Abu Abd al-Rahman Ibn Aqil al-Zahiri
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Muhammad bin Umar bin Abd al-Rahman bin Abd Allah al-Aqil, better known as Abu Abd al-Rahman Ibn Aqil al-Zahiri, is a Saudi Arabian
polymath A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...
. He has, at various times, been referred to as a theologian,
jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...
, historian,
ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...
,
geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...
, poet, critic and author.Dr. Amin Sulayman Sidu
Bibliography and abridged biography of Abu Abd al-Rahman Ibn Aqil al-Zahiri
. King Fahad National Library Academid Journal, vol. 3, iss. No. 2, 1997.
As a member of Saudi Arabia's "Golden Generation," he knew of life both during the poverty of the pre-
oil boom An oil boom is a period of large inflow of income as a result of high global oil prices or large oil production in an economy. Generally, this short period initially brings economic benefits, in terms of increased GDP growth, but might later lead ...
era and the prosperity of the 1950s onward.


Personal life

Ibn Aqil was born in the city of
Shaqraa Shaqra ( ar, شقراء) is a town in central Saudi Arabia, The city is located about 190 kilometers north-west of the capital Riyadh. It is a small city which is now growing due to the newly opened Shaqra University. The city is peaceful and well ...
in Saudi Arabia's central Najd region in 1942. His has been married three times, during which he sired twenty-six children. His current wife is from
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
. Ibn Aqil also owns a bookstore, "Dar Ibn Hazm," in the Al-Suwaidi district where he currently lives, and is the prayer leader of a nearby mosque. Ibn Aqil had a complicated friendship and, later, rivalry with fellow Arab philosopher
Abdullah al-Qasemi Abdullah al-Qasemi (1907 – 9 January 1996) ( ar, عبدالله القصيمي) was a Saudi Arabian 20th-century writer and intellectual. He is one of the most controversial intellectuals in the Arab world because of his radical change from d ...
. Having known al-Qasemi before he converted from Islam to atheism, Ibn Aqil met al-Qasemi for a debate in the Garden City district of
Downtown Cairo Downtown Cairo ( arz, وسط البلد '' "middle of town")'', has been the urban center of Cairo, Egypt, since the late 19th century, when the district was designed and built. History Downtown Cairo was designed by prestigious French archit ...
. After a long discussion regarding the
existence of God The existence of God (or more generally, the existence of deities) is a subject of debate in theology, philosophy of religion and popular culture. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God or deities can be categorized ...
and
Theodicy Theodicy () means vindication of God. It is to answer the question of why a good God permits the manifestation of evil, thus resolving the issue of the problem of evil. Some theodicies also address the problem of evil "to make the existence of ...
, Ibn Aqil authored the book ''A Night in Garden City'' as an account of the debate.


