Yusuf al-Qaradawi facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Sheikh Prof. Dr.Yusuf 'Abdullah al-Qaradawi يوسف عبد الله القرضاوي |
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Yusuf al-Qaradawi in 2006
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| Religion | Islam |
| Denomination | Sunni |
| Alma mater | Al-Azhar University (Cairo, Egypt)
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| Personal | |
| Born | Yusuf 'Abdullah al-Qaradawi 9 September 1926 Saft Turab, Kingdom of Egypt |
| Died | 26 September 2022 (aged 96) Doha, Qatar |
| Children | Abdul Rahman Yusuf Ilham Al-Qaradawi |
| Senior posting | |
| Title | Sheikh |
| Religious career | |
| Works | Fiqh al-Zakat, al-Halal wa al-Haram fi al-Islam, Fiqh al-Jihad, Fiqh al-Awlawiyyat, Fiqh al-Dawlah, Madkhal li-Ma'rifat al-Islam and others |
| Influenced | Rashid Al-Ghannushi, M.A.M. Mansoor |
| Website | al-qaradawi.net |
Yusuf al-Qaradawi (Arabic: يوسف القرضاوي, romanized: Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī; or Yusuf al-Qardawi; 9 September 1926 – 26 September 2022) was an Egyptian Islamic scholar based in Doha, Qatar, and chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars. His influences included Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn Qayyim, Sayyid Rashid Rida, Hassan al-Banna, Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi, Abul A'la Maududi and Naeem Siddiqui. He was best known for his programme الشريعة والحياة, al-Sharīʿa wa al-Ḥayāh ("Sharia and Life"), broadcast on Al Jazeera, which had an estimated audience of 40–60 million worldwide. He was also known for IslamOnline, a website he helped to found in 1997 and for which he served as chief religious scholar.
Al-Qaradawi published more than 120 books, including The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam and Islam: The Future Civilization. He also received eight international prizes for his contributions to Islamic scholarship, and was considered one of the most influential Islamic scholars living. Al-Qaradawi had a prominent role within the intellectual leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Egyptian political organization, although he repeatedly stated that he was no longer a member and twice (in 1976 and 2004) turned down offers for the official role in the organization.
Al-Qaradawi was sometimes described as a "moderate Islamist". Some of his views, caused reactions from governments in the West: he was refused an entry visa to the United Kingdom in 2008, and barred from entering France in 2012.
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Biography
In Egypt
Al-Qaradawi was born in 1926 in Saft Turab rural village in the Nile Delta, now in Gharbia Governorate, Egypt, into a poor family of devout Muslim peasants. He became an orphan at the age of two, when he lost his father. Following his father's death, he was raised by his uncle. He read and memorized the entire Quran by the time he was nine years old.
He then joined the Institute of Religious Studies at Tanta, and graduated after nine years of study. While in Tanta, Al-Qaradawi first encountered Hassan al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, when al Banna gave a lecture at his school. Al-Qaradawi has written of the lasting impact of this encounter, describing al Banna as "brilliantly radiating, as if his words were revelation or live coals from the light of prophecy."
After graduating from the Institute of Religious Studies he moved on to study Islamic Theology at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, from which he graduated in 1953. He earned a diploma in Arabic Language and Literature in 1958 at the Advanced Arabic Studies Institute. He enrolled in the graduate program in the Department of Quran and Sunnah Sciences of the Faculty of Religion's Fundamentals (Usul al-Din), and graduated with a master's degree in Quranic Studies in 1960. In 1962, he was sent by Al-Azhar University to Qatar to head the Qatari Secondary Institute of Religious Studies. He completed his PhD thesis titled Zakah and its effect on solving social problems in 1973 with First Merit and was awarded his PhD degree from Al-Azhar.
His connection with the Muslim Brotherhood led to imprisonment under King Farouq in 1949, then three more times during the term of President Gamal Abdul Nasser. He left Egypt for Qatar in 1961, and did not return until the overthrow of the military regime by the 2011 Egyptian Revolution.
Based in Qatar
In 1977, he laid the foundation for the Faculty of Shari'ah and Islamic Studies at the University of Qatar and became the faculty's dean. In the same year he founded the Centre of Seerah and Sunna Research. He also served at Egypt's Institute of Imams under the Ministry of Religious Endowments as supervisor before moving back to Doha as Dean of the Islamic Department at the Faculties of Shariah and Education in Qatar, where he continued until 1990. His next appointment was in Algeria as Chairman of the Scientific Council of Islamic University and Higher Institutions in 1990–91. He returned to Qatar once more as Director of the Seerah and Sunnah Center at Qatar University.
In 1997, Al-Qaradawi helped found the European Council for Fatwa and Research, a council of important and influential Muslim scholars dedicated to researching and writing fatwas in support of Western Muslim minority communities based in Ireland, and he served as its head. He also served as the chairman of International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS).
In the wake of the 2011 Revolution he returned to Egypt for the first time since leaving in 1961.
Al-Qaradawi was a principal shareholder and former Sharia adviser to Bank Al-Taqwa. On 2 August 2010, the bank was removed from a list of entities and individuals associated with Al Qaeda maintained by the United Nations Security Council.
