Life & Achievements of Sh. Mustafa al-Azami

Sunday 11 March 2018

Shaykh Mustafa al-A‘zami was one of the leading Islamic scholars of the modern age, with numerous works in Arabic and English (with an emphasis on Hadith). His initial Islamic studies were at Darul Ulum Deoband, India. After obtaining a Master’s degree at al-Azhar University, Egypt, he successfully completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge on the subject of Hadith. Thereafter he held various lectureships at the universities of Oxford, Princeton, Michigan and Colorado, amongst others. He later taught in universities in Saudi Arabia, and was granted Saudi citizenship. He was the recipient of the King Faisal International Prize for Islamic Studies in 1980 for his contribution to Hadith studies. He passed away in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 20 December 2017.

Speakers and Topics:

Shaykh Akram Nadwi, ‘The Distinction of Shaykh Mustafa al-A‘zami’

Ustadh Imtiyaz Damiel, ‘Reflections on 15 Years in the Company of Shaykh al-A‘zami in Saudi Arabia’

Ustadh Sohaib Saeed, PhD, ‘The Contribution of Shaykh al-A‘zami to Quranic Studies’

Andrew Booso, ‘Shaykh Mustafa al-A‘zami in Western Academia’

Speaker profiles:
Shaykh Akram Nadwi is one of the leading Islamic scholars in the west. After graduating and teaching at the Nadwa seminary in India, he was personally sent by his teacher Shaykh Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi to be a research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, where he spent many years. He has travelled widely across the Muslim world in search of knowledge and chains of hadith transmission (asanid). Furthermore, he has published numerous works in Arabic and English. His advanced-level teaching is conducted through the Al-Salam Institute (Oxford and London) and Ebrahim College, London.

Imtiyaz Damiel pursued traditional religious studies in a seminary in Blackburn, England, before obtaining a BA in Arabic & Islamic Studies at the University of Leeds. Thereafter he pursued further religious studies at the King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He is the CEO and founder of the Abu Hanifah Foundation in Blackburn. Currently, he is pursuing post-graduate research on Islamic education at the University of Warwick. Whilst in Riyadh, he spent an extensive period of time studying with Shaykh Mustafa al-A‘zami.

Sohaib Saeed was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and he obtained a BA and a MSc in Philosophy at Edinburgh University. He then completed a BA degree in Usul al-Din at al-Azhar University, Egypt, and a PhD in Quranic Studies from SOAS, University of London. Currently, he is the Head of Research at the Bayyinah Institute, USA, and runs the website www.quranica.com. His translation of volume 1 of Imam Razi’s Tafsir is soon to be published by Islamic Texts Society, Cambridge. He is also translating Imam Suyuti’s Itqan.

Andrew Booso was born and raised in London, England. After completing a Law degree at the London School of Economics, he has pursued traditional Islamic studies (with pivotal guidance from Shaykh Akram Nadwi) and has edited numerous texts for various Islamic publishers, including Islamic Texts Society and Turath. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Al-Salam Institute, seminar co-ordinator for Islamic Courses (London) and the director of the Safeenah Fellowship. He had been working on a new edition of Shaykh Mustafa al-A‘zami’s History of the Qur’anic Text with the author until the latter sadly passed away.