Habib Umar bin Hafiz ( ar-at, عمر بن حفيظ, Ḥabīb ʿUmar bin Ḥafīẓ; ; born 27 May 1963) is a

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...

and

Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...

Islamic scholar In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of reli ...

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

, and founder and dean of

Dar al-Mustafa Dar al-Mustafa is a Yemeni Islamic university based in Tarim, Hadhramaut. History In 1993, the Islamic seminary was founded by Habib Umar bin Hafiz. The Dar al-Mustafa campus was officially opened in May 1997 and incorporated as a center for trad ...

Islamic seminary. He also a member of the Supreme Advisory Council for the Tabah Foundation in Abu Dhabi.

Background

Habib Omar bin Hafiz was born on 27 May 1963 CE or 4

Muharram Muḥarram ( ar, ٱلْمُحَرَّم) (fully known as Muharram ul Haram) is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four sacred months of the year when warfare is forbidden. It is held to be the second holiest month after R ...

1383 AH in Tarim, Hadhramaut,

, and raised in a household that possessed a tradition and lineage of Islamic scholarship and righteousness by his father. His father was Muhammad bin Salim bin Hafiz, a Habib and mufti of Tarim, a pious caller to Islam, scholar, and a martyr of the communist uprising. He is a

Sayyid ''Sayyid'' (, ; ar, سيد ; ; meaning 'sir', 'Lord', 'Master'; Arabic plural: ; feminine: ; ) is a surname of people descending from the Prophets in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali ...

(a descendant of the

Islamic prophet Prophets in Islam ( ar, الأنبياء في الإسلام, translit=al-ʾAnbiyāʾ fī al-ʾIslām) are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God in Islam, God's message on Earth and to serve as models of ideal human behaviour. So ...

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

), through his grandson

Husayn ibn Ali Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, أبو عبد الله الحسين بن علي بن أبي طالب; 10 January 626 – 10 October 680) was a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a son of Ali ibn Abi ...

. The surname "Hafiz" comes from his great grandfather's name, a branch of the family of "Shaykh Abubakr bin Salim", which is also the name of his paternal thirteenth generation progenitor. His lineage is recorded as follows: He is Umar bin Muhammad, bin Salim, bin Hafiz, bin Abd Allah, bin Abu Bakr, bin Aydarus, bin Umar, bin Aydarus, bin Umar, bin Abu Bakr, bin Aydarus, bin Husayn, bin Fakhr al-Wujūd al-Shaykh Abu Bakr, bin Salim, bin Abd Allah, bin Abd al-Rahman, bin Abd Allah, bin Abd al-Rahman al-Saqqaf, bin Muhammad Mawla al-Dawilah, bin Ali Mawla al-Darak, bin Alawi al-Ghayur, bin Muhammad al-Faqih al-Muqaddam, bin Ali, bin Muhammad Sahib al-Mirbat, bin Ali Khali Qasam, bin Alawi al-Thani, bin Muhammad Sahib al-Sawma'ah, bin Alawi al-Awwal, bin Ubayd Allah, bin Ahmad al-Muhajir, bin Isa al-Rumi, bin Muhammad al-Naqib, bin Ali al-Uraydi, bin Ja'far al-Sadiq, bin Muhammad al-Baqir, bin Ali Zayn al-Abidin, bin Husayn, bin

Ali bin Abi Talib ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...

and

Fatimah al-Zahra Fāṭima bint Muḥammad ( ar, فَاطِمَة ٱبْنَت مُحَمَّد}, 605/15–632 CE), commonly known as Fāṭima al-Zahrāʾ (), was the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his wife Khadija. Fatima's husband was Ali, th ...

, the daughter of

Early life

Having memorized the Qu'ran at a very young age, Habib also studied and memorized core texts in

Fiqh ''Fiqh'' (; ar, فقه ) is Islamic jurisprudence. Muhammad-> Companions-> Followers-> Fiqh. The commands and prohibitions chosen by God were revealed through the agency of the Prophet in both the Quran and the Sunnah (words, deeds, and ...

(Islamic jurisprudence), the

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

Hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval ...

(Prophetic traditions) and many other religious sciences. He studied Islamic sciences including spirituality from his father. Later, he enrolled at the Ribat of al-Bayda', where he began studying the traditional Islamic sciences under the tutelage of Al-Habib Muhammad bin Abd-Allah al-Haddar, as well as under the Shafi‘i jurist and scholar Al-Habib Zain bin Sumait. Habib Omar was given permission to teach soon after. He then studied under the mufti of Ta‘iz, al-Habib Ibrahim bin Aqil bin Yahya. He also studied under Shaikh al-Habib Muhammad al-Haddar, who gave him his daughter's hand in marriage. Bin Hafiz then traveled to the

Hejaz The Hejaz (, also ; ar, ٱلْحِجَاز, al-Ḥijāz, lit=the Barrier, ) is a region in the west of Saudi Arabia. It includes the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif, and Baljurashi. It is also known as the "Western Provin ...

and studied several books with scholars, including Al-Habib Abdul Qadir bin Ahmad al-Saqqaf, Al-Habib Ahmed Mashur al-Haddad, and Al-Habib Attas al-Habashi. At the age of 15, Habib began to teach, while continuing to study and receive lessons.

