Umar bin Hafiz

Umar bin Hafiz (born 27 May 1963) is a Yemeni teacher of Tarim in Hadhramaut and the founder of Dar al-Mustafa, a seminary that draws students from across the Muslim world.¹ The Muslim 500 ranked him first in its 2024 edition and second in its 2025 edition.¹

He was born in Tarim to the Ba 'Alawi family of sayyids; his father, Muhammad bin Salim bin Hafiz, was the mufti of Tarim and disappeared under the South Yemen regime in the 1970s, presumed killed.¹ He studied with his father and then with Muhammad bin Abd-Allah al-Haddar at Ribat al-Bayda, with Zain bin Sumait, with Ibrahim bin Aqil bin Yahya, the mufti of Taiz, with Abdul Qadir bin Ahmad al-Saqqaf and Ahmed Mashur al-Haddad, and with teachers in the Hejaz including Attas al-Habashi.¹² He began teaching at the age of fifteen.¹

He founded Dar al-Mustafa in Tarim — the English article dates the founding to 1993, the Arabic article to 1414 AH, corresponding to 1994 — and heads it as its dean.¹²

The Muslim 500, cited by the English article, associates him with Sunni Islam, the Shafi'i school of law, the Ash'ari creed and the Ba 'Alawiyya Sufi tradition, and the Arabic infobox independently gives the same school and creed.¹² The Arabic article's lead places him among the foremost in the science of spiritual wayfaring, especially in the Ba 'Alawi path.²

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