Ali Al-Qaradaghi, President of the International Union of Muslim Scholars | Encyclopedia

Professor Ali Al-Qara Daghi is a jurist, thinker, economist, scientist, thinker, and intellectual. He was born in 1949, and graduated in academic studies until he obtained a professorship in 1995. He worked as a professor and head of a department at Qatar University, taught in a number of institutes and colleges, and worked in the fatwa and Sharia oversight bodies in a number of countries. One of the Islamic banks, financing and investment companies, and has made significant contributions in the relief field.

On January 9, 2024, Sheikh Ali Al-Qaradaghi was elected President ofThe International Union of Muslim Scholarsn by a majority of votes, after the Sheikh had been Secretary-General of the Union since 2010.

Birth and upbringing

Sheikh Ali Muhyiddin Al-Qaradaghi was born in 1949 in the Qaradagh region of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate in Iraqi Kurdistan, to a noble religious scholarly family whose lineage goes back to Hussein. He grew up in a religious environment from which he learned the principles of the Islamic religion, influenced by his mother, who was keen to raise him and his siblings to memorize… The Holy Qur’an and doctrine, and Al-Qaradaghi mentions that his mother always called for him to be a servant of religion like Imam Al-Shafi’i.

He was also influenced by his father, Muhyi al-Din al-Qaradaghi, whom he describes as having strength, determination, and firmness in truth and generosity. His father guided him to read and study two books, namely “Ihya Ulum al-Din” by the Imam. Al-GhazaliAnd a book of beliefs Ebn Taimia. Likewise, his uncle, Sheikh Najm al-Din, left an impact on his life. His uncle was a scholar, so he studied under him and learned from his morals. Al-Qaradaghi mentions that he learned from his uncle forbearance, humility, gentleness, calmness, and acceptance of others. His uncle, Mustafa Al-Qara Daghi, left an impact on Ali’s life. His uncle was a scholar, judge, and jurist. He directed him to memorize some books and learn from them, and encouraged him to learn, learn, and strive.

He moved to Egypt to study, then to Qatar to work, where he settled and obtained Qatari citizenship.

Study and scientific training

The Sheikh memorized the Holy Qur’an at the hands of his family before moving to Sulaymaniyah He studied at the hands of a group of its scholars, led by his uncle Sheikh Najm al-Din al-Qara Daghi and his uncle Sheikh Mustafa al-Qara Daghi. Then he moved to Baghdad to continue his studentship at the hands of scholars there, such as Sheikh Abdul Karim Muhammad al-Mudarres and Sheikh Abdul Qadir al-Khatib.

In addition to legal science, he studied Arabic poetry, Kurdish poetry, and Persian poetry, and he memorized many poems during his studies.

He obtained an academic degree from a number of senior scholars in 1970, and graduated from the Islamic Institute with distinction, ranking first in the region. He then continued his studies at the Great Imam College in Baghdad, where he graduated with distinction in 1975.

He traveled to Egypt to complete graduate studies at the Faculty of Sharia and Law at Al-Azhar Mosque, where he obtained a master’s degree in comparative jurisprudence and law at Al-Azhar University in 1980, then a doctorate in contracts and financial transactions at the Faculty of Sharia and Law from the same university in 1985, when he defended his thesis. Tagged with “The Principle of Consent in Islamic Sharia and Civil Law,” it included a study of the eight schools of jurisprudence and Roman, English, French, Egyptian, and Iraqi laws. The committee recommended that it be printed and translated into international languages.

Religious and practical experience

Sheikh Al-Qaradaghi joined the teaching staff at the College of Sharia in Qatar in 1985, became an assistant professor at the college in 1990, then was promoted to become a professor in 1995. The Sheikh taught at Qatar University for more than a quarter of a century, and also taught in various other colleges and institutes. .

He contributed to establishing a number of charitable institutions, and worked in the fields of relief and support for refugees and displaced persons, sponsoring orphans, and building mosques and hospitals.

