Doha: Acclaimed Islamic scholar and former founding president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, Dr Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, passed away on Monday in Qatari capital, Doha, after a brief illness. He was 96.
The official account of Sheikh Al-Qaradawi on Twitter published the news of his death, and his son Abdul Rahman Al-Qaradawi wrote on his Twitter account, “The knight got off.”
The International Union of Muslim Scholars said, through its official account on Twitter, “Go to the mercy of God, His Eminence, Imam Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the founding president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, who gave his life explaining the provisions of Islam.”
He added, “The Islamic nation has lost one of its most sincere and virtuous scholars, we ask God Almighty to forgive him and have mercy on him and pardon him.”
About Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi in brief
Sheikh Al-Qaradawi was born on September 9, 1926. He is from the village of Saft Turab in the Gharbia Governorate in northern Egypt. He memorized the Holy Quran when he was under ten. He graduated from the Faculty of Theology at Al-Azhar University in 1953, and a year later he obtained a teaching license from the Faculty of Arabic Language.
In 1958, he obtained a diploma from the Institute of Higher Arabic Studies in Language and Literature, before obtaining a preparatory study equivalent to a Master’s in the Department of Quranic and Sunnah Sciences from the Faculty of Fundamentals of Religion in 1960.
Then obtained a doctorate with distinction with first-class honours from the same college in 1973, the subject of the message was “Zakat and its impact on solving social problems”.
Al-Qaradawi joined the Muslim Brotherhood and became one of its most prominent leaders.
Al-Qaradawi had been residing in Doha for decades and holds a Qatari citizenship. An Egyptian court issued a death sentence in absentia in 2015 along with other Egyptians affiliated with the Brotherhood in a case related to the storming of prisons in 2011.
Al-Qaradawi headed the International Union of Muslim Scholars from its founding in 2004 until 2018 before he was succeeded by the Moroccan Ahmed Raissouni, who resigned weeks ago due to statements that angered the Mauritanians.
During his career, Al-Qaradawi published many books, and received many awards, including the King Faisal International Prize, in association with a former master of Islamic studies for the year 1994.
The late also received the Outstanding Scientific Endowment award from the President of the International Islamic University in Malaysia for the year 1996, and the Sultan Hassan Bolkiah (Sultan of Brunei) Award in Islamic Jurisprudence for the year 1997.
During the last period, he suffered several health crises, especially after he was infected with COVID-19, and rumours of his death emerged more than once.
Al-Qaradawi, whose father died when he was two years old, was raised by his uncle. He has 4 daughters, Ilham, Siham, Ola and Asma, and 3 sons, Muhammad, Abd al-Rahman and Osama.
Supporting the Syrian revolution
Sheikh Youssef had supportive positions for the revolutions of the Arab peoples after 2011, including the Syrian revolution, where he supported the Syrian people in its early days and called for supporting the Syrians with money and weapons in the face of the machine of violence used by the regime.
Regarding the Palestinian issue, Al-Qaradawi said in one of his sermons that “the revolutions of the Arab Spring can never distract us from Jerusalem,” stressing that it is the nation’s greatest issue at all, pointing out that “whoever neglects the Al-Aqsa Mosque is about to neglect the Grand Mosque.”
As soon as the death of Sheikh Al-Qaradawi was announced, his name topped social media platforms in Egypt and many Arab and Islamic countries.