Career

After receiving his primary and secondary education in Shaqraa, Ibn Aqil relocated to
Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the R ...
and enrolled in
Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU) (), commonly known as Al-Imam University, is a public university in Baladiyah al-Shemal in northern Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was founded in 1953. represented by the College of Sharia Sciences (n ...
, which at the time was a brand new institution. He earned a
Bachelor of Science in Law The Bachelor of Science in Law (BSL) is a somewhat special-purpose undergraduate degree that is typically intended for students who have completed some undergraduate education, but not received a baccalaureate degree, and are intending to resume th ...
from the college of
Islamic law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...
,''Who's Who in Saudi Arabia 1978–1979'', pg. 66. Part of the
Who's Who ''Who's Who'' (or ''Who is Who'') is the title of a number of reference publications, generally containing concise biography, biographical information on the prominent people of a country. The title has been adopted as an expression meaning a gr ...
series. Edited by M. Samir Sarhan.
Jeddah Jeddah ( ), also spelled Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; ar, , Jidda, ), is a city in the Hejaz region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the country's commercial center. Established in the 6th century BC as a fishing village, Jeddah's pro ...
and London:
Tihama Tihamah or Tihama ( ar, تِهَامَةُ ') refers to the Red Sea coastal plain of the Arabian Peninsula from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Bab el Mandeb. Etymology Tihāmat is the Proto-Semitic language's term for 'sea'. Tiamat (or Tehom, in m ...
and
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.
''Who's Who in the Arab World 1990–1991'', pg. 176. Part of the Who's Who series. Edited by Gabriel M. Bustros.
Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
: Publitec Publications, 10th ed.
and a
Master of Theology Master of Theology ( la, Theologiae Magister, abbreviated MTh, ThM, or MTheol) is a post-graduate degree offered by universities, divinity schools, and seminaries. It can serve as a transition degree for entrance into a PhD program or as a stand ...
degree in
exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Ancient Greek, Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation (logic), interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Bible, Biblical works. In modern usage, ...
of the
Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...
. During this time, Ibn Aqil was a student of former Saudi
Grand Mufti The Grand Mufti (also called Chief Mufti, State Mufti and Supreme Mufti) is the head of regional muftis, Islamic jurisconsults, of a state. The office originated in the early modern era in the Ottoman empire and has been later adopted in a num ...
Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz Sheikh Abd al Aziz ibn Abdullah ibn Baz ( ar, عبد العزيز بن عبد الله بن باز, ʿAbd al ʿAzīz bin ʿAbdullāh bin Bāz, 21 November 1912 – 13 May 1999) was a Saudi Arabian Islamic scholar who served as the Grand Mufti of S ...
and Ibn Humaid, another high-ranking cleric. Ibn Aqil spent most of his tutelage under
Abu Turab al-Zahiri Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Jamīl bin ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq bin ʿAbd al-Waḥīd bin Muḥammad bin al-Hāshim bin Bilāl al-Hāshimī al-ʿUmarī al-ʿAdawī, better known as Abū Turāb al-Ẓāhirī (; 1 January 1923 – 4 May 2002), was an Indian- ...
. In his twenties and early thirties, Ibn Aqil worked as a lawyer within Saudi Arabia's theocratic justice system. He was eventually placed in administrative positions for public education in the country's eastern province in
Dammam Dammam ( ar, الدمّام ') is the fifth-most populous city in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca, and Medina. It is the capital of the Eastern Province. With a total population of 1,252,523 as of 2020. The judicial and administrative ...
, and then later moved to the legal department in the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs. Upon returning to Riyadh, he founded and served as president of the Riyadh Literary Society, and began writing a regular column for the Arabic daily Al Jazirah; while he continues the latter endeavor, he relinquished his presidency of the Society and joined the general membership. From the 1960s to the 1980s, Ibn Aqil served in several posts including that of a legal adviser to the Riyadh Municipal Agency, auditor of the General Employees Bureau and Director of Services for the General Administration of Girls' Education. In the past, he was the host of "Tafsir al-Tafasir" or "exegesis of the exegeses," a religious program which was broadcast daily on the radio and weekly on television. Building on his graduate background, Ibn Aqil would systematically collect all major explanations of the Qur'an within Sunni Islam and attempt to integrate all of them, weighing the views of various theologians. Although the program was discontinued in the late 1980s, Ibn Aqil restarted his broadcasts in 2010 from where he had left off. The King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies had invited Ibn Aqil to grant a symposium on the topic of comparative exegesis five years prior, likely reigniting public interest. Currently, Ibn Aqil has mostly retired from public life. In addition to his renewed Qur'an study broadcasts, he is a member of the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo, the Arabic Language Academy at Mecca,أبو عبدالرحمن ابن عقيل الظاهري
Official website of the Academy, 9 February 2015. Accessed 8 November 2016.
and still serves as the editor-in-chief of an academic journal named after the
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
Diriyah Diriyah ( ar, الدِرْعِيّة), formerly romanized as Dereyeh and Dariyya), is a town in Saudi Arabia located on the north-western outskirts of the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Diriyah was the original home of the Saudi royal family, and served ...
, which he founded and which holds its headquarters on his family estate.


Views

Ibn Aqil has defined the problems of Saudi society as coming both from secularists on one end of the spectrum and Muslim clerics delivering hasty and erroneous proclamations on the other. Being a part of Saudi Arabia's "Golden Generation," Ibn Aqil has generally been supportive of the
House of Saud The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is composed of the descendants of Muhammad bin Saud, founder of the Emirate of Diriyah, known as the First Saudi state (1727–1818), and ...
and the Saudi government, and an opponent of its critics among both liberal modernists and radical extremists. Recently, Ibn Aqil called for the Saudi government to strip a dissident journalist of his citizenship due to his sharp criticisms of the
Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia The Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia ( ar, مجلس الشورى السعودي, Maǧlis aš-Šūrā s-Saʿūdiyy), also known as ''Majlis ash-Shura'' or ''Shura Council,'' is the formal advisory body of Saudi Arabia. It is a deliberative as ...
. On the other end of the spectrum, Ibn Aqil engaged in a public series of exchanges with fellow cleric
Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak Abdul-Rahman bin Nasir al-Barrak ( ar, عبد الرحمن بن ناصر البراك, born 1933 or 1934) is a Saudi Salafi cleric. In 1994, al-Barrak and other Saudi clerics were mentioned by name and praised by Osama bin Laden for opposing t ...
in 2011 due to the former's refusal to adopt a formal position on theological issues debated during the
Mihna The Mihna ( ar, محنة خلق القرآن, ''Miḥnat k͟halaq al-Qurʾān'' "ordeal egardingthe createdness of the Qur'an") refers to the period of religious persecution instituted by the 'Abbasid Caliph al-Ma'mun in 833 CE in which reli ...
, a rare Medieval-era
inquisition The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...
within Islam perpetrated by rationalists against their orthodox counterparts. Ibn Aqil has also fallen into conflict with
Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...
cleric Yusuf al-Qardawi in a series of back-and-forth columns, though Qardawi did not mention Ibn Aqil by name. Ibn Aqil, who has expressed skepticism about the goals and results of the
Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in T ...
, considered Qardawi's various positions during the movement hypocritical and contradictory, charges which Qardawi denied.


