this servant of Yours, Your beloved Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Accept him among Your righteous servants and martyrs. Make his grave a garden from the gardens of Paradise. Gather him in the highest Firdaws with Your beloved Prophet (PBUH). O Lord, we—the lovers of our Sheikh—also ask You to gather us with him under the shade of Your great throne on the day when there is no shade but Yours. O Great God, we ask You to bestow Your blessings upon the family of Sheikh al-Qaradawi, to grant them a great and goodly reward, and to pour patience upon their hearts and the hearts of all his loved ones and students. Grant us success in following and continuing on the path of our beloved Prophet (PBUH).

Peace and Allah's mercy and blessings be upon you.

Prof. Dr. Ali Muhiuddin al-Qaradaghi
Secretary-General of the International Union of Muslim Scholars
President of the Humanitarian League Organization

Tuesday, 1 Rabi' al-Awwal 1444 AH
Corresponding to September 27, 2022