Abd al-Halim Mahmud

Abd al-Halim Mahmud (12 May 1910 – 17 October 1978) was an Egyptian scholar who served as Grand Imam of al-Azhar from March 1973 until his death. Trained at al-Azhar and at the Sorbonne, where his doctorate treated the early ascetic theologian al-Harith al-Muhasibi, he wrote more than sixty works, many of them on Sufism and philosophy, taught psychology and led a faculty at al-Azhar before rising through its administration. He is remembered for restoring the Grand Imamate's public standing, for his defence of applying sharia in Egyptian law, and for his prolific writings on Sufism, which earned him the honorific "the al-Ghazali of the fourteenth century AH".¹²

He was born on 2 Jumada al-Awwal 1328 AH, 12 May 1910, in the hamlet of Abu Ahmed, in the village of al-Salam in the Bilbeis district of Sharqia, into a family known for piety; his father had studied at al-Azhar without completing the course. He memorised the Qur'an and entered al-Azhar in 1923, taking the 'alimiyya degree in 1932. He then travelled to France at his own expense and obtained a doctorate in Islamic philosophy from the Sorbonne in 1940, on al-Harith al-Muhasibi.²¹

On his return he taught psychology in the Faculty of Arabic Language, became dean of the Faculty of Usul al-Din in 1964, and was a member, then secretary-general, of al-Azhar's Islamic Research Academy, which he reorganised and built up. In 1970 he became deputy (wakil) of al-Azhar, then minister of awqaf and of al-Azhar affairs.²

His appointment as Shaykh al-Azhar was issued on 22 Safar 1393 AH, 27 March 1973. Few expected his success in the office: within a short time al-Azhar under him recovered its prestige, expanded its institutes on an unprecedented scale, and had a stated position on every public question. In July 1974 a new presidential decree threatened to strip the office of most of its remaining powers in favour of the minister of awqaf; he resigned at once, refused to attend his office or draw his salary, and asked for his pension to be settled. The crisis ended when President Anwar Sadat issued a decree restoring the position: the Shaykh al-Azhar was declared the Grand Imam, holding authority in all matters touching religion and the Qur'anic sciences, with the rank and precedence of a minister; after his death a decree equated the office with that of prime minister.²

He used the office openly. When a draft personal-status law associated with the minister Aisha Ratib was prepared without reference to al-Azhar, he issued a strong public statement against departing from the teachings of Islam, sent it to officials, parliamentarians and the press, and the government announced that no amendment of the law was contemplated. When Pope Shenouda III proposed joint religious textbooks for Muslim and Christian schoolchildren, and the minister of education came to sound him out, he answered angrily that if such books were ever demanded of al-Azhar his reply would be resignation.²

The English article, drawing on Jonathan Brown and on Moshe Albo and Yoram Meital, describes his recurring themes: the importance of knowledge and education, the integration of Islamic spirituality and jurisprudence, and the need to reform Egyptian politics and society according to Islam. He consistently supported replacing Egypt's civil code with sharia, arguing that the fixed punishment of amputation for theft was ordained by God and had brought order where applied; he also issued a fatwa supporting a minimum marriage age of sixteen for girls, noting that developed societies had set that age although sharia tradition fixed none. For him, reform began with science, religious or material: knowledge, he wrote, is a form of worship and of jihad. In 1971, during Sadat's presidency, he signed an agreement with King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, budgeted at forty million pounds, to combat communism.¹

More than sixty of his works appeared, a large share of them on Sufism and philosophy, some written in French. They include Qadiyyat al-Tasawwuf: al-Munqidh min al-Dalal ("The Question of Sufism: The Deliverance from Error"), Qadiyyat al-Tasawwuf: al-Madrasa al-Shadhiliyya and al-Madrasa al-Shadhiliyya al-Haditha wa Imamuha Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili, together with lives and studies of al-Harith al-Muhasibi, Sahl al-Tustari, Dhu al-Nun al-Misri, al-Fudayl ibn Iyad, Abu Bakr al-Shibli and Abu Yazid al-Bistami. The English article says he is remembered for reviving Sufism through his prolific writings and lectures, that he was greatly influenced by the Sudanese Sufi shaykh Muhammad Osman Abduh al-Burhani, and that he presented tasawwuf as a scientific method whose essence is knowledge (ma'rifa) of the metaphysical domain, composed of three elements: 'ilm (knowledge of the law), jihad (engagement with society's problems) and 'ubudiyya (devoted servitude to God).²¹

Among his other books are Uruba wa-l-Islam ("Europe and Islam"), al-Tawhid al-Khalis or al-Islam wa-l-'Aql, Asrar al-'Ibadat fi al-Islam, al-Tafkir al-Falsafi fi al-Islam, al-Qur'an wa-l-Nabi, two volumes of fatwas, and fatwas on communism.²

The museum records his affiliation as unknown, and flags the question in his data record. His Maliki jurisprudence rests on the infobox family alone — the English, Arabic and Urdu infoboxes all give it, unreferenced, and no text names a school for him; Sunni is given by the same infoboxes, by category filings and by Wikidata's religion value. His Sufism is attested as authorship and advocacy, and as influence by Shaykh al-Burhani, not as discipleship or membership in an order in any text read. His office at al-Azhar is not an attestation.¹²³

He died at Cairo on 17 October 1978, paired in the Urdu article with 14 Dhu al-Qa'da 1398 AH, still in office as Grand Imam.¹⁴

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