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Abd al-Rahman al-Sumayt

عبد الرحمن السميط

Abd al-Rahman al-Sumayt as Tareq al-Suwaidan presents him: the Kuwaiti physician who turned his whole life to serving Islam and development in Africa through Direct Aid society — spending six months in Africa and six in Kuwait — with large figures cited for his projects (needs_source).

Depth

At a glance

Region
Africa · Arab world
Review

The poor and the worker

Summary

Tareq al-Suwaidan presents Abd al-Rahman al-Sumayt as the model of a man who made himself a great life project: a Kuwaiti physician who left medicine and turned his whole life to serving Islam and development in Africa, spending six months in Africa and six in Kuwait, and who founded the 'Direct Aid' society (jam'iyyat al-'awn) 1 2. He says of his projects that six million people embraced Islam through the committee he founded, and that he built three hundred schools and thirty hospitals besides clinics — adding that no one in the whole Islamic world serves the cause of Africa's Muslims like him (the speaker's figures and comparison; needs_source) 2 3. See: Life management and choosing one's field.

People and things also explored

Agriculture in Islam· Ajr al-mithl (customary wage)· Basic needs· Spending in the way of God (infaq)· Natural and unnatural economic activity· Economic scarcity· Capitalism as criticised by Qa'dat· Seeking bounty in the land (sa'y fi al-ard)

Sources

  1. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:48:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  2. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:48:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  3. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:49:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Abd al-Rahman al-Sumayt”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/abdel-rahman-al-sumait/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-26.

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Wing

People

Prophets, companions, scholars, rulers, scientists, poets, travelers: women and men who shaped the story. Related

Agriculture in Islam

Al-Maraghi presents agriculture as the oldest livelihood, after Ibn Khaldun, the simplest and closest to nature (pp. 27-28). Islam encourages it as the source of people's and animals' food and forbids farming usurped land (p. 28). Reviving dead land gives title, and a tract left unworked for three years may pass to another who works it, subject to the ruler's permission in practice (p. 29). The book warns against withholding surplus water and tells the Zubayr water dispute (pp. 29-30). Sharecropping is called muzara'a (p. 30).