1.
Al-Azhar University
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Al-Azhar University is a university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar Mosque in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypts oldest degree-granting university and is renowned as Sunni Islam’s most prestigious university, in addition to higher education, Al-Azhar oversees a national network of schools with approximately two million students. As of 1996, over 4000 teaching institutes in Egypt were affiliated with the University and it was one of the first universities in the world, and the only one in the Arabic world to survive as a modern university including secular subjects in the curriculum. Today it is the centre of Arabic literature and Islamic learning in the world. In 1961 additional non-religious subjects were added to its curriculum and its mission is to propagate Islam and Islamic culture. To this end, its Islamic scholars render edicts on disputes submitted to them all over the Sunni Islamic world regarding proper conduct for Muslim individuals. Al-Azhar also trains Egyptian government-appointed preachers in proselytization and its library is considered second in importance in Egypt only to the Egyptian National Library and Archives. Fatimah, was called Al-Zahra, and it was named in her honor and it was founded as mosque by the Fatimid commander Jawhar at the orders of the Caliph and Ismaili Imam Al-Muizz as he founded the city for Cairo. It was in Jamadi al-Awwal in the year 359 A. H and its building was completed on the 9th of Ramadan in the year 361 A. H. Both Al-Aziz Billah and Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah added to its premises and it was further repaired, renovated and extended by Al-Mustansir Billah and Al-Hafiz Li-Din-illah. Studies began at Al-Azhar in the month of Ramadan,975, according to Syed Farid Alatas, the Jamiah had faculties in Islamic law and jurisprudence, Arabic grammar, Islamic astronomy, Islamic philosophy, and logic. The Fatimids gave attention to the studies at the time when rulers in other countries declared those who were engaged in philosophical pursuits as apostates. The Greek thought found a reception with the Fatimids who expanded the boundaries of such studies. They paid much attention to philosophy and gave support to everyone who was known for being engaged in the study of any branch of philosophy and these books were destroyed by Salah-ud-Din Ayyubi. An Islamic womens faculty was added in the same year. Al-Azhar has a membership that represents the schools of Al-Ashari and Al-Maturidi, the four schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence. Al-Azhar has had a relationship with Wahhabism and Salafism. Although al-Azhar is not monolithic, its identity has been associated with Sufism
2.
Cairo
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Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt. Cairo has long been a center of the political and cultural life. Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab world, as well as the worlds second-oldest institution of higher learning, Al-Azhar University. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in the city, with a population of 6.76 million spread over 453 square kilometers, Cairo is by far the largest city in Egypt. An additional 9.5 million inhabitants live in proximity to the city. Cairo, like many other mega-cities, suffers from high levels of pollution, Cairos metro, one of only two in Africa, ranks among the fifteen busiest in the world, with over 1 billion annual passenger rides. The economy of Cairo was ranked first in the Middle East in 2005, Egyptians often refer to Cairo as Maṣr, the Egyptian Arabic name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the citys importance for the country. In Coptic the city is known as Kahire, meaning Place of the Sun, possibly referring to the ancient city of Heliopolis, the location of the ancient city is the suburb of Ain Shams. The ancient Egyptian name for the area is thought to be Khere-Ohe, The Place of Combat, sometimes the city is informally referred to as Kayro. The area around present-day Cairo, especially Memphis, had long been a point of Ancient Egypt due to its strategic location just upstream from the Nile Delta. However, the origins of the city are generally traced back to a series of settlements in the first millennium. Around the turn of the 4th century, as Memphis was continuing to decline in importance and this fortress, known as Babylon, remained the nucleus of the Roman, and, later, the Byzantine, city and is the oldest structure in the city today. It is also situated at the nucleus of the Coptic Orthodox community, many of Cairos oldest Coptic churches, including the Hanging Church, are located along the fortress walls in a section of the city known as Coptic Cairo. Following the Muslim conquest in 640 AD the conqueror Amr ibn As settled to the north of the Babylon in an area became known as al-Fustat. Originally a tented camp Fustat became a permanent settlement and the first capital of Islamic Egypt, in 750, following the overthrow of the Ummayad caliphate by the Abbasids, the new rulers created their own settlement to the northeast of Fustat which became their capital. This was known as al-Askar as it was laid out like a military camp, a rebellion in 869 by Ahmad ibn Tulun led to the abandonment of Al Askar and the building of another settlement, which became the seat of government. This was al-Qattai, to the north of Fustat and closer to the river, Al Qattai was centred around a palace and ceremonial mosque, now known as the Mosque of ibn Tulun. In 905 the Abbasids re-asserted control of the country and their returned to Fustat
3.
