Ahmad Farid

Ahmad Farid is an Egyptian preacher and writer, born in July 1952 in Minya al-Qamh, whom the Arabic Wikipedia describes as one of the shaykhs of the Salafi current in Egypt and a member of the board of trustees of al-Da'wa al-Salafiyya in Alexandria. ^{1 2} He trained as a physician, with a bachelor's degree in medicine from Alexandria University, and is the author of books on asceticism, the purification of the soul and creed. ^{1 2}

The Arabic article says his father worked for the agrarian reform administration and that he grew up in a modest family; his mother died of cancer while he was young, and he moved with his father to al-Sinbillawayn in the Dakahlia governorate, where he finished secondary school. ¹ He spent the preparatory year of medicine at the Faculty of Medicine in Mansoura, then moved to Alexandria and graduated in medicine from Alexandria University. ^{1 2}

At university, the article says, he helped form the student Islamic association at Alexandria University, met Muhammad Ismail al-Muqaddam, then still a student, and declined an invitation to bring the association into the Muslim Brotherhood. ¹ When the association later divided, he joined what the article calls the Salafi school, which published the magazine Sawt al-Da'wa until its activity was stopped in 1994, after which it continued through lessons and lectures. ¹

The article says that when he was called up as a reserve officer he refused to shave his beard and was imprisoned for several months in succession, and was finally dismissed from the army. ¹ It records two detentions: in 1987, for thirty-eight days, in a general round-up, and in May 2002, for a little over six months, in a case in which he was accused of takfir although, the article notes, he had written a book in defence of excusing ignorance and in refutation of takfir. ¹ After the revolution of 25 January 2011, the article says, the Salafi school returned to full activity as the registered body al-Da'wa al-Salafiyya, on whose board of trustees he sits. ¹

Among the books the Arabic article lists are 'al-Bahr al-ra'iq fi al-zuhd wa-l-raqa'iq', which it calls his best-known book, translated into more than one language; 'Tazkiyat al-nufus'; 'Tadhkirat al-abrar bi-l-janna wa-l-nar'; 'al-Thamarat al-zakiyya fi al-'aqa'id al-salafiyya'; 'Min akhlaq al-salaf'; 'al-'Udhr bi-l-jahl wa-l-radd 'ala bid'at al-takfir'; 'al-Hubb fi Allah wa-huquq al-ukhuwwa'; 'Ta'zim qadr al-salat'; 'al-Imam al-Bukhari wa-sahihuhu al-jami''; an edition of Ibn al-Mubarak's 'al-Zuhd wa-l-raqa'iq'; 'Min a'lam al-salaf', sixty biographies in two parts; 'Taysir al-mannan fi qisas al-Qur'an' in three parts; 'Shajarat al-iman'; and 'al-Taqwa al-ghaya al-manshuda wa-l-durra al-mafquda'. ¹ The article adds that he has hundreds of audio and video lectures and lessons on Islamic websites. ¹

The Arabic Wikipedia places him among the Salafi shaykhs of Egypt; Wikidata records his religion only as Islam. ^{1 2} With a single source naming a school, the museum records his faith as unknown until a second independent source names it.

In the twenty-one short video lessons that the Assabile archive keeps as 'The Boat', he speaks in formal Arabic with a measured, teacherly pace, opening each lesson with the sermon of need or a praise of God and closing it by asking forgiveness for himself and his listeners. ^{3 4 5} He addresses his audience as 'servants of God' and once welcomes 'the brothers and sisters'. ^{6 7} His method is to build one image and return to it: faith as a tree whose roots are the six articles of faith, whose trunk is sincerity and following the Prophet ﷺ, whose branches are good works and whose fruits he counts lesson by lesson, before rising to piety as faith's highest degree. ^{8 9 10 11} He draws on Qur'anic verses, hadiths and sayings of the early generations, gives more than one reading of a verse where he knows several, and uses everyday comparisons: calling someone in Cairo from Alexandria, a summer tree in winter, a five-star hotel. ^{12 13 14 15} Among the imams he names as beloved by people are Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Shafi'i, Malik, Abu Hanifa, al-Bukhari, Muslim, al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Taymiyya. ¹⁶