Works

Being a jurist and scholar of the
Zahiri The Ẓāhirī ( ar, ظاهري, otherwise transliterated as ''Dhāhirī'') ''madhhab'' or al-Ẓāhirīyyah ( ar, الظاهرية) is a Sunnī school of Islamic jurisprudence founded by Dāwūd al-Ẓāhirī in the 9th century CE. It is chara ...
te school of law within Sunni Islam, Ibn Aqil is also the current era's primary biography of Zahirite theologian
Ibn Hazm Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥazm ( ar, أبو محمد علي بن احمد بن سعيد بن حزم; also sometimes known as al-Andalusī aẓ-Ẓāhirī; 7 November 994 – 15 August 1064Ibn Hazm. ' (Preface). Tr ...
, having written detailed accounts even of Ibn Hazm's individual conflicts with rival jurist Abu al-Walid al-Baji.
Maribel Fierro Dr. María Isabel Fierro Bello (born 1956) is a researcher on Middle Eastern studies at the Spanish National Research Council's humanities branch in Madrid, Spain.Salma Jayyusi Salma Khadra Jayyusi ( ar, سلمى الخضراء الجيوسي; born 1926 or 1927) is a Palestinian poet, writer, translator and anthologist. She is the founder and director of the Project of Translation from Arabic (PROTA), which aims to provi ...
.
Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...
:
Brill Publishers Brill Academic Publishers (known as E. J. Brill, Koninklijke Brill, Brill ()) is a Dutch international academic publisher founded in 1683 in Leiden, Netherlands. With offices in Leiden, Boston, Paderborn and Singapore, Brill today publishes 27 ...
, 1994.
His bookstore is named after the Andalusian author, and Ibn Aqil has authored a number of books on the life and career of Ibn Hazm. The largest of these books is ''Nawadir al-Imam Ibn Hazm'', a collection of Ibn Hazm's smaller, harder-to-find works, such as his poem on the fundamental principles of Zahirite law. He has also delivered a lecture explaining
Ibn Rushd Ibn Rushd ( ar, ; full name in ; 14 April 112611 December 1198), often Latinized as Averroes ( ), was an Andalusian polymath and jurist who wrote about many subjects, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, psychology, ...
's attempts to reconcile philosophy and religion at the International Averroes Symposium, co-sponsored by UNESCO in
Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...
between 16 and 22 February in 1998. In addition to ''A Night in Garden City'', other titles of some note are '' Descartes Between Scepticism and Certainty'' and ''The History of Najd During the Colloquial Epoch''. Perhaps stemming from his philosophical debates with al-Qasemi, reconciliation between reason and revelation has been a recurring theme in Ibn Aqil's work.


Bibliography


Biographical works

* Sidu, Amin Sulayman. ''Shaykh al-katabah Abu Abd al-Rahman ibn 'Aqil al-Zahiri''. Riyadh Literary Club, 2004.


Edited works

* al-Baji. ''Tahqiq al-madhhab''. Ed. Abu Abd al-Rahman Ibn Aqil al-Zahiri. Riyadh: 1983. * Al-Humaydī. ''al-Dhahab al-masbuk fi wa'z al-muluk''. Eds. Abu Abd al-Rahman Ibn Aqil al-Zahiri and Dr. Abd al-Halim Uways. Riyadh: Dar Alam al-Kutub, 1982. 235 pages. Kings and rulers. * Ibn Hazm. ''Risalah al-Talkhis li-wujuh al-takhlis''. Riyadh: Dar Ibn Hazm, 2005. With Abu Abd Allah Sa'id ibn Khalaf al-Shammari al-Zahiri. * Ibn Jurays, Rashid ibn 'Ali al-Hanbali, d. 1880 or 81. ''Muthir al-wajd fi ansab muluk Najd''. Eds. Abu Abd al-Rahman Ibn Aqil al-Zahiri, Abd al-Wahid Muhammad Raghib and Abd al-Rahman ibn 'Abd al-Latif Al al-Shaykh. 1st Ed. Darat al-Malik 'Abd al-'Aziz, 1999. 136 pages; 25 cm.