He founded and co-founded a number of charitable organizations and international Islamic jurisprudential bodies. He participated in a large number of local and international scientific conferences and seminars.

He played a role in reconciliations and establishing security in a number of issues and countries, such as the Republic of Dagestan, Ingushetia, and Chechnya. He was part of the delegation of the Union of Muslim Scholars in mediating between the Yemeni government and the Houthis in 2010 to end the conflict.

He also headed a mediation delegation between the Kyrgyz and Uzbek peoples in Kyrgyzstan, and the delegation was able to reach reconciliation between the two tribes and end the state of conflict and internal fighting.

Personalities who influenced the sheikh

Sheikh Qaradaghi narrates that one of the figures who was influenced by them and their ideas was the Imam Hassan Al Banna As his books and ideas reached him, he was also influenced by ideas Sayyed Qutb And his books, too Mustafa Al-Sebaei His books, Sheikh Abd al-Halim Mahmoud and his books, Sheikh Hassan Habanka and his son Abd al-Rahman Habanka and their books and positions in support of moderate Islamic movements, and also the ideas of Professors Abu al-Ali al-Mawdudi and Abu al-Hasan al-Nadawi, in addition to other scholars.

Among Iraqi scholars, Al-Qaradaghi mentions that he was influenced by a group of scholars, headed by Sheikh Amjad Al-Zahawi, the jurist Abdul Karim Zaydan, Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Al-Rashid, Sheikh Kamal Al-Din Al-Tai and other Iraqi scholars.

Qara Daghi thought

Al-Qaradaghi believes that culture is education, that is, teaching how a person is a human being. According to his view, it is primarily refinement, and civilized culture for him is the presence based on free choice based on values ​​that belong and elevate. Al-Qaradaghi says about this, “When a person is pious, righteous, reformative, and useful.” And justly, the reconstruction and succession movement will be consistent with what God Almighty wants of comprehensive justice, beneficial reconstruction for all, empowerment of goodness, prevention of evil, injustice, and aggression against humans, the environment, and animals, and directing scientific, economic, and military power to achieve these goals.

He believes that preserving man and developing his mind and thought are among the greatest goals of Sharia law. He says, “And among the greatest care of God Almighty for man is that He made preserving man himself and his mind and developing them two great goals of His Sharia law. Rather, he gave them precedence over the performance of devotional rituals in cases of duress or incapacity.” , or hardship, so the honor of medicine goes back to the honor of its subject, which is the human body, mind, and soul, and accordingly it takes that honor and status.”

Al-Qaradaghi believes that in order for a Muslim to understand, analyze, and direct reality, his effort, awareness, and thought must be based on comprehensive development, not on justification discourse, foolish religiosity, or extremist secularism.

The director of his media office, Alaa Al Rashi, says, “Dr. Ali’s ideas flow from the source of Islam, contribute to preventing one from falling into a bad cycle, and facilitate the worship of understanding with mechanisms that live identity, without being captivated by history, adhere to values ​​without quarreling with the present, and write the future without being captivated by history.” Jump above reality.

Founder of the jurisprudence of balance

Al-Qur Daghi founded the jurisprudence of the balance and wrote a book called “The jurisprudence of the balance as a standard for understanding the Qur’an and the Sunnah and removing the shortcomings and differences.” It is a fundamental analytical study of the jurisprudence of the balance and its impact on the understanding of Sharia. He mentions in the introduction to his book that he was preoccupied with the subject of the jurisprudence of the balance for more than a quarter of a century, when A question came to his mind while he was reading Surat Al-Hadid, so he stopped at the verse: “We have sent Our messengers with clear proofs, and We sent down with them the Book and the Balance, so that the people may maintain justice, and We sent down iron, in which there is great might and benefits for the people, and that God might know who will support Him and His messengers in the unseen. Indeed, God is Powerful, Mighty.” So the Sheikh paid attention to the concept of achieving justice by the Book and the Balance. Together, he began searching for the concept of the scale by which justice is achieved with the book.