Omar Abdel-Rahman
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Formerly a resident of New York City, Abdel-Rahman and nine others were convicted of seditious conspiracy, which requires only that a crime be planned, not that it necessarily be attempted. His prosecution grew out of investigations of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Abdel-Rahman was accused of being the leader of Al-Jamaa al-Islamiyya, a militant Islamist movement in Egypt that is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and Egyptian governments. The group was responsible for acts of violence, including the November 1997 Luxor massacre, in which 58 foreign tourists. Abdel-Rahman was born in the city of al-Gamalia, Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt and he lost his eyesight when he was 10 months old. He studied a Braille version of the Quran as a child, had it memorized by age 11 and was sent to an Islamic boarding school and he developed an interest in the works of the Islamic radical reformists Ibn Taymiyah and Sayyid Qutb. He studied at Cairo Universitys School of Theology and later earned a Doctorate in Tafsir from Al-Azhar University in Cairo, soon after leaving university, Abdel-Rahman began preaching against the secular regime of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Abdel-Rahman became one of the most prominent and outspoken Muslim clerics to denounce Egypt’s secularism, Omar Abdel-Rahman had two wives, who bore him 10 children, Aisha Hassan Gouda, and Aisha Zohdi. His sons include Ahmed, Mohammed and Asim, Ahmed was killed in a drone strike in Afghanistan in 2011. Mohammed was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and he was later extradited to Egypt and released in 2010. Asim was an associate of Osama bin Laden following the September 11th attacks. During the 1970s, Abdel-Rahman developed close ties with two of Egypt’s most militant organizations, Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Al-Jamaa al-Islamiyya, Abdel-Rahman spent three years in Egyptian jails while awaiting trial on charges of issuing a fatwa resulting in the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat by Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Although Abdel-Rahman was not convicted of conspiracy in the Sadat assassination and he made his way to Afghanistan in the mid-1980s, where he contacted his former professor, Abdullah Azzam, co-founder of Maktab al-Khadamat along with Osama bin Laden. Abdel-Rahman built a rapport with bin Laden during the Soviet war in Afghanistan and, following Azzam’s murder in 1989. In July 1990, Abdel-Rahman traveled to New York City to gain control of MAK’s financial and organizational infrastructure in the United States, Abdel-Rahman entered the United States in July 1990 via Saudi Arabia, Peshawar, and Sudan. The State Department revoked his tourist visa on 17 November, despite this, in April 1991, he obtained a green card from the Immigration and Naturalization Service office in Newark, New Jersey. After leaving the U. S. to go on an overseas trip, at that point, U. S. officials recognized that he was on the lookout list, and began the procedure to revoke his permanent resident status. The U. S. government still allowed him to enter the country, Abdel-Rahman failed to appeal the decision, and on 6 March 1992, the U. S. government revoked his green card. A hearing on that matter was held on 20 January 1993 and it was later revealed that Abdel-Rahman was given most of his visa approvals by the CIA. Egyptian officials have testified that the CIA was actively assisting him in entering the US
4.
Muhammad Abduh
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He broke the rigidity of the Muslim ritual, dogma, and family ties. He also wrote, among other things, Treatise on the Oneness of God, Abduh was a Freemason and had a close relationship with the Baháí Faith. Muhammad Abduh was born in 1849 to a Turkish father and Arab mother in Lower Egypt and his family was of the Egyptian elite. His father was part of the Umad, or the ruling elite. His mother was part of the Ashraf and he was educated in Tanta at a private school. When he turned thirteen, he was sent to the Aḥmadī mosque, a while later Abduh ran away from school and got married. He enrolled at al-Azhar University in 1866, Abduh studied logic, philosophy and Islamic mysticism at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo. He was a student of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, a philosopher, under al-Afghanis influence, Abduh combined journalism, politics, and his own fascination in Islamic mystical spirituality. Al-Afghani taught Abduh about the problems of Egypt and the Islamic world, in 1877, Abduh was granted the degree of Alim and he started to teach logic, theology and ethics at al-Azhar. In 1878, he was appointed professor of history at Cairos teachers training college Dar al-Ulum and he was also appointed to teach Arabic at the Khedivial School of Languages. Abduh was appointed editor and chief of al-Waqāʾiʿ al-Miṣriyya, the state newspaper. He was dedicated to reforming all aspects of Egyptian society and believed that education was the best way to achieve this goal. He was in favor of a religious education, which would strengthen a child’s morals, and a scientific education. In his articles he criticized corruption, superstition, and the lives of the rich. In 1879, due to his activity, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani was exiled. The following year he was granted control of the national gazette and used this as a means to spread his ideas. He was exiled from Egypt by the British in 1882 for six years and he had stated that every society should be allowed to choose a suitable form of government based on its history and its present circumstances. Abduh spent several years in Ottoman Lebanon, where he helped establish an Islamic educational system, in 1884 he moved to Paris, France where he joined al-Afghani in publishing The Firmest Bond, an Islamic revolutionary journal that promoted anti-British views
5.
