The Shahada: The First Pillar of Islam // With Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi




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Summary: Biography Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi al-Hassani was born in Damascus, Syria on the 13th of Dhul Hijja in 1382 AH. He accompanied his father, Shaykh Ibrahim al-Yaqoubi until his died in 1406 AH. He was his servant, his disciple and his student. His father trained him in the Sufi path. He studied under him the major works of the Sacred Knowledge, memorized many texts and didactic poems. His father gave him several ijazas. He also received several other ijazas from the top scholars of Syria such as: the Hanafite Mufti of Syria Shaykh Muhammad Abul-Yusr ‘Abideen; the Maliki]te Mufti of Syria, Sayyid Makki al-Kittan; Shaykh Ali al-Boudaylimi of Tlemsan; Shaykh Saalih al-Khateeb; and Shaykh Abdul ‘Aziz ‘Uyoon al-Sood. Lineage Shaykh Muhammad descends from a scholarly family whose lineage goes back to the Prophet Muhammad, salla Allahu 'alayhi sallam, through his grandson Sayyiduna al-Hasan, radiya Allahu 'anhu. He is also related to Mawlay Idris al-Anwar who built the city of Fes. Mawlay Idris' lineage is as follows: he is the son of Mawlay Idris the Great; who is the son of Sayyiduna Abdullah al-Kamil; who is the son of Sayyiduna al-Hasan, the Second; who is the son of Sayyiduna al-Hasan, radiya Allah 'anhu; who is the grandson of the Prophet, salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam. Education and Career In the summer of 1973, at the age of eleven, Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi started teaching at the Darwishiyya Mosque where he taught a regular Qur'an and Tajweed class . He began giving public speeches in Ramadan in the same mosque at the age of twelve. At the age of fourteen and a half, he started delivering Friday speeches. He wrote his first published article when he was seventeen years old in al-Majalla al-'Arabiyya in Riyadh, KSA and published his first book when he was twenty three. At the age of twenty, some of his Friday Khutbas were broadcast live on Syrian radio stations. Shaykh Muhammad studied traditional Islamic Sciences under his father. For over twenty years, he studied over 500 works in the sciences of Qur'an, Hadith, Jurisprudence, and Logic. His father, gave him full authority to narrate Hadith, to teach and to issue fatwas. Besides serving as a Friday speaker and instructor until 1990, Shaykh Muhammad pursued his academic studies at the University of Damascus, Faculty of Shari'ah, where he frequented some lectures and benefited from several professors between 1982-1985. He also received a degree in Arabic literature in 1987 and completed a two-year study of philosophy at the Arab University of Beirut. In 1991, Shaykh Muhammad joined the PhD program of linguistics at Gothenburg University in Sweden, Department of Oriental Studies, where he also worked as a researcher and a teacher of classical Arabic literature until 1996. While in school, Shaykh Muhammad studied French as a second language. It was in 1988 that he began learning the basics of English and German. At the age of 30, upon traveling to Sweden, he realized how vital is the English language in the work for Islam, so he moved to England at that time and completed the FCE, CAE, CCS, and CPE Cambridge courses in English within a year before returning to Sweden where he continued his studies in Swedish. Amongst the scholars who gave him ijaza were the Malikite Mufti of Syria Sayyid Makki al-Kittani, the Hanafite Mufti Muhammad Abul-Yusr 'Abideen, Muhammad Salih al-Khateeb, Ali al-Boudaylimi, Zayn al-'Abideen at-Tounisi, 'Abdul'Aziz 'Uyun as-Soud, and Muhammad Wafa al-Qassaab. Shaykh Muhammad is a leading scholar of hadith. To date he has taught Sahih al-Bukhari 4 times, Sahih Muslim twice, The Muwatta of Imam Malik 6 times, and al-Shama'il of Imam Tirmidhi 17 times.