1876 - 1958
Sheikh Muhammad al-Khidr Husayn (born 1876) was a Tunisian Muslim religious scholar of Algerian descent, and is considered the only non-Egyptian figure to hold the leadership of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif (Grand Imam) in modern history. He served as the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar between 1952 and 1954, leaving behind a prominent intellectual and Islamic legacy that spanned across the Arab and Islamic world.
He was raised in the town of Nefta in southern Tunisia within a deeply rooted scholarly family; his father hailed from the village of Tolga in the Algerian city of Biskra, while his mother was a Tunisian from a well-known scholarly family. He memorized the Holy Quran and learned the fundamentals of religious sciences from his maternal uncle, Sheikh Muhammad Makki ibn Azzuz, before moving to the capital to join the Al-Zaytuna Mosque, where he earned his Alamiyya degree. In 1903, he founded the magazine As-Sa'ada al-'Uzma (The Supreme Happiness) to resist colonialism and promote Islamic thought. However, French repression forced him to leave, traveling between Damascus, Istanbul, and Germany, until he settled in Egypt in 1921. There, he obtained Egyptian citizenship, was appointed as a professor at Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, and was among the first generation of scholars who helped found the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo.
He was appointed Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in September 1952 following the Egyptian Revolution. However, he submitted a sudden resignation in 1954 in protest against political interference in Al-Azhar's affairs and attempts to merge the Sharia courts into the civil judiciary. He passed away in Cairo in 1958, leaving behind a vast legacy of writings and complete works.
Key Works:
- As-Sa'ada al-'Uzma Magazine (1903): An Islamic periodical he founded in Tunisia to spread Islamic thought and resist French colonialism.
- The Life of Ibn Khaldun and Examples of His Social Philosophy: A book examining the biography of the historian and scholar Ibn Khaldun and analyzing aspects of his social philosophy.