Abdullah Quraishi Al-Azhari
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Maulana Abdullah Quraishi Al-Azhari was an Islamic scholar from Hyderabad, India. He served as the khateeb and imam of the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, Abdullah Quraishi was born to Abdur Raheem, in Dundigal, Andhra Pradesh, also an imam of the Mecca Masjid, on September 19,1935. Abdur Raheem had 5 other sons, Abdul Wahab, Maulana Abdullah Quraishi, Ali, Abdul Hai, Abdul Qayoom, Abdullah Quraishi used to reside in Panch Mohalla, which is near to the Mecca Masjid and adjacent to the Chowmahalla Palace in Hyderabad. Abdullah Quraishi Al-Azhari came to Hyderabad from Dundigal and started his studies as a student in Hifz, then he studied Metric from Aligarh Muslim University and Graduated from Osmania University. Then he completed Fazil in Jamia Nizamia and Academics from Nagpur University, Maulana then completed his M. Phil by research on Dawatul Islamia Al Maaasirah Fil Hind. The Government of India then decided to send him to Al-Azhar University in Egypt in 1964 where he completed Shahadatul Aliya and he stayed in Egypt for 8 years and also learned qirat from Sheikh Ibrahim Awad in Egypt and recited the Quran at many places on several occasions there. Abdullah Quraishi returned from Egypt in 1973 after completing his studies, after coming back to Hyderabad, the 8th Nizam, Nawab Mir Barkath Ali Khan was inspired with Maulanas Qirath and opened a school for teaching Quran with Tajweed. It was called Idaarah Mukarram Jah Dar-ut-Tajweed Wal Qirath, which was located in Purani Haweli and he is an Arabic Scholar and has also taught adab since 1978 and was Sheikh-Ul-Adab in Jamia Nizamia. He also served as the Vice Chancellor of Jamia Nizamia, Maulana has mastered Qirath from Qari Abdur Raheem, Qari Abdul Bari and Qari Kaleemullah Hussaini. He also learnt Qirath from Sheikh Ibrahim Awad in Egypt, Maulana has a unique way of reciting Qirath in which all the Tunes which are called Lehja in Arabic, can be completed in 5–7 minutes. He has won several awards all over the world for his Recitation, there are many Competitions that are being held globally, and his deciples also go to these competitions to represent him and also to win them. His sessions on Qirath are conducted everyday after Fajr and has been continuing since more than 30 years, the name of the Qirath school is Idaarah Mukarram Jah Dar-ut-Tajweed Wal Qirath, which was opened by the 8th Nizam of Hyderabad, after he was inspired by Maulanas Qirath. Below are the places where he has taught the Qirath, since then, Maulana has judged many Qirath competitions all over India, including Malaysia in 1974 and the Middle East. Maulana was a Sufi and became a disciple of Shah Ismail Hussaini Qadri Multani and he obtained Silsilah Chishtiya from Hazrath Syed Shah Noorullah Hussaini Ifteqari. Presently, Maulana has around 70-80 disciples who have been blessed with the Multani Silsilah and his service includes teaching of Islamic Adab, Literature, Hadees, Qirath, Tasawwuf and he was also Imam and Khateeb of Mecca Masjid where thousands of Muslims have prayed behind him. He has also been reciting Taraweeh in the Month of Ramadan and has always been reciting the Qutbah on the occasion of Eid in the ‘EidGah’, for these services, he was awarded for 50 Years of Service which was attended by thousands of people in Makkah Masjid in Hyderabad. There were many dignitaries along with the President and all lecturers of Jamia Nizamia, many dignitiaries from AIMIM including Asaduddin Owaisi were also present at this ceremony. Abdullah Quraishi had a cardiac attack in 2008, when he was delivering Taraweeh prayers in Masjid Mir Wazeer Ali in Hyderabad
6.
Suleiman al-Halabi
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He was tortured by burning his hand to the bone before being executed by impalement. Suleiman al-Halabi was born in 1777 in Kukan village, Afrin and his religious father, Mohammad Amin, worked in the profession of selling butter and olive oil. In 1797, al-Halabis father sent him to Cairo, Egypt to study Islamic sciences at Al-Azhar University, on June 14,1800, al-Halabi approached Klébers home in the guise of a beggar seeking an audience with Kléber. He was 23 years old when he assassinated the commander of the French campaign on Egyptian soil, after they shook hands, he violently pulled the general toward him and stabbed him four times with a stiletto. Klébers chief engineer tried to defend him and was stabbed but not mortally wounded and he hid in a nearby park where he was found by French soldiers, who searched him and found his stiletto. He was arrested and tortured, his right arm burnt to the bone while he denied any relationship with Sheikh Al-Sharkawi or the resistance movements. He was tried and sentenced to death by impalement, today his skull and stiletto are on display at the Musée de lHomme in Paris, under the caption, Criminal, written in French. An Arab nationalist play based on his assassination of General Kléber, in Farags interpretation, Al-Halabis motives have more to do with popular Arab revolt against foreign occupation and tyranny, rather than political assassination for financial gain. Http, //www. tirejafrin. com/s-alhalabee. htm http, //www. coptichistory. org/new_page_830. htm http, //www. coptichistory. org/new_page_831. htm Gazetteer Syrian Volume II page 668
7.
Syed Mujtaba Ali
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Syed Mujtaba Ali was a Bengali author, journalist, travel enthusiast, academician, scholar and linguist. He lived in Bangladesh, India, Germany, Afghanistan and Egypt, Ali was born in Karimganj in Sylhet district of Bengal Presidency. His father Syed Sikander Ali was a Sub-Registrar, Mujtaba was the youngest of the three brothers. One of his brothers were Syed Murtaza Ali, Mujtaba Ali passed the matriculation exam from Sylhet Government Pilot High School and intermediate exam from Sylhet MC College. He went to Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan and graduated in 1926 and he was among the first graduates of the university. He studied for a period in Aligarh Muslim University. Later, he moved to Kabul to work in the department as a professor. From 1929 to 1932 he went to Germany with Wilhelm Humboldt scholarship and studied at the universities in Berlin and he earned his PhD from University of Bonn with a dissertation on comparative religious studies on Khojas in 1932. Ali then studied at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo during 1934–1935 and he taught at colleges in Baroda and Bogra. After a brief stint at Calcutta University in 1950, he became Secretary of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, from 1952 to 1956 he worked for All India Radio at New Delhi, Cuttack and Patna. He then joined the faculty of Visva-Bharati University as professor of German language, after the Partition of India into India and Pakistan in 1947, Ali went from India to the then East Pakistan. He was one of the first to call for Bangla as East Pakistans state language on 30 November 1947 and he was a prominent activist and supporter of Bengali as the national language of East Pakistan. In 1948, being the principal of Azizul Huq College, Bogra, he wrote an essay, The State Language of East Pakistan, which was printed in Chaturanga of Kolkata. During that time, the West Pakistan Rulers tried to impose Urdu as the state language of East Pakistan while Bengali was spoken by most of the people. The government of Pakistan demanded an explanation, but Ali resigned and moved to India. The mother tongue of Ali was Bengali but he knew 15 languages – French, German, Italian, Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Hindi, Sanskrit, Marathi, Gujarati, Pashtu, alongside Jajabor, Ali was a trail-blazer of a unique category of Bengali writing. Ramya Rachana in the Bengali language, an anecdotal story-telling – often based on real-life experiences – became immensely popular, deshe Bideshe, the story of his journey to and experiences in Kabul during his brief stint as professor in a college there is one of Alis best works. Panchatantra is a collection of thoughts and short stories of his days in Europe, Cairo, in 1972, after the liberation of the country, Ali returned to Bangladesh
8.
