Saturday, September 20, 2014

Shaykh Mustafa Mahmoud al-Azhari

I have been to weekly tafsir classes by Shaykh Mustafa Mahmoud al-Azhari in Masjid as-Syakirin, KLCC. I was introduced to Shaykh Mustafa by my friend (Yassir) who had known him in Houston,Texas.  The class just started on 30/8/14 and will be conducted every Saturday from 930-1130  am. So far, there are only less than 10 students in our class. Shaykh Mustafa just moved from Houston, Texas to Kuala Lumpur few months ago and he is not well known to Malaysian public.

Shaykh Mustafa Mahmoud, age 65 was born in Cairo in 1949. He is purely Azhar-trained scholar who received his primary/secondary/tertiary education in Al-Azhar, Egypt.  He completed his degree in 1974 and work as lecturer in Al-Azhar University from 1974-1979. Among his notable teachers in Al-Azhar :

  1. Shaykh Mutawalli Sha'rawi, the famous scholar of tafsir in Egypt of his time
  2. Shaykh Hasanain Makhluf, the former Grand Mufti of Egypt
  3. Shaykh Abdul Halim Mahmud, the former Shaykhul Azhar
  4. Shaykh Muhammad Ghazali

In the year of 1979 to 1983, he was sent by al-Azhar to Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan. He taught Quran lessons including tafsir and Arabic language. In 1983, he returned to Egypt and continued his teaching profession until 1986. He was again sent abroad by al-Azhar for teaching, this time to Ghana, Africa until 1992. 

Shaykh Mustafa spent another few years  in Cairo, Egypt before being sent to Texas, US in 1995. Unlike akistan and Ghana, he continued to stay in Texas, US for the next 19 years. He actively involved in da'wa and propagation of Islam in Houston, Texas. He was the Imam of Masjid Bilal, Houston and also Head of Ulama and Fatwa Council Committee of North America. Apart from that, he was the Vice President of NAIF (North America Imam Federation).

His tafsir class in Masjid As-Syakirin is currently commenting on the Juz 'Amma (Surah Naba). No specific tafsir are used, only the translation of the Holy Quran in English. Shaykh Mustafa is using some classical tafsir as his sources including Tafsir of Ibn Kathir, Zamakshari (Kasyaf), at-Tabari and Baydawi. 

His classes are open to public. Kindly pm me if interested. 

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