Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Son Rebukes Taliban Minister Over Remarks on Reason and Study
Habib-ur-Rahman Hekmatyar, the son of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, has responded sharply to remarks by Khalid Hanafi, the acting minister for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in the Taliban administration, saying such views could have a negative impact on motivation for education and learning among young people and carry broad social and cultural consequences.
In a message on X, he said Hanafi’s recent comments were his personal interpretation and had no basis in the Quran, the Sunnah or the scholarly heritage of the Islamic world. According to him, Islamic texts repeatedly emphasise reflection, contemplation, reasoning and the pursuit of knowledge, while Islamic jurisprudence also has deep-rooted place for ijtihad, analogy and legal deduction.
Hekmatyar added that if the acting minister for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in the Taliban administration holds such a view, he should first convince leading scholars of the Islamic world before making it public, and explain how reason and research can be excluded from Sharia. He stressed that an important part of religious understanding rests on these foundations.
The reaction came after Khalid Hanafi said in controversial remarks: “In Sharia, there is no place for reason, study and research,” and that Muslims should not examine religious rulings based on their own interpretation and reason. The comments drew a wave of criticism from political and religious figures in Afghanistan and once again placed the Taliban administration’s approach to education and religious understanding at the centre of debate.
The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is one of the Taliban administration’s key bodies in enforcing social and behavioural restrictions, an institution that has repeatedly come under criticism in recent years for its policies and positions.
