Ramadan Mubarak: Shaykh Ahmad Saad Al Azhari visiting Toronto
Traditional Islam
Bismillah,
Shaykh Ahmad Muhammad Saad Ash-Shafi’ie Al-Azhari Al-Hasani was born into a family of scholars whose lineage goes back to the Prophet (salla Allahu alayh wa sallam) through his grandson Al-Hasan ibn Ali (radia Allahu anhu) in the northern Egyptian governorate of Monofiyyah, in the Nile Delta. The land of Monofiyyah is known to be the cradle of great scholars of Islam including people like Shaykh Al-Islam Ibrahim Al-Bayjouri, Imam Tajuddin As-Subki and Taqiyuddin As-Subki, Shaykh Al-Islam Ash-Shanawani, Shaykh Nour Ad-Din Al-Mihi, Shaykh Hasan Al-Quwaysini, Shaykh Ash-Shurunbilali and many others. As the custom of the family was to memorise Qur’an at an early age, Shaykh Saad completed the memorisation of the Holy Qur’an at the age of ten at the hands of his father and studied basic Arabic and Islamic sciences with focus on the sciences of Arabic language (‘Ulum Al-‘Arabiyyah) before enrolling into Al-Azhar system of schools where he studied from 1988 to 2004 graduating with a B.A. Honours in Islamic Studies in English and finishing his post graduate years. Shaykh Saad delivered his first Khutbah at the age of 15, led his first prayer at the age of 13 and since then, he has been involved in Da’wa work and spreading traditional knowledge of Islam. Shaykh Saad toured the world as an Imam, speaker and lecturer; he visited Canada, USA, Germany, Malaysia, India, Singapore, Indonesia, Austria, Norway, Sweden, South Africa and many other countries.
Alongside with his academic studies, Shaykh Saad studied traditional Islamic sciences at the hands of senior scholars and specialists in Egypt, the most notable of whom is his late father Shaykh Muhammad Saad and the Grand Mufti of Egypt Shaykh Ali Gom’ah.
He memorized Riyad As-Salihin of Imam An-Nawawi at the age of 15 and Al-alfiyyah of Ibn Malik at the age of 13 and committed to memory thousands of lines of poetry and prose. He has memorised texts on logic, tajwid, aqidah, morphology, rhetoric and many other sciences.
Shaykh Saad holds one of the highest chains (in Qur'an) nowadays for his peers, there is 29 people between the Prophet (PBUH) and him. Amongst the Shyukh of Shaykh Saad in Qira’at are: Shaykh Dr. Ayman Suwaid of Damascus,Shaykh, Shaykh Ali An-Nahhas, Shaykh Shibl Matar, Shaykh Abdel-Basit Hashim, Shaykh Abdel-Fattah Madkour (the last living student of Shaykh Ali Ad-Dabba’ and the colleague of Shaykh Al-Husari) all of Egypt.
Shaykh Saad has also got Ijazahs in the books of hadith, the musalsalat, Shafi’ie Fiqh and all books of Tafsir, Tasawwuf, Shama’il and biographies from various Shyukh. Among his Shuyukh are: the Grand Mufti of Egypt Imam Shaykh Ali Gom’ah, Shaykh Ahmed Ali As-Surti (India), Shaykh Yahya Al-Mulla (Al-Ahsa), Shaykh Muhammad Abdel-Ba’ith Al-Kittani (Alexandria), Habib 'Umar bin Hafiz (Yemen), Shaykh Muhammad Sadiq Al-Alawi, Shaykh Yahya Al-Ghawthani (Madinah), Habib Muhammad Sa’ied Al-Beidh, Shaykh Muhammad Qasim Al-Washali, Shaykh Subhi As-Samurra’ie (Iraq), Shaykh Abdur-Rahman Al-Kittani (Morocco) Shaykh Ahmed Sharif Al-Manbiji (Syria), Dr. Abdel-Fattah Al-Bizm (Mufti of Damascus) and many others.
Shaykh Saad loves poetry and writes it frequently mainly in Arabic and sometimes in English. Shaykh Saad is the founder and director of the UK-based Ihsan Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies. He is currently living in London and travels internationally.