Career

After returning to Tarim, bin Hafiz established

, an Islamic educational seminary. Habib currently lives in Tarim, where he oversees the development of Dar al-Mustafa and the schools that have been set up under his management. Dar al-Mustafa has been featured in

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

. His seminary accepts students from a variety of countries. Some of his prominent students in the UK include Shaykh Ibrahim Osi Efa, and in the United States, Shaykh Abdul Karim Yahya and Shaykh John (Yahya) Rhodus, while his prominent students in Indonesia include the late Habib

Munzir Al-Musawa Habib Munzir bin Fuad Al-Musawa ( ar, منذر المساوى '; February 23, 1973 – September 15, 2013) was an Indonesian Islamic cleric, teacher, da'i and founder of the Majelis Rasulullah religious organization. Early life Munzir was born ...

. Habib travels regularly to meet with students and leaders, deliver talks and media interviews, and participate in official and private functions. Among the places he has been include: the Persian Gulf states, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Sudan, Mali, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, the Comoros Islands, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, and Spain. He has connected to the chains of transmission of the scholars of these regions. In 2006, Habib met with Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri; they exchanged knowledge on Islam, and he also received an Ijazah (certificate to teach) of

from Tahir-ul-Qadri. In 2007, Habib joined the ranks of the world's leading Muslim academics and scholars as a signatory to A Common Word Between Us and You, a document that builds bridges between the Muslim and Christian communities. He has also spoken at Cambridge University on the need for such a dialogue. In July 2008, he partnered with Muslim Aid Australia as founder of Yemen-based NGO Al-Rafah Charitable Society to address issues of poverty and hunger and lack of sufficient health care that affect areas of Tarim. In 2011, Habib toured the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States for outreach purposes and da'wah (calling others to Islam).

Recognition

In 2019, Habib was listed at number 8 in The 500 Most Influential Muslims, an annual ranking compiled by

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

's Prince Al-Waleed Center for Muslim–Christian Understanding and the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre of Jordan. Habib has appeared in the list's top 50 every year since its inaugural publication in 2009.

Writings and publications

Habib has many audio and visual publications as well as writings. Among the latter are: * ''Mukhtar al-Hadith: Selection of Noble Prophetic Traditions'' (published in 2011 by the Ribat Institute; ) * Two collections of hadith: ''Selections from Shifa al-Saqim'' (al-Mukhtar min Shifa al-Saqim) and ''The Light of Faith From the Speech of the Beloved of al-Rahman'' (Nur al-Iman min Kalam Habib al-Rahman) * ''Aid to Those Seeking the Creator's Pleasure, by Clarifying the Noble Traits of Character'' (Is’af Talibi Rida al-Khallaq bi Bayan Makarim al-Akhlaq) * ''Advice to Students'' (Tawjihat al-Tullab) * ''Our Traits'' (Khuluquna) * ''Forthpourings of Favor from the Mercy of the Giver of Favors'' (Fa’idat al-mann min Rahamat Wahhab al-Minan) * ''Directing the Intelligent to the Contentment of the Beneficent'' (Tawjih al-Nabih li-Mardat Barih) * ''The Glorious Treasure'' (al-Dhakira al-Musharrafa) * ''The Summary of Prophetic Aid'', a book of invocations (Khuslasa al-Maddad al-Nabawi fil-Adhkar) * Two mawlids, celebrating the life of Muhammad: ''The Shimmering Light Mentioning the Birth of the Interceding Prophet'' (al-Diya al-Lami' fi Dhikr Mawlid al-Nabi al-Shafi') and ''The Pure Drink Mentioning the Life of the Fullest of Moons'' (al-Sharab al-Tuhur fi Dhikri Sirati Badri al-Budur) * ''The Forthpouring of Spiritual Aid, a Compilation of Sermons'' (Fayd al-Imdad) * ''The Preacher’s Refinement'' (Thaqafat al- Khatib) * A collection of poetry

References

External links

Official Website
*
Facebook Page of Habib Omar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bin Hafiz, Umar 1963 births Living people Asharis Shafi'is Yemeni Sufis Sunni Sufis Muslim reformers Scholars of Sufism Yemeni Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam Yemeni imams Hadhrami people Hashemite people 20th-century Yemeni people