Mourning For The Deceased, The Scholar Prof. Abdul Karim Zidan, May God Have Mercy On Him

Written by / Dr. Omar Khader Hamid Al-Kubaisi

   During his long life, which exceeds ninety years by several years, the name of Abdul Karim Zaidan as an Islamic figure in the sixties in Baghdad after he completed his studies to obtain a master's and doctorate from Cairo University, I knew him from a distance in Al-Karkh because of the age difference, but I listened his speeches and lectures in Baghdad with admiration and I was then a student In middle school, I met him with peace and handshake afterwards, while I was in high school and the medical college in the Al-Karkh side when he was studying at the Qur’an memorization school behind Islamic education and Al-Karkh high school, which overlooks the banks of the Tigris .

I got used to seeing him only as a cheerful man or a bearer of a book, simple-groomed, with serenity and humility in his face, and he met, and he was known at the time as one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and enjoyed among its members a wide degree of influence and appreciation. I used to see him on my way to Al-Karkh High School and when he passed our house in the alleys of Al-Takarah, where he was on his way back and forth to his residence in the locality and I used to see him in every celebration or religious occasion and in the Friday prayers in the Karkh mosques and its seminars and the glitter of this man rose when we were students in the university studying in cafes Al-Karkh and we hear from students of the Faculty of Law, Literature and Islamic Studies, which he founded and held his scientific positions until he obtained the degree of an experienced professor, about their admiration for the thought, scientific and jurisprudence of the deceased, and his rigor and sobriety in teaching and discussion. Politically, the deceased emerged as a Brotherhood leadership in the post-Sheikh Muhammad al-Sawaf period with solid and corrective stances in the midst of the volatile political conflict that swept Iraq in the 1960s between the political parties that participated in this conflict and witnessed the growth of the Muslim Brotherhood movement in the university milieu as an effective force with its broad and disciplined base, which is of great credit. Abdel-Karim Zaidan's leadership has its calm and modest characteristics, which soon turn into courage, toughness in the position, clarity of speech, and a clear and decisive opinion statement when the situation is required in a period when nationalist, secular and liberal political parties and movements were extremely hostile and the Muslim Brotherhood was stigmatized sometimes with subordination and sometimes reactionary. The deceased left Iraq for Yemen to continue teaching at Sana'a University and Al-Iman University, and he won the King Faisal International Prize for an extensive research on the jurisprudence of women in Islam, printed in 12 volumes, as well as membership in councils of scholars, the Islamic League, and many high jurisprudential councils .

I met this honorable Sheikh after the occupation of Iraq in Amman, just before the parliamentary elections for the first round, and he was in the late eighties of age convex in stature and leaning on crutches. The first meeting and discussion with him was in a meeting held in the office of Sheikh Khamis Al-Khanjar about the political process in Iraq and its position in the presence of many opinion leaders The scholars are trying to reconcile between those who call to participate in it, represented by the Islamic party, and those who boycott it, represented by Sheikh Harith Al-Dhari and the Association of Muslim Scholars, opposing his opinion of leaving the matter to the conviction and desire of individuals because he does not see in the political process set by the occupation with its content as righteous while the deceased authorized the fatwa of participation conditional on performance and evaluation And he considered that leaving the nation without a legitimate direction according to the options of the Sunnis is unacceptable. At that time, I found him despite the weakness of the body, the advancement of age, and the disease.I was among those who objected to his fatwa, with strength and solidity, hoping to leave the sheikh al-Dari on his opinion without influence because of the maliciousness and destruction that the course of politics carries in its contents, which is far from the content of the legal texts and closer to the developments of the events that followed the occupation and the disappointed constitution that was written with the will of the occupiers and contributed to passing it by diligence It is not justified by the leadership of the Islamic Party when it agreed to accept it the night before the referendum. And she stressed that, through its legal and jurisprudential consensus, it should not be a tool for pressure on them who are aware of the reality of Iraq in order to live in it and follow its affairs (among the worldly matters) while he lives far away from it for more than a decade busy with research and teaching of jurisprudence, so that many of the attendees blamed me for what How do I discuss this great Sheikh so severely while he is sick in the body even though I am a doctor who is supposed to appreciate his health condition, so I answered them that whoever invited him to come from Yemen to Amman and he knows his health status to order him to participate in the political process bears the responsibility for that at that time I felt that Sheikh Abdul Karim Zidan had listened Accurately to what I said, and perhaps he found favor with the points that I influenced, he began discussing them calmly and scientifically .