Al-Qaradawi finished third in a 2008 poll on who was the world's leading public intellectual. The poll, Top 100 Public Intellectuals, was conducted among readers of Prospect Magazine (UK) and Foreign Policy (United States).
2011 return to Egypt
After the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, Qaradawi made his first public appearance in Egypt after 1981. In Tahrir Square, he led Friday prayers on 18 February, addressing an audience estimated to exceed two million Egyptians. It began with an address of "O Muslims and Copts", referring to Egypt's Coptic Christian minority instead of the customary opening for Islamic Friday sermons "O Muslims". He was reported to have said, "Egyptian people are like the genie who came out of the lamp and who have been in prison for 30 years." He also demanded the release of political prisoners in Egyptian prisons, praised the Copts for protecting Muslims in their Friday prayer, and called for the new military rulers to quickly restore civilian rule. He referred to Hosni Mubarak as "the tyrannical pharaoh". In the sermon, Qaradawi called for the immediate release of political prisoners, the dissolution of the cabinet of Mubarak loyalists, and an end to the economic blockade of Gaza.
Brookings Institution member Shadi Hamid says that Qaradawi is in the mainstream of Egyptian society, and that he also has appeal among Egyptians who are not Islamist. He described the sermon as "nonsectarian" and "broadly political". In the Jerusalem Post, Barry Rubin wrote that although he is seen as a moderate by some in the West, he supports the straight Islamist line. Qaradawi is seen as a danger by Rubin because he is a charismatic thinker who could easily mobilise the masses. The author is concerned that Qaradawi will take over Egypt and that this will have negative consequences for Israel.
Death
On the afternoon of 26 September 2022, Qaradawi died at the age of 96.
Personal life
Al-Qaradawi was born in Egypt but lived in Qatar. He had three sons and four daughters, three of whom hold doctorates from British Universities. His daughter, Ilham Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, is an internationally recognized nuclear scientist. His son, Abdulrahman Yusuf al-Qaradawi, is a poet and a political activist in Egypt.
Awards and recognition
Al-Qaradawi has been awarded by various countries and institutions for his contributions to Islamic society. Among them are
- The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Prize in Islamic Economics – 1991
- King Faisal International Prize for Islamic Studies – 1994
- Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah (Sultan of Brunei) Award for Islamic Jurisprudence – 1997
- Sultan Al Owais Award for Cultural & Scientific Achievements – 1998–1999
- Dubai International Holy Quran Award for Islamic Personality of the Year – 2000
- The State Acknowledgement Award for contributions in the field of Islamic Studies from the Government of Qatar – 2008
- Tokoh Ma'al Hijrah (Hijra of the Prophet) award by the Malaysian Government −2009
The Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies, part of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, instituted the "Sheikh Yusuf Al Qaradawi Scholarships" in 2009, awarding them to five students each year for post-graduate studies. It also named after him its newly established research centre, The Qaradawi Center for Islamic Moderation and Renewal.
The State Merit Prize for Islamic Studies was issued to Qaradawi by the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage of Qatar on 3 November 2009.
He is a trustee of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and has been named as the technical consultant for a multimillion-dollar English-language film about Mohammed, produced by Barrie Osborne. A 2008 Foreign Policy online poll put him at No.3 in the list of the Top 20 Public Intellectuals worldwide.
Books
Al-Qaradawi has authored more than 120 books and his academic style and objective thought are considered to be some of the main characteristics of his works. His most famous work is The Lawful and Prohibited in Islam. Professor Mustafa al-Zarqa declared that owning a copy of it was "the duty of every Muslim family".
Fiqh al-Zakat
His book Fiqh al-Zakat is considered by some as the most comprehensive work in the area of zakat. Abul Ala Maududi commented on it as "the book of this century in Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh)" The prominent Deobandi Islamic scholar Muhammad Taqi Usmani, said this about the work:
The first book that read in its entirety of his works is his valuable book Fiqh al-Zakat, and I benefitted much from this great, encyclopedic, rewarding work through which the author did a great service to the second of the pillars of Islam, in a way that the umma needs today, when it comes to the application of zakat at the level of the individual and the group. Indeed this work manifested the genius of its author, and his inventive methodology, not only in the clarification of issues pertaining to zakat and their compilation, but in stimulating research in contemporary topics that no one before him had touched upon, and basing them upon the principles fiqh and its jurisprudential theory.
Fiqh al-Jihad
His book Fiqh al-Jihad has been widely commented on. The Guardian writes:
Instead Qaradawi encourages a "middle way" conception of jihad: "solidarity" with the Palestinians and others on the front line, rather than violence, is an obligatory form of jihad. Financial jihad, which corresponds with the obligation of alms giving (zakat), counts as well. And Muslims should recognise that technological change means that media and information systems are as much a part of the jihadist repertoire as are guns. Indeed, as long as Muslims are free to use media and other resources to press their case, there is no justification for using force to "open" countries for Islam.
This book has also been analyzed by University of Southern California professor Sherman Jackson and Tunisian Islamist scholar-politician Rachid Ghannouchi.
His views on jihad have attracted criticism from some hard line groups.
See also
In Spanish: Yusuf al-Qaradawi para niños
