The Intellectual Journey of a Hadith Scholar: Mustafa Al-A'zami

Editor

We present the life of Mustafa Al-A’zami, accompanied by the different cultural tradition to which he belongs. This scholar has made immense contributions to the science of hadith with his innumerable works including some translations into Turkish (Islamic Fiqh and Sunna- Criticism to Orientalist J. Schacht and the History of the Quran).

MUHAMMED MUSTAFA AL-A’ZAMI

Born in India in 1930, Mustafa al-Azami completed his primary, middle and high school education in India. He graduated from Darul Ulum in Deoband, India. In Cairo, he took a masters degree the Azhar University (1955), and he completed his doctorate at Cambridge University (1966) with a dissertation entitled Studies in Early Hadith Literature. Working at the Qatar National Library between the years 1955-64, Azami later held various positions, after he finished his doctorate, at the Ummul Qura University in Mecca and the Michigan, Princeton and Colorado universities. He retired the Islamic Research Department at the King Saud University. Still honorary professor at the King Saud University, Azami was awarded the International King Faisal Islamic Research Award in 1980.

The author of many works, Muhammad Mustafa al-Azami was the first Muslim researcher who took up in all aspects and refuted the claims of Orientalists to the effect that hadiths (sayings of the Prophet) had not been handed down in a reliable way. Beginning at the end of the 17^th century in the West, Orientalist works on the sunna (practices of the Prophet) and hadith brought up claims regarding doubts about the reliability of the Quran and sunna, in particular, and they made publications questioning the authenticity of hadiths. Following the Western academic world closely and aware of the Orientalists’ works and making a great contribution to Islamic sciences, particularly the science of hadith, M. Azami destroyed these claims by producing evidence within a framework of scientific methodology.

Listen to to his intellectual journey below...

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