After researching books and interpretations and extensive study, as he mentioned in his book, he reached the conclusion that the balance is the most important criterion for understanding Sharia law in a correct and profound way, and he arrived at the conclusion that the jurisprudence of the balance has several meanings, and what is meant by it is knowing the scales by which the chapters of Islam are weighed as a doctrine, law, and way of life. And dealing with the chapters according to their respective scales and knowing the weights of actions and Sharia rulings and weighing them through the two sides of the scale to reach balanced jurisprudence and balanced thought, according to his explanation of the concept and the results he reached.

In his book, he explained the concepts of scales and their divisions, and clarified the idea that everything in this universe proceeds according to precise scales, citing the verse from Surat Al-Hijr: “And We have spread the earth and cast in it firm mountains and caused to grow therein every thing in balance.”

The Sheikh also considered the jurisprudence of the balance to be a key to understanding Sharia law, and classified it as a science of principles, not a science of branches in Islamic law. He stated that the extent of the scales is explained in the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet, and Al-Qarah Daghi believes that “the jurisprudence of the balance is the jurisprudence that is balanced, without excess or negligence, nor addition or subtraction.”

Presidency of the International Union of Muslim Scholars

On the third day of the sixth session of the General Assembly meeting of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which was held in Doha, Qatar on January 6, 2024, an election process was launched for the Union’s General Assembly with the aim of electing the president of the Union, his deputies, and members of the Board of Trustees, in the presence of 651 scholars from various countries. The elections resulted in the election of Sheikh Ali Al-Qaradaghi as President of the International Union of Muslim Scholars after obtaining 91.51% of the votes on January 9, 2024.

Jobs and positions

The Sheikh worked in a number of jobs and positions, including:

• Professor and Head of the Department of Jurisprudence and Principles at the College of Sharia, Law and Islamic Studies at Qatar University.
• Founder and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Human Development in Iraqi Kurdistan.
• Executive member of the Fatwa and Sharia Supervisory Board for a number of Islamic banks and Islamic insurance companies inside Qatar.
• An expert at the Islamic Jurisprudence Academy of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Jeddah.
• Secretary-General of the International Union of Muslim Scholars.
• Vice President of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, 2010-2018.
• Vice Chairman of the International Contact Group for Peace and Moderation.
• Member of the Association of Sharia Scholars in Islamic Finance.
• President of the International Union of Muslim Scholars in 2024.

Achievements

The Sheikh wrote more than 30 books specialized in religious sciences and jurisprudence, including:

• Islamic Takaful Insurance – a fundamental jurisprudential study compared to commercial insurance.
• Banking securitization.
• The global financial crisis – studying its causes, effects, and the future of capitalism after it.
• A student’s portfolio of Islamic economics and Islamic financial transactions (12 volumes).
• We and the Other is a foundational jurisprudential study to clarify the Muslim’s relationship with others.
• Introduction to Islamic economics.
• Jurisprudence of contemporary medical issues.

In addition to more than 100 research papers, most of which are on Islamic financial transactions, banking and economics, Islamic jurisprudence, book review, and Islamic thought.

Gifts and decorations

Sheikh Ali Al-Qaradaghi received a number of awards and honors, including:

• Weqaya Award for Outstanding Scientific Research in Takaful Insurance in Riyadh in 2011.
• Ajman Award 2001, an award allocated to international figures who played a major role in community service.
• The State Encouragement Award in Comparative Islamic Jurisprudence, granted by the State of Qatar to those distinguished in various sciences.
• Medal of Honor from the President of the Republic of Ingushetia.
• Medal of Honor from the Mufti of the Russian Federation.
• A number of scientific awards from Malaysia, Russia, Turkey, Kuwait, Sudan and Jordan.
• Honorary doctorate from the African Institute of Management.