About The Sheikh Biography

Sheikh  Abdul Karim Zidan, may Allah have mercy on him, did not write his biography with a book that collects it, and he did not care much for this (may  Allah  have mercy on him), but  Allah  willing that a researcher at Al-Azhar University would register a doctoral thesis entitled (The efforts of Dr. Abdul Karim Zaidan in the service of the Islamic call) One of the requirements of this letter is that a complete chapter be devoted to the sheikh’s life. This researcher asked the Sheikh many questions which he sent to Sana'a - where he was residing at the time - and the Sheikh answered them in his own handwriting at the time. He often and in different sessions answered questions asked to him, and during his answer he mentioned some of the stages of his life and the events that the Islamic call went through in Iraq, and these hadiths, praise be to Allah, were recorded with sound sometimes and with sound and image at other times.

In 2013 AD, when the idea of ​​creating a website crystallized and the Sheikh himself agreed to them at the time, these answers were compiled and added to them a dump of the audio and video recordings - which are very many - and published on his website under the title ((About the Sheikh)), knowing that nothing else was added. Its content is different from what we have previously shown, to be truly a true biography of the life of Sheikh Abdul Karim Zidan that he himself mentioned, may Allah

 have mercy on him.

Sheikh Abdul Karim Zidan says:

  Abd al-Karim Zidan Beg al-Ani, al-Kahli al-Muhammadi, (Beige) is the name of my grandfather, my father, and (al-Ani) in relation to the town of (Anah) in Anbar Governorate, where my father and grandfather were born. And (Al-Kahli) in relation to the group (Al-Kahleen) and Al-Kahliids belong to the Mahameda clan and (Al-Muhammadi) relative to the Al-Mahamda clan, and Al-Kahli and Al-Mahamada live in Anbar Governorate in various cities of this province such as (Anah, Fallujah, Ramadi, Haditha and Heet) I do not use any title with my name, but I remember my name without any affiliation with the town of (Anah) and belonging to the Al-Kahlain or the Mahameda clan. I do not even mention with my name the name of my grandfather except in official documents that require mentioning the name of the grandfather.

My birth was in Baghdad next to Al-Karkh in the (Suq Hamada area) in 1917 AD and as recorded in official documents and the correct one is 1339 AH (1921 AD). A representative of the civil registry, families come with their children, and the age is estimated based on consideration and appreciation of the child standing in front of them, and the birth of my parents and grandfather in (Anah). I am the youngest of my brothers, sons and daughters, and everyone has died, may Allah have mercy on them. My father died at the age of three, and my mother died, and I am a man, may Allah bless them.

My upbringing was simple and I was sent when I was young to (the Alkutab) meaning (The mullah) who teaches young people to read the Holy Qur’an and memorize it or memorize part of it. I grew up in the Karkh side of Baghdad, and I was (spoiled) in my family because my father passed away and I was three years old, and my brothers and my mother were They answered me a lot and felt this overwhelming love and great broad sympathy to the point that I did not feel (orphan) and my status remained with my brothers and my mother like this until the stage of youth that I reached. This was the norm to send children to the book - that is, the mullah - while they were young to learn the Noble Qur’an. The education of the mullah was systematic and serious, and the mullah sat on a high chair and watched his young students and pointed with his stick that he was carrying if he did not like the movements of the youngsters. And if he saw one of his students distinguished himself in reading and memorizing the Qur’an, he would make it a “caliph”, meaning a teacher for the new children who came to his office. The relationship of the students of the Mullah’s office was that they obeyed and respected him out of fear, not out of love. We learned from the mullah and his office the seriousness and order, may Allah reward him well for us. And the keeper of some surahs of the Holy Qur’an assigns him to the Mullah to teach the new ones the short surahs of the Holy Qur’an, and I remember Mullah Dawood on the side of Al-Karkh and Mulla Rajab, and after Mullah my older brother took me to Al-Karkh Primary School to enroll me in the first grade, and there were very few primary schools in Baghdad and in Al-Karkh and the desire to Entry to it is few and turnout is few. And after I spent six years in Al-Karkh Elementary School, my brother took me and registered me in (Al-Karkh Intermediate School), and she was the only one in the Al-Karkh side, and the study there was three years, and the study in it was serious and systematic and the study materials are so wide that she now studies at the secondary stage, and after I finished this school stage I joined the (high school), which was the only one in Baghdad at the time, and it had two branches: the literary branch and the scientific branch. I took the literary branch and spent two years in this high school, which is the period of study there. After I graduated from it and obtained a (secondary) certificate, I preferred to join the primary education profession Due to my family's need to earn my money, I was appointed in the mid-thirties as a teacher outside Baghdad in Diyala governorate for a period of four years, which I spent in Abu Saida School, then in Muqdadiya, after which I transferred to one of Baghdad’s primary schools to teach there, which is Al-Mashahda School, then a teacher at Al-Karkh Primary School.