Kareem Amer
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Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman Amer is an Egyptian blogger and former law student. He was arrested by Egyptian authorities for posts on his blog that were considered to be anti-religious and insulting to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. He was the first blogger in Egypt explicitly arrested for the content of his writing, and was released on November 17,2010, Kareem Amer, a secular Egyptian, completed elementary and secondary school at al-Azhar University. He wished to complete a degree, but family pressure forced him to enroll in al-Azhars Department of Sharia. In 2004, Amer began expressing his reformist views at Modern Discussion, by mid-2006, he discontinued publishing at Copts United because he accuses them of limiting his writings to only criticizing Muslims and not Copts as well. On October 26,2005, Amer was arrested for the first time by Egyptian state security agency Amn al-Dawla for anti-religious posts on his blog and he was detained for twelve days, and his books and personal writings were confiscated. Stand against anyone who thinks freely would end up in the dustbin of history and he also posted writings that promoted secularism and womens rights. Amer referred to the university as the university of terrorism and said that the institution stifles free thought, the Public Prosecutor told Amer that if he did not abandon his views, even though personal, he may be imprisoned. Nevertheless, Amer insisted on his right to freedom of expression, consequently, Egyptian prosecutors ordered that Amer be held in a detention center in Alexandria until November 22 at least. I expressed my opinion. the intention was not anything like these, defence lawyers argued that crimes related to the Internet were new in Egypt and that the penal code did not cover them. Prosecution lawyer Mohamed Dawoud stated, I want him to get the toughest punishment, if we leave the likes of him without punishment, it will be like a fire that consumes everything. The bloggers father, Nabil Sulaiman, mocked the human rights organizations tried to release his son. He called for applying Islamic Law allowing him to repent within three days before killing him if he not, according to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm. On February 22, the judge said Nabil was guilty and would serve three years for insulting Islam and inciting sedition, and one year for insulting Mr Mubarak, an appeals court upheld the sentence on March 13,2007. United States Congressmen Trent Franks and Barney Frank wrote to Egyptian Ambassador Nabil Fahmy regarding the arrest, congressman Franks also said, Democracies must allow for freedom of speech and certainly for the tolerance of diverse religious beliefs. I laud Mr. Amer’s recognition that violence in the name of religion is unacceptable, I urge the Egyptian government to free Mr. Amer and to protect its citizens from persecution. Amnesty International designated Amer a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned simply for exercising his right to freedom of expression, after Amers release, the organization called for Egypt to investigate his allegations that he was tortured while in custody. Human Rights Watch described Amers arrest as a precedent and called for his immediate release
9.
Abdullah ibn Muhammad Al ash-Sheikh
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Abdullah ibn Muhammad Al ash-Sheikh is the chairman of the Majlis ash-Shura of Saudi Arabia since 2009. He was the minister of Justice from February 1992 to February 2009, abdullah ibn Muhammad Al ash-Sheikh is a member of a noted family of Saudi religious scholars, the Al ash-Sheikh. He was born in Diriyah in 1948 and was educated by his father and he also studied the interpretation of the Quran and jurisprudence principles with the late Sheikh Abdulrazaq Afifi. He attended the Shariah College in Riyadh and graduated with a degree in Sharia in 1975. He then studied Sharia at Al-Azhar University in Cairo and returned to Saudi Arabia to obtain a degree in 1987. He earned his PhD degree in Fiqh from Imam Mohammed bin Saudi University in 1987, after obtaining his doctorate, Al ash-Sheikh became a lecturer and professor in the Sharia College of Imam Muhammed bin Saud Islamic University until his appointment as minister of justice. He replaced Muhammad Al Jubair as minister, on the instructions of the King, he drew up the judiary law of 2007. These reforms envisaged the creation of specialized courts to operate in parallel with the sharia courts. In effect, the reform may allow certain cases to be judged without reference to Sharia, another important aspect of the reform was the creation of a Supreme Court. The laws covering the reforms were passed in October 2007. He was replaced by Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Issa as justice minister on 14 February 2009 and it was reported that King Abdullahs objective in the re-shuffle was to replace conservative incumbents with younger, more progressive candidates. It was also reported that he was one of the conservatives in the cabinet replaced, later, he was appointed chairman of the Majlis ash Shura in 2009. He is a member of Council of Senior Ulema and the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs
10.
