Ali Abdullah Jaber

Ali Abdullah Jaber (1953–2005) was a Saudi reciter and scholar, official imam of Masjid al-Haram in Mecca from 1981 to 1983 and a Ramadan guest imam there from 1986 to 1989, and a lecturer in comparative fiqh at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah. Admired for a melodic, affecting recitation, he was known as the King's Imam after leading prayers attended by King Khalid. ¹²

He was born in Jeddah — the Arabic article gives 18 Dhu al-Hijjah 1372 AH, 27 August 1953, while the English article and Wikidata give August 1954 — into a scholarly family originally from Yemen's Hadhramaut valley that had settled in Jeddah. He memorised the Qur'an by the age of fifteen under his father and other teachers, among them Khalil al-Qari, and studied at the Islamic University of Madinah and at King Abdulaziz University, where he took a doctorate in fiqh; from 1986 he lectured in comparative fiqh there. ²¹

As a young man he led the evening prayers at a small mosque in Jeddah's Bab Sharif district before coming to official attention; appointed imam of Masjid al-Haram in 1981, he led the Tarawih prayers there for two years, then resigned for personal reasons, returning as a Ramadan guest imam from 1986 to 1989. ¹²

A long illness ended his public recitation in his later years. He died at Bugshan Hospital in Jeddah on 14 December 2005; the funeral prayer was held at Masjid al-Haram and he was buried the same day at al-Sharayea cemetery in Mecca. His complete recorded recitation remains widely circulated. ¹³