محمد أبو زهرة
Abu Zahrah (RH)
Muhammad Abu Zahrah
Also known as: Muhammad Abu Zahra, Abu Zuhrah
1315–1394 AH · 1898–1974 CE
Fiqh
Egyptian jurist known for his studies of the four imams and the schools of law.
Muhammad Abu Zahrah was born in al-Mahalla al-Kubra in the Nile Delta and studied at the Ahmadi mosque in Tanta and then at the School of Sharia Judges in Cairo. He taught at al-Azhar's Faculty of Theology and, from 1933, in the Faculty of Law of Cairo University, where he headed the department of Islamic law.
He wrote some forty books. The best known are his studies of the great imams, Abu Hanifah, Malik, al-Shafi'i, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ja'far al-Sadiq, Ibn Hazm and Ibn Taymiyyah, each tracing the scholar's life, times and method, and his history of the Islamic schools of theology and law. He was a member of al-Azhar's Islamic Research Academy.
Life journey
- 1898 CE al-Mahalla al-Kubra المحلة الكبرى
- 1916 CE Cairo (al-Qahira) القاهرةDied 1974 CE · 1394 AHStudied at the School of Sharia Judges and taught at al-Azhar and Cairo University.
Students
- Wahbah al-Zuhayli (RH) 1932–2015 CEAl-Zuhayli studied with Abu Zahrah in Cairo in the 1950s.
Key works
- Tarikh al-Madhahib al-Islamiyyah تاريخ المذاهب الإسلاميةHistory of the Islamic SchoolsA survey of the schools of theology and law and their founders.
Places in their life
Photo: CumaliOnal, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Sources
- Khayr al-Din al-Zirikli, al-A'lam