Abdullah Yusuf Azzam
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Abdullah Yusuf Azzam also known as Father of Global Jihad was a Palestinian Sunni Islamic scholar and theologian and founding member of al-Qaeda. Azzam preached both defensive and offensive jihad by Muslims to help the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet invaders and he raised funds, recruited and organised the international Islamic volunteer effort of Afghan Arabs through the 1980s, and emphasised the political aspects of Islam. Azzam was a teacher and mentor of Osama bin Laden and persuaded bin Laden to come to Afghanistan, as the war drew to an end, they both established al-Qaeda. He was also a co-founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Azzam was killed by a car bomb while within Peshawar, Pakistan. Azzam is described by most of his biographers as being intelligent as a child. He liked to read, excelled in class, and studied topics above his grade level, in the mid-1950s, Azzam joined the Muslim Brotherhood after being influenced by Shafiq Asad Abd al-Hadi, an elderly local teacher who was a member of the Brotherhood. Recognizing Azzams sharp mind, Shafiq Asad gave Azzam a religious education, Azzam became more interested in Islamic studies and started a study group in his village. Shafiq Asad then introduced Azzam to Muhammad Abd ar-Rahman Khalifa, the Muraqib Am of the Brotherhood in Jordan, Khalifa met with Azzam during several visits that he made to Silat al-Harithiya. During this part of his life, Azzam began reading the works of Hasan al-Banna, though he was a year younger than his classmates, he received good grades. After graduation from the college, students were sent out to teach at local schools, Azzam was sent to the village of Adir, near the town of Kerak in central Jordan. According to one of his biographers, Azzam had wanted a closer to home. After spending a year in Adir, Azzam returned to the West Bank and his colleagues in Burqin remembered him as being noticeably more religious than them. During breaks, while others ate, Azzam would sit and read the Quran, in 1963, Azzam enrolled in the Faculty of Sharia at the University of Damascus in Syria. While in Damascus, he met Islamic scholars and leaders including Shaykh Muhammad Adib Salih, Shaykh Said Hawwa, Shaykh Mohamed Said Ramadan Al-Bouti, Mullah Ramadan al-Buti, Azzams mentor, Shafiq Asad Abd al-Hadi died in 1964. This strengthened Azzams determination in working for the cause of Islam, during the holidays, Azzam would return to his village, where he would teach and preach in the mosque. Azzam graduated with highest honors in 1966, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Sharia, thereafter he returned to the West Bank, where he taught and preached in the region around his village. After the 1967 Six-Day War ended with the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank, Azzam and his left the West Bank. He is believed to have had a role as an ideologist in founding the Islamist Hamas movement in Palestine, Azzam then went to Egypt to continue Islamic studies at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University where he earned a masters degree in Sharia
11.
Hassan al-Banna
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Al-Bannas writings marked a watershed in Islamic intellectual history by presenting a modern ideology based on Islam. Al-Banna considered Islam to be a system of life, with the Quran as the only acceptable constitution. He called for Islamization of the state, the economy, al-Bannas ideology involved criticism of Western materialism, British imperialism, and the traditionalism of Egyptian ulema. He appealed to Egyptian and pan-Arab patriotism but rejected Arab nationalism, the Muslim Brotherhood advocated gradualist moral reform and had no plans for violent takeover of power. Jihad of the spirit was a key notion in their program, under al-Bannas leadership, the organization embarked on a wide-ranging campaign of social engagement with a particular emphasis on public health improvements. He allowed formation of a military wing which took part in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Al-Banna argued that the state should enforce Islamic public morality through censorship and application of corporal punishments. Nonetheless, his thought was open to Western ideas and some of his writings quote European authors instead of Islamic sources, al-Banna was assassinated by Egyptian secret police in 1949. His son-in-law Said Ramadan emerged as a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s. Hassan al-Banna was born on 14 October 1906 in Mahmudiyya, a rural Nile Delta town located northwest of Cairo in Beheira Governorate. His father, Sheikh Ahmad Abd al-Rahman al-Banna al-Saati, was a Hanbali imam, muezzin, and mosque teacher, Sheikh Ahmad was also known for his work as a Hanbali scholar, particularly his classifications of the traditions of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal al-Shaybani. These classifications became known as musnad al-fath al-rabbani, through this work, Sheikh Ahmad forged connections with Islamic scholars that proved useful when his son moved to Cairo in 1932. In addition to his exposure to Hanbali Puritanism, Hassan al-Banna was inspired by Rashid Ridas magazine. He was also influenced by Sufism as a youth in Mahmudiyya. He attended weekly Hadra and was a member of the al-Hassafiyya Sufi order, although al-Banna was only thirteen years old during the Egyptian Revolution of 1919, it was the event that first exposed him to Egyptian nationalist politics. In his personal accounts, al-Banna connected himself with the activism of the time. In spite of his age, al-Banna participated in demonstrations in Damanhur, self-published political pamphlets. However, during the 1920s economic crisis, the family had trouble sustaining the upkeep of their property, in Mahmudiyya, al-Banna studied in the village mosque with Sheikh Zahran
12.