Original works

* ''al-Aql al-lughawi''.
Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...
: Meccan Literary Club, 1994. 327 pages; 24 cm. Arabic language. * ''Al-naghm alladhi ahbabtuhu''. Dar al-Watan, 1979. 110 pages. Arabic poetry. * ''Dunya al-watha'iq''. al-Dir'iyya i/2, 1998. Pgs. 264–326. * ''Hayy Miri''. Riyadh: Dar Ibn Hazm, 1996. 126 pages; 25 cm. * ''Humum siyasiyah''. 1998. * ''Ibn Hazam Khilal Alf Aam''.
Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
: Dar al-Gharab al-Islami, 1982. 303 pages. * ''Ibn La‘b¯un : hay¯atuhu wa-shi‘ruh''.
Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...
: Mu'assasat J¯a'izat ‘Abd al-‘Az¯iz Sa‘¯ud al-B¯abat¯in lil-Ibd¯a‘ al-Shi‘r¯i, 1997. 624 pages; 24 cm. * ''Kutub al-faharis wa-al-baramij: waqiuha wa-ahammiyatuha''. Riyadh: Dar Ibn Hazm, 1996. 121 pages; 24 cm. * ''Mabadi' fi nazariyat al-shi'r wa-al-jamal''. 1st Ed. Ha'il: Ha'il Literary Club, 1998. 1 volume; 24 cm. Arabic poetry; history and criticism. * ''Mas¯a'il min t¯ar¯ikh al-Jaz¯irah al-‘Arab¯iyah''. Riyadh: Mu'assasat D¯ar al-As¯alah, 1994. 4th ed. 295 pages; 24 cm. * ''Min ahkam al-diyanah : ta'sil masa'il min al-ma'rifah al-shar'iyah, wa-tahrir masa'il tatbiqiyah''. Riyadh: Dar Ibn Hazm lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzi', 1998. 1 volume; 25 cm. Islamic law. * ''Muadalat fi kharait al-atlas: duwaywin shir''. 1997. * ''Najd f¯i ‘us¯ur al-‘¯amm¯iyah''.
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
: Matba‘at al-Taqaddum, 1974. 18 cm. * ''al-Qasidah al-hadithah wa-a°ba al-tajawuz: dirasah tatbiqiyah li-usul al-iltizam wa-al-shart al-jamali''. 1987. 286 pages. ASIN B0000D7274 * ''Shay min al-tabarih: sirah dhatiyah-- wa-humum thaqafiyah''. Riyadh: Dar Ibn Hazm, 1995. * ''Tahrir ba'd al-masa'il 'ala madh'hab al ashab''. 1st Ed. Riyadh: Maktabat Dar al-Ulum, 1981. * ''Y¯a s¯ahir al-barq li-Ab¯i al-‘Al¯a' al-Ma‘arr¯i''.
Jizan Jazan ( ar, جازان, Jāzān), also spelled ''Jizan'' ( ar, جيزان, Jīzān), ''Gizan'' or ''Gazan'', is a port city and the capital of Jizan Region, which lies in the southwest corner of Saudi Arabia and directly north of the border with ...
: Jizan Literary Club, 1995. 127 pages; 21 cm.MOBIUS
Y¯a s¯ahir al-barq li-Ab¯i al-‘Al¯a' al-Ma‘arr¯i / tahl¯il wa-tafs¯ir Ab¯i ‘Abd al-Rahm¯an ibn ‘Aq¯il al-Z¯ahir¯i Muhammad ibn ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-Rahm¯an


References


External links


Abridged biography
from al-Arabiyya magazine.

of all Ibn Aqil's articles published by Al-Jazirah. {{DEFAULTSORT:Zahiri, Abu Abd al-Rahman Ibn Aqil 20th-century historians 20th-century imams 20th-century Muslim scholars of Islam 20th-century philosophers 21st-century Muslim scholars of Islam 21st-century historians 21st-century philosophers 1942 births Critics of atheism Islamic philosophers Jurisprudence academics Literary critics of Arabic Living people Philosophers of religion Quranic exegesis scholars Saudi Arabian geographers Saudi Arabian historians Saudi Arabian journalists Saudi Arabian anti-communists Saudi Arabian imams 20th-century Saudi Arabian poets Saudi Arabian Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam Arabic-language writers from Saudi Arabia Sunni fiqh scholars Sunni imams Zahiris