And it happened that the Minister of Almaerif (meaning the Minister of Education) issued a decision in early 1946 AD according to which old high school graduates may be admitted to the College of Law or the College of Commerce even if they are state employees, so I chose the College of Law and was affiliated with it in the evening section because I was still in the education system Elementary school, and the Faculty of Law has a great influence on me due to my close relationship with it, which passed in two stages (the first) in which I was a student until I graduated (and the second) in which I was a teacher. And what I noticed was that I demanded the seriousness of teaching with the professors, with their keenness to benefit the students, and their method of explanation was easy, free from complexity and deviating from the subject of the lesson. With explanations, they were as if the birds were on their heads, so they would not hear any murmuring, speech or comment Turning their eyes to their professor as he explains the lesson, listening to what he says, even as if the classroom is his courtroom where the attendees do not speak, but look at the action of the case and listen to what the litigants or the president of the court say. Some of the legal subjects taught at the Faculty of Law at the time were the introduction to the study of Islamic Sharia, marriage, divorce, inheritance, the subject of fundamentals of jurisprudence, and the subject of transactions according to the codified Hanafi jurisprudence at the time of the Ottoman Empire and it was issued under the name (Journal of Judicial Rulings) and it contained 1851 articles and this magazine was the civil law in Iraq and remained In effect until the year 1951 AD, when the Iraqi Civil Law was drawn up and became effective in the year 1951 AD. Thus, the magazine that represented the codified Hanafi jurisprudence, meaning the formulated legal formulation, was canceled with serial materials. The teaching of these legal subjects in the College of Law was an incentive for me and motivated me to read various books of Islamic jurisprudence Because it has become, in my view, the legitimate source of legal subjects taught in the Faculty of Law. I graduated from the Faculty of Law in the year 1950 AD and I was one of the first among the successful in the four years of study in the Faculty of Law and I obtained a degree (BA) in law with a good grade as I was successful in this Class (good) in Every year of my studies at the Faculty of Law, knowing that success with a grade of "good" was not easy, but rather it was dear and difficult. Then I moved from the primary education line to the education line in middle and high schools to teach the subject (religion) at (Adhamiya School) for a short period and then at (Al-Karkh High School).

In the year 1953 AD, I was appointed director of the (Najibiya high school), after which I took the position of inspector in the Ministry of Endowments, then director of Diyala Endowments, then director of the Religious High School.

Then I joined the Institute of Islamic Sharia at the Faculty of Law at Cairo University and I obtained a diploma in this institute after I successfully completed two years of study in it and presented a research in Islamic jurisprudence entitled (The Impact of Intention on Actions and Contracts) and the diploma that I obtained was with an excellent grade, which is equivalent to a master's degree. In the year 1958 A.D., one of the sheikhs who taught me with my colleagues was Sheikh Muhammad Abu Zahra, Sheikh Ali Al-Khafif, Sheikh Hassan Mamoun (Sheikh of Al-Azhar at the time), Sheikh Muhammad Al-Zafzaf, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Sanhouri and others whose names did not bring me and these were all passed away by Allah Almighty, may 