Aleem Said Ahmad Basher
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Aleem Said Ahmad Basher is a Filipino-Muslim Alim, an active Islamic preacher, broadcaster, lecturer and Islamic consultant. He is the current chairman of the Imam Council of the Philippines, Aleem Said is known to be grateful and deferent even to dissimilar in faith. His active participation on various groups nationwide made him recognized in many organizations and he was also one of the 32 of the country’s top Islamic clerics who support the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III’s peace processes with Muslim rebel organizations. In 1951, Aleem Said was born, in Makkah, to Sheikh Ahmad and he was the second child and son among five children of Sheikh Ahmad to his first wife. He also has masters degree in administration and a bachelors degree in commerce both completed at the Manuel L. Quezon University respectively. Aleem Said is married to Saidah Sambarani, from a prominent family in Tamparan, being the former President of the Philippines Students Association in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt from 1995–1996, made him an effective leader in heading the federation in two years successively. Because of his exposure to being a cause oriented and a discipline leader, Aleem Said was inducted to KBP. In 2004, he was elected as member to the Board of Directors at the Agama Islam Society, Aleem Said adhered to the Sunni form of Islam. He is a pro-life and a peace advocator and he denounces terrorism, and describes violence in every form as un-Islamic that a real and true Muslim does not hurt innocent people. In 2005, a group of Maranao entrepreneurs living in Manila has elected Aleem Said as its Vice-President to their Manila Muslim Chamber of Commerce, though, the Peacemakers’ Circle was founded in July 1998 by Marites Guingona-Africa, niece of former Philippines Vice-President Teofisto Guingona. He is actively involved in dialogue, whether in private or public sector. Aleem Said also served as consultant during the recent National Forum on Zakat held at the SMX Convention Center. Paying zakat is one of Five Pillars of Islam and he explains that Quran has named the eight kinds of persons who should receive zakah, such as the Masako, fuqaraa, amil Zakah, VI sabi Tillah, gharimun, ibn as-Sabi l, Riyadh, and muAllaf. He also gives guidance on every before, during. In Ramadan, he cited the importance of adhering to the Sunnah of Islams prophet and he also emphasized that Eid’l Fitr was also a day for visiting relatives and friends and for making reconciliation. The eid means festival and adha means sacrifice and he also received plaques, certificates etc. both from government and NGO for his achievements, contribution to the community development and humanitarian activities. Http, //www. iamasab. com Sheikh Ahmad Bashir, founder of Jamiatu Muslim Mindanao Last Ten Days of Ramadhan by Aleem Said on YouTube Imam Council of the Philippines, moonsighting Committee Worldwide The Peacemakers Circle Foundation Inc. Directory of Experts/Resource Persons - Islam the Religion
13.
Soheib Bencheikh
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Soheib Bencheikh is an Islamic religious leader and author and would-be French politician. Bencheikh graduated in Islamic theology at Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt and he holds a doctorate in Religious Sciences from the École pratique des hautes études, Paris, France. He was nominated as Grand Mufti of Marseille, France, in 1995 by the Great Mosque of Paris and he is a member of the Conseil français du culte musulman since its creation in 2003. Bencheikh is an anti-fundamentalist religious leader and a supporter of an Islam eager. He also is acknowledged as a reformer Muslim theologian committed to interreligious dialogue and he has written two books Les Grandes Religions and Marianne et le Prophète, LIslam dans la France laïque, his famous book on the position and opportunities for Muslims in secular democracy. Among other modernist points of view, he stated that education is the best protection of womens honor, Bencheikh attempted to run for president in the French presidential election,2007 but failed to get the 500 endorsements needed in order to become an official candidate. He created the movement “Elan Républicain” specifically for this purpose, Islamic Modernism Soheib Bencheikh, Marianne et le Prophète, LIslam dans la France laïque, Paris, Grasset,1998
14.
Nasib al-Bitar
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Judge Shaikh Nasib Al Bitar was a Palestinian jurist, born in the city of Nablus in Palestine on June 13,1890 as the second son of Al Sayyed Said Al Bitar Al Husseini. He finished his education in Nablus on July 13,1902. He completed Al Rushdieh by 1905, for his college education he started in Nablus and then went to Al Azhar University in Cairo for his university degree. He then went to Istanbul for his education in Islamic Law. He finished as the First World War broke out, as a new graduate he was recruited by the Ottoman Army sent to the Military Cadet School and graduated as an officer. He served gallantly for about four years moving up the ranks, thus got his share of the First World War and he had served most of his military duty in Iraq. He then was appointed to Haifa in 1944, finally back to Jerusalem in 1946 as the Jerusalem Islamic Judge. When he died it was discovered that he was in the process of writing another book on the topic in Turkish. In 1986 Al Nahar Daily News Paper wrote about him quoting a paragraph from Ajjaj Nuweiheds book Men from Palestine, whenever he went to Nablus he was always invited to lead the prayers in the main mosque as a gesture of respect. He also was an expert in Arabic calligraphy and sometimes gave lessons of Al Khat Alarabi at Al Rawdah School in Jerusalem next to the court-house and he was a member of al-Muntada al-Adabi المنتدى الأدبي. He wrote poetry but never published it, he only exchanged reciting it with his friends in his Majlis مجلس. One day during the 1948 War and as a result of it, he felt a severe headache and felt very sick and he had to be taken to the Italian Hospital in Amman, Jordan. There he died on June 26,1948 and he was buried in Nablus his birthplace in Palestine. One astonishing fact was the death of Sheik Nasib and his wife Bahija and he died in 1948, She died in 1967, they both died during war-time. He died on June 26,1948, she died on June 26,1967. He died at the Italian Hospital in Amman, she died at the same hospital
15.