Not a year has passed since that incident, and the Sheikh was calling me from Yemen, saying that my concerns and warnings at the time were correct, and that while he was witnessing the events of displacement and killing that the Sunnis were subjected to in Iraq without a firm political reaction to the Sunni representatives, I lost hope in the viability of continuing, but he will wait for more time to cancel the mandate to remain in The political process, if they remain the same and that he is coming to Amman soon and wants to meet whoever can be seen in it to correct the situation. Indeed, the visit took place, and our meeting was repeated during and after it, especially with regard to the formation of the Awakening and overcoming its actions by directly damaging the act of the national resistance and targeting its youth. Thus, the relationship between me and him strengthened as a patient and a doctor who followed his condition during his successive visits and as a thinker with whom I discuss the situation of Iraq and his position on its crises, including the formation of awakening, the issue of regions, displacement and displacement. The deceased, as I knew him in continuous depth and long discussions, was really a model for the devoted jurist, the pious, the pious, the humble, the one who kept the Qur’an, the hadith, the biography and the jurisprudence of the doctrines, and adhered to the views of Ibn Taymiyyah in a way that the mind could not imagine .

  His positions on the Awakening Councils were clear by rejecting them because they are fighting under the banner of an occupying power, and his positions in the aspects of jihad, forms of confrontation and confrontation, and the legitimacy of resistance to the occupation are more clear, and his prohibition of extending a hand of aid to the foreign occupier is categorically clear. He was very attached to his fatwa or opinion, and he asked to write the text in writing and repeat its reading before he fingerprinted his statements and opinions on it. He was the first to confront the idea of ​​federalism and considered it a division that served the interests of the enemies and occupiers, disregards the unity of Iraq and the nation, and was illegal. He wrote his fatwa prohibiting it during this visit and was published in Amman .

The great sheikh was very attached to and communicating with following up on the events of Iraq despite his advanced age and his distance from Iraq. He used to repeat the phone call to inquire about the events and their developments, and he gave his opinion and recommendations in them clearly. This great sheikh continued to visit Amman whenever the opportunity arose, and he was keen to visit me in my diwaniyya and talk in it with the audience with youthful determination, loudness, smooth speech and coherence of vocabulary, while his physical condition did not help him to move except on a chair with the help of someone accompanying him, he used to leave his hands on my head I bid him farewell and recite the ruqyah and pray for me, and deep down his palm was like a cold on a feverish body as I felt it .

  This scholar, scholar, researcher, thinker, notary, and teacher has served the nation with all that was given of knowledge, piety and piety, and went to his Lord, chaste, honest, and clean. He is the original Iraqi born in Anah (1917 AD or 1921 AD) and affiliated with the Mahamideh clan and lover of Baghdad and attached to it and remained to the last day of his life an ascetic living on his university salary, which he earns with a simple and modest life, moving away from political positions .

And if Yemen has contributed to containing this intellectual and research treasure and has valued its value, achievements and writings, then thanks go to Sheikh Khamis Al-Khanjar, who called me this morning, Monday January 28, with good tidings to me, knowing the depth of my attachment to the deceased by sponsoring him and being able to equip a special plane that will transport his body to Baghdad for burial with the media who preceded him By leaving and accompanying them throughout his life in the march of knowledge and knowledge, such as Sheikh Al-Zahawi, Al-Azami, the preacher, Al-Alusi, Al-Khatib, Bayrah, and others. After the occupation, we have become accustomed to the scattering of graves of Iraqi symbols and competencies in various quarters of creation, which is no longer a plot of land that does not contain the graves of the Iraqis, and this is God's will that He wrote on them .

May God have mercy on the deceased, the scholar and thinker, Prof. Dr. Abdul Karim Zidan Beg al-Ani, and he inspired the Islamic, Arab and Iraqi world with his loss of patience and solace, and we belong to God and to Him we shall return .

Amman, January 28, 2014