Allah  have mercy on them. In the College of Law at the University of Baghdad in 1960 AD, I was assigned to teach the subject (Introduction to studying Islamic law) for first-year students, and the subject (Fundamentals of Jurisprudence) for fourth-year students. For the first article a book (Introduction to the Study of Islamic Law) was written and the book for the second article (Al-Wajeez in Fundamentals of Fiqh) was a methodical teaching seriousness, There is no joke in it or a departure from its subject matter with the simplification of the phrase and the absence of the method of explanation of complexity. Then I recorded the subject of my doctoral thesis at the Faculty of Law at Cairo University and the topic was entitled (Rulings of the Dhimmis and the Trustees in the Dar-Al-Islam) under the supervision of Professor Muhammad Salam Madkour, may 
Allah  have mercy on him, and after completing and discussing it, I was awarded from Cairo University a doctorate degree in law (in Islamic law) with the first honor. Among the members of the discussion and judgment committee is Dr. Abdel Moneim Al-Badrawi, may 
Allah  have mercy on him, who had studied civil law in depth at the Faculty of Law in Baghdad during his arrival at the time as a visiting professor, and during my study there - that is, in Cairo - I met Sheikh Muhammad Abu Zahra, who was teaching us the subject of Islamic doctrines in The Institute of Islamic Studies affiliated to the Faculty of Law, Cairo University. I also met Sheikh Ali Al-Khafif, who used to study Islamic theories, and I met him again in Baghdad the day he came to study ShariaI met Sheikh Muhammad Salam Madkour, who was supervising my doctoral thesis, and I also met Sheikh Muhammad Zafzaf, and we had meetings in his house and many others.

In the sixties, I participated in the Encyclopedia of Islamic Jurisprudence issued by the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs in Kuwait, through writing some topics therein, and participated in the third session of Law and Political Science held in Baghdad in 1969 under the auspices of the League of Arab States and a discussion in it in general international law in Islamic law.

She was transferred from the Faculty of Law to the Department of Religion at the College of Arts at the University of Baghdad, and she obtained the scientific ranks from teaching assistant teacher to teacher, then to assistant professor, then to associate professor, then to professor, and after she retired forcibly in 1978AD she was granted the title of (experienced professor This is a scientific title granted to a retired who obtains a professor’s degree and has superior services in the field of university education and has a distinguished scientific output. The holder of this title has many advantages that resemble the advantages of the actual professor at the university.

As for the academic positions that I have held, they are university education positions in the College of Law and the College of Arts at the University of Baghdad, with teaching in private colleges. The fundamentals of the da'wah, which is my dearest book, and the first book of fatwa is al-Wajeez in the fundamentals of jurisprudence, as I was studying it at the College of Law, University of Baghdad, as well as the other book, which is the entrance to the study of Islamic law, and I was studying it in the College of Law as well . In the seventies of the last century, I was chosen as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Islamic University in Madinah, and a member of the Board of Trustees of Al-Iman University since 1420 AH, as well as a member of the jury for the award of the late Hayel Saeed Anam for Science and Arts in 1998 CE and a member of the Fiqh Council Council The Islamic affiliate of the Muslim World League in Makkah Al-Mukarramah since 2000 AD.

In the College of Islamic Studies, I studied the Islamic faith in the book (The Tahawi Creed) by Imam al-Tahawi, but I refined it and omitted from it the verbal studies and discussions with the leaders of the verbal sects such as the Mu'tazila and others because I thought that the first is to teach students the pure belief without cramming them with the owners of the sects and their views on the Islamic belief and focusing on what came In the Qur’an and Sunnah, the righteous predecessors of the Companions and their followers followed it with kindness.

I became Minister of Endowments in the Ministry that was established after the 1968 coup, and I was appointed without consulting with me. However, the ministry that was formed by the owners of the coup in 1968 CE soon replaced it thirteen days after its formation, and my name was not mentioned in the new alternative ministry, and thank Allah. I T
raveled to Hajj twice, the first in the early 1950s, and upon my return I visited Al-Quds Al-Sharif and the Levant and met some scholars there, such as Sheikh Al-Albani -may  Allah  have mercy on him- and others.