Malik R. Dahlan
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Prof. Dr. Malik Rabea Dahlan is an international mediator and academic specializing in international law and the politics of the Middle East. He has founded a number of policy, research and philanthropic organizations, and has written and advised on legislative affairs, defence, energy policies and he is also a UN Constitutional Expert, Oil and Gas selected by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq. He is currently a professor of international law and policy in London. Malik Rabea Dahlan was born 18 August 1979 to the Al Dahlan family of Makkah and he is of the Hashemite bloodline of Sayyid Ahmad Zayni Dahlan Jurisconsult of the Two Holy Mosques and Shafi’i Grand Imam of his time near the end of the Ottoman Empire. His mother, Huda Kayal, was an academic specializing in English literature at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah and his father, Dr. Rabea S Dahlan, served as Lieutenant Governor of the Emirate of Makkah from 1989 until 1999. He attended Belmont Hill School in Belmont, MA in the USA, Dahlan read civil law and jurisprudence at Al Al-Bayt University in Jordan and then at the University of Jordan in Amman, where he obtained his bachelors degree in law in 1999. In 2016, the University of Jordan decorated him as its 50th Anniversary Honorary Alumnus, Dahlan was also the first international student to receive the Harvard Law School Dean Leadership Award. He also obtained a degree in regional studies at the Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He attended Selwyn College at the University of Cambridge to train in English legal methods in 2007, Dahlan obtained his Habilitation professorial doctorate in jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University, Cairo, where he focused on statesmanship. He also headed the Middle Eastern practice of Washington, DC and he is well-known internationally as a Rule of Law advocate in the Middle East. He served as Special Advisor to The Rt, hon. Dahlan is the Founding Director of the Qatar Law Forum, inaugurated in 2009, to commemorate an international agenda under the banner of Global Commitment to the Rule of Law. Together with Wolf von Kumberg, a corporate counsel at Northrop Grumman. Dahlan is a director of the International Mediation Institute in The Hague. He was the first CEDR-accredited mediator from the Gulf and a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, in 2011, he led the US-Saudi Judicial Engagement Project to introduce Saudi judges to American methods on alternative dispute resolution. In 2009 and 2010, Dahlan advised the parliament of Iraq on the establishment of a hydrocarbon revenue-sharing framework and he served on the World Economic Forums Global Agenda Council on the Future of the Middle East. He was a trustee of the Arab British Centre and is an Advisory Board Member of the Beirut Institute and he is also a member of the society of fellows of the Aspen Institute and of Aspen Justice Associates. He developed the three-year Arab Governance Project with the Dubai School of Government in 2010, the project was aimed at improving the study of standards of governance and the application of the rule of law at regional and national levels. Dahlan established Institution Quraysh for Law & Policy in Doha in 2005, Dahlan stated that its purpose was to provide legal and policy advice to governments, non-governmental organizations and international corporations
16.
Aliko Dangote
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Aliko Dangote GCON is a Nigerian billionaire, who owns the Dangote Group, which has interests in commodities. The company operates in Nigeria and other African countries, including Benin, Ethiopia, Senegal, Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Togo, Tanzania, as of February 2017, he had an estimated net worth of US$12.5 billion. Dangote is ranked by Forbes magazine as the 67th richest person in the world and he surpassed Saudi-Ethiopian billionaire Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi in 2013 by over $2.6 billion to become the worlds richest person of African descent. Dangote hails from a prominent business family that lived in Nigeria for many years. He is the grand son of Alhaji Alhassan Dantata, the richest African at the time of his death in 1955. Aliko Dangote, an ethnic Hausa Muslim from Kano State, was born on 10 April 1957 into a wealthy Muslim family. Dangote said, I can remember when I was in school, I would go and buy cartons of sweets. I was so interested in business, even at that time, the Dangote Group was established as a small trading firm in 1977, the same year Dangote relocated to Lagos to expand the company. Today, it is a multi-trillion naira conglomerate with many of its operations in Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Dangote has expanded to cover food processing, cement manufacturing, and freight. The Dangote Group also dominates the market in Nigeria and is a major supplier to the countrys soft drink companies, breweries. The Dangote Group has moved from being a company to being the largest industrial group in Nigeria including Dangote Sugar Refinery, Dangote Cement. In July 2012, Dangote approached the Nigerian Ports Authorities to lease a piece of land at the Apapa Port. He later built facilities for his company there. In Nigeria today, Dangote Group with its dominance in the market and refinery business is the main supplier to the countrys soft drinks companies, breweries. It is the largest refinery in Africa and the third largest in the world, Dangote Group owns salt factories and flour mills and is a major importer of rice, fish, pasta, cement and fertiliser. The company exports cotton, cashew nuts, cocoa, sesame seed and it also has major investments in real estate, banking, transport, textiles and oil and gas. The company employs over 11,000 people and is the largest industrial conglomerate in West Africa, Dangote has diversified into telecommunications and has started building 14,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables to supply the whole of Nigeria. As a result, Dangote was honoured in January 2009 as the provider of employment in the Nigerian construction industry
17.
Harith al-Dhari
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Sheikh Harith Sulayman al-Dhari or Harith ibn Sulayman ibn Dhari al-Zobai al-shamri was an Iraqi Sunni Arab cleric, and chairman of the Association of Muslim Scholars. He is also leader of the Zoba tribe, an outspoken critic of the American invasion of Iraq, he is known as the Spiritual Leader of the Iraqi Resistance. Harith al-Dhari was educated at Al-Azhar University in Cairo and he later worked in the Islamic Law department of Baghdad University. This stance has won him support among Sunni Arabs and respect among the rebels, in May 2007 Al-Dhari did an interview with Time magazine, taking a stand in opposition to Al-Qaeda in Iraq, but also in opposition to the US occupation and the Maliki government. In July 2007 Al-Dhari did an interview with Al Jazeera Live channel, the governments policy is that anyone who tries to spread division and strife among the Iraq people will be chased by our security agencies. In his speech on July 2,2006, Osama Bin Laden praised Al-Dhari
18.
