Yaser M. Haddara

Al-hamdulillah several people seemed to enjoy reading about to Dr. Mohammad Natsir. One comment lamented the absence of North American Muslim figures of a similar caliber. I think this is a sentiment most of us would share. Having said that, I believe that we unfortunately underestimate the great men and women that contributed so much to building a Muslim community in North America. Just to mention a couple of examples, Imam Warith Deen Muhammad’s struggle to lead people from a particular type of ignorance into the light of Islam required much courage and personal sacrifice. Imam Siraj Wahhaj’s campaign to close the crack houses in Brooklyn are legendary among those that still remember them. Dr. Ahmed El-Kadi is a name most of the readers of this blog won’t be familiar with but his sacrifices, his generosity, and his strength have left their mark on the entire North American Muslim community, even as we fail to realize or acknowledge their impact, Dr. Ismail Raji al-Faruqui gave his life for his cause. Most of us only know Dr. Jamal Badawi as a lecturer and speaker, but his contributions both in the intellectual arena and that of activism are far beyond that. Among the women we may wish to explore the contributions of Srs. Iman El-Kadi and Lamia Faruqui.

I could go on listing names. Unfortunately, I do not know enough about the people that I have mentioned. I pray and I hope that as we continue to mature as a community we will learn how to study our own selves. I pray and I hope that there will come a time when the lives of our heroes in the struggle for community are studied, documented, and held up for inspiration. In the meantime, the list above is meant to be neither exhaustive nor representative. Initially I was not going to list anyone, but I could not see how I else could communicate the knowledge that we do have our own homegrown heroes and role models, if we but knew them. There are countless others who lived before, with, and after the examples I list above. There are those whose contributions are leaving their mark on the community day by day. As always, we pray, and we hope. But we should also learn, and we should strive.
And so I want to continue to play my part. So for now, I went back to the book I mentioned before and chose another outstanding character. It is always difficult for an author to convey the greatness of an individual to those that were not contemporary with him, did not meet him, were not directly impacted by his charisma. To try and give some idea of the greatness of the man we’ll talk about here, think about two things:

1. Al-Azhar has had rectors (grand Imams) since the 1600’s (the first shaykh-ul-Azhar passed away in 1690). Of the 49 times that the position has been held, the majority were selected by the scholars of al-Azhar themselves. At some point in the last thirty years (not exactly sure when) the position became a governmental appointment. Of the 40+ times that the Grand Imam was elected by the scholars of al-Azhar, exactly one shaykh was from outside Egypt: sh. Muhammad al-Khidr Hussein, who was Tunisian.
2. If you consider the greatness of students to be a measure of the greatness of the teacher, consider that sh. al-Khidr claims among his students sh. Sha’rawy, sh. Abdel-Fattah Abou Ghudda, and sh. Abdel-Hamid ibn Badis, just to name a few.

Sh. al-Khidr was born in Nafta, Tunisia, in 1876. He memorized the Quran before he was 12 years old, and moved with his family to the capital city, Tunis, in 1888. He then enrolled in al-Zaytouna and studied with some of its leading scholars including his own maternal uncle sh. Muhammad al-Makki ibn Azzouz.

With religious passion and patriotism sheikh al-Khidr turned to anti-colonialist activism. In 1903 he established a magazine called al-Sa’aada al-’Udhma (Ultimate Happiness). The magazine was dedicated to the exposition of Islam and the exposure of colonialism. Two years later it was shut down by French colonial authorities.

Career wise, sheikh al-Khidr became a judge, then resigned that post and settled into teaching at al-Zaytouna. Colonial authorities pursued him for his activism so he escaped to Damascus in 1911, stayed there at length, teaching in al-Sultaniyya. However he had to leave Syria when the French occupied it and he became persona non grata. He settled in Egypt in 1920.

In Egypt he became friends with Ahmed Taymour Pasha and Ustadh Muhibb-ud-Deen al-Khateeb, two leading figures in the efforts for re-awakening the ummah, rejuvenating the intellectual traditions of Islam, and addressing the challenge of colonialism. He quickly became a leading champion of Islamic intellectual forces and wrote two scholarly works responding to Aly Abdel Raziq and Taha Hussein, two authors that, each in his own way, had written books attacking fundamental Islamic concepts and promoting secularism and an abandonment of the Islamic heritage.

Sheikh al-Khidr decided to sit for the final examination from al-Azhar to obtain the degree of ‘aalimiyya (roughly equivalent to a Ph.D.). The examiners were so impressed with his erudition, one of them (sheikh Abdel-Hamid al-Labban) described him as an “ocean without shores”. With the degree from al-Azhar he was counted as one of its scholars and began to teach in al-Azhar.

During the twenties and the thirties sheikh al-Khidr was concerned, together with the leading Islamic intellectuals of his time, with the state of the ummah intellectually, socially, and spiritually. Together with Muhibb-ud-Deen al-Khatib, sh. Rashid Rida, Ahmed Taymour Pasha, and others they championed efforts to address missionary efforts in Egypt and to challenge British colonial authorities as well as the corruption of the ruling class. He was one of several advisors that Imam Hasan al-Banna went to as a young man to rally scholars in defense of Islamic values, and that al-Banna consulted in his activism and establishing al-Ikhwan al-Muslimoon. During that period, sheikh al-Khidr and his friends Taymour Pasha and Muhibb-ud-Deen al-Khatib founded a social organization, Young Muslim Men’s Society (jam’iyyat al-shubbaan al-muslimeen). He also established a society that he called the Islamic Guidance Society and was responsible for the publication or editorship of three Islamic magazines.

In recognition of his scholarship, he was selected as a member of the newly-established Assembly for the Arabic Language (majma’ al-lugha al-’arabiyya). In continuation of his activism he established and headed a Society for the Defense of North Africa that became home to the leaders of patriotic struggles in Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.

In 1951 he was selected as shaykh-ul-Azhar. By 1953 he resigned in protest of the excesses of Nasser’s regime and his government’s attempts to bring pressure to bear on al-Azhar to support him in his stances, particularly against al-ikhwan. Shaikh al-Uqayl (the author of the book that includes this bio) was studying in al-Azhar during that period and came to know the sheikh personally, to meet with him, to study with him, and see up close the factors that influenced his decision. He says, “To speak of this erudite scholar, who kept himself away from going along with those propagating injustice or running with the tyrannical and insignificant, is to speak of manhood in truest meaning, and of scholarship in its most beautiful suit. Those that lead the circles of knowledge have a duty to keep them honored. Those that wear the mantle of scholarship should be more apt to recognize the value of scholarship and the dignity of the scholar. That was our revered teacher Muhammad al-Khidr Hussain, who brought to life by his stands the example of the real men among scholars old and new.”

Other than his books mentioned above rebutting the efforts of the secularists, most of the sheikh’s scholarship and publications dealt with the Arabic language and its constructs. His courage, his activism, and his character served as a role model for the young people from all over the Islamic World that had come to study in al-Azhar. And his courage against Nasser stood out in a time when men with stronger bodies but weaker souls ran away from tribulation.

Sheikh Muhammad al-Khidr Hussain passed away in 1957 and was buried in the cemetery of the Taymour family in Egypt. May Allah reward him with jannah and bring us together with him on the Day of Judgment.