Essam el-Erian
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Dr. Essam Mohamed Hussein el-Erian {Arabic, عصام محمد حسين العريان) is an Egyptian physician and politician. He is the chairman of the Freedom And Justice party. Formerly he was a member of the Guidance Bureau of the Muslim Brotherhood and he was elected as a parliament member in the 2011-2012 Egyptian parliamentary elections. After the 2013 Egyptian coup, prosecutors ordered his arrest on 10 July 2013, on 14 July 2013 Egypts new prosecutor general Hisham Barakat ordered his assets to be frozen. El-Erian was arrested by the government on 30 October 2013, El-Erian was born on the 28th of April,1954. He graduated from the School of Medicine with honors in 1977 and he earned a masters degree in Pathology in 1986 from Cairo University. He also earned a bachelors in Islamic Studies and a bachelors in History from al-Azhar University respectively in 1999 and 2000. El-Erian was enrolled for a doctorate at Cairo University and for a degree in common law at the same university. For many years he a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and served on its Guidance Bureau before being the chairman of the freedom. El-Erian was arrested in 1981, during the famous September arrests that targeted members of Islamist groups in large numbers. He was then tried in a court for the members of the Muslim Brotherhood. He was imprisoned from 1995-2000, for a span of five years, the last one that he has been arrested was before the Friday of anger on 28 January 2011 during the Egyptian revolution. He was elected as a member of the board of directors of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate since 1986 until now with being the assistant of the secretary of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate. Also El-Erian is a member of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights. Erian stated that although his party was against Zionism, it was not against the Jews, stating that they have a complicated history, but the Jewish motherland is not Israel
19.
Khalifa Ezzat
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Khalifa Ezzat is the chief Imam and head of religious affairs at the London Central Mosque. He is a member of the Islamic Sharia Council and he participates in many interfaith meetings and conferences and seminars about Islam and the Arabic language. After completing his preparatory and secondary schooling in the Al-Azhar system, later, he completed his masters degree in Islamic studies SOAS, University of London. He is currently a PhD researcher, upon graduation, he worked as an Imam and translator in Egypt for nearly five years. In 2005, he was appointed by the Egyptian Ministry of Awqaf to be an Imam at Londons Central Mosque, sheikh Ezzat was among the cohort that welcomed the Duke of York to the London Central Mosque in June 2012. The event was organised by the Maimonides Foundation, Ezzat has translated around twenty books about Islam into English, published in Cairo and London. He has also authored a number of his own works, including, a selection of his Friday sermons can also be found online
20.
Ismail al-Faruqi
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Ismail Raji al-Faruqi, was a Palestinian-American philosopher, widely recognised by his peers as an authority on Islam and comparative religion. He spent several years at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, then taught at universities in North America. He was Professor of Religion at Temple University, where he founded and chaired the Islamic Studies program, al-Faruqi was also the founder of the International Institute of Islamic Thought. He also established the Islamic Studies Group of the American Academy of Religion and he served as the vice-president of the Inter-Religious Peace Colloquium, The Muslim-Jewish-Christian Conference and as the president of the American Islamic College in Chicago. Al-Faruqi and his wife, Lois Lamya al-Faruqi, were stabbed to death in their home in Wyncote, al-Faruqi was born in Jaffa, in British-mandate Palestine. His father, Abd al-Huda al-Faruqi, was an Islamic judge, Faruqi received his religious education at home from his father and in the local mosque. He began to attend the French Dominican College Des Frères in 1936 and his dissertation was deeply influenced by the phenomenology of Max Scheler, particularly the latters notion of axiological intuitionism. Al-Faruqi argued that Schelers axiological intuitionism privileged feeling as knowing, thus recognizing the logic of the heart as an a priori intuition of value. Such recognition could justify carving out a conceptual as well as space for the emergence of a critique of post-Enlightenment Reason from the standpoint of a non-Western philosopher. However, he decided to return to Indiana University, he submitted his thesis to the Department of Philosophy, by then he had a background in classical philosophy and the developing thought of the western tradition. In the beginning of 1953, he and his wife were in Syria and he then moved to Egypt, where he studied at Al-Azhar University again with a view to acquiring another PhD. In 1958, al-Faruqi was offered a position as a fellow at the Faculty of Divinity at McGill University in Canada. During his two-year tenure at McGill, he studied Christian theology and Judaism, during these years, al-Faruqi was preoccupied with his anti-Zionist Arab identity. Rahman reminisced in 1986 that al-Faruqis blunt anti-Zionism and his refusal to play the detached scholar frightened his McGill colleagues, although he was soft-spoken with unfailing smiles, at McGill he was considered to be, in Rahmans words, an angry young Muslim Palestinian. Rahman intended to expose al-Faruqi to the diversity of Muslims. Except, Rahman later recalled, it was his Arabism which drew a great deal of fire both inside and outside the Institute, as well as his preference for Cairo. In 1963, after returning to the United States, he was hired as a professor at the University of Chicagos Divinity School. Between 1964 and 1968, al-Faruqi established himself as a professor at the Department of Religion at Syracuse University