As for my request to learn, I mentioned the scientific stages that I went through and the scientific certificates I obtained, and I add here to what I mentioned that I was passionate about reading jurisprudence books and attending councils of scholars and preaching councils in the month of Ramadan and at a stage of my life my tendency to Sufism and attending Sufi councils increased to a degree I belonged to one of their paths, which is (The Abu Khumra Method), which is a branch of the Rifa’i order, and I have been influenced by the books of Sufism. Ibn al-Qayyim was keen in his book Madarij al-Salekeen to clarify the legal guidelines for what is said or received from the methods and sayings of the Sufis, as this book had a great influence on my Sufi tendencies restricted by the rules of Sharia.

This is because I did not receive any legal scholarship from a specific scholar except for the evacuated sheikhs who were studying students of the Sharia Institute at Cairo University to which I referred and I was a student of its students, and I also studied some legal subjects at the College of Law at the University of Baghdad at the hands of Sheikh Hamdi Al-Azami The one who used to study us in the fields of jurisprudence, except that I used to frequent the sign of Iraq and the head of the Association of Scholars Sheikh / Amjad Al-Zahawi, may 
Allah  have mercy on him. His piety, his piety, his uttering the truth, and not being afraid of anyone because his fear of 
Allah  kept him away from his fear of others, regardless of this other person, and the truth is that I have never seen anything like him in his piety and sincerity, may 
Allah  have mercy on him and bring him into his spaciousness.

She held the position of Head of the Islamic Studies Department at the College of Law and Head of the Religion Department at the College of Arts. After being referred to retirement, I worked for a short period as a lawyer, and I had an office in Al-Mutanabi Street in Baghdad, and this was when I was forced to retire in 1978 AD.

Then I devoted myself to writing my book (
Almufassal Fi 'Ahkam Almar'at Walbayt Almuslim Fi Alshsharieat Al'islamia ), which is located in 11 volumes and was awarded to the King Faisal International Prize in 1997 AD.

The scientific centers occupied and still optional member of the Islamic Fiqh Council of the Muslim World League in Makkah and still a member of the Fiqh Council, as well as a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of faith since the year 1420 AH / (1999) AD.

As for the administrative positions, I held the position of Associate Dean of the College of Law for Student Affairs at the University of Baghdad, and the Dean of the College of Islamic Studies in Baghdad, which is a private college established with the approval of the Ministry of Higher Education and the study in it is evening, and it is concerned with the study of Islamic Sharia, and many students of Islamic law and those of influence and prestige have graduated in it. In Iraq and abroad, and head of the religion department at the College of Arts, University of Baghdad.

As for scientific conferences and symposia, I was invited to give lectures on Islamic law in the State of Kuwait in the sixties of the last century. I also attended a jurisprudence conference in Riyadh in the seventies, representing the University of Baghdad, and gave a paper in it entitled (Restrictions on Private Property Contained in Islamic Law), as well as participating in the Third International Conference on Biography. And the Prophet’s Sunnah that was held in the State of Qatar in the year 1400 AH / 1979 AD. Lectures were given at the Islamic Fiqh Week in the State of Qatar in 1995 and 1996, as well as participating in the symposium on establishing the people and ruling of the astronomical observatories established in Sana’a in January 1996AD. And participation in the first Islamic banking conference held in Sanaa in 1997 AD, and participation in a symposium (Dawa requirements in light of contemporary data) which was established by the University of Sharjah in 2001 and presented a research entitled (Dawa in the present age, reality - obstacles - solutions) and many others.

In 1992, I came to Yemen and was assigned to the Department of Islamic Studies at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Sana'a, where I was assigned to teach various legal subjects. I also studied various branches of Islamic law and the jurisprudence of the Hanafi school of higher studies at Al-Iman University. He studies from my books in various governmental and private universities and colleges in Yemen, such as the Book of Al-Wajeez in the Fundamentals of Fiqh, Fundamentals of Da`wah, the Judicial System and Introduction to the Study of Islamic Law. I wrote a book in it as a reference for them in the study of the subject.

I lived through the monarchy and the military coups that followed, starting with the July coup in 1958 and the subsequent military coups that ended with the occupation of Iraq by America in 2003 AD. In summary, the social transformations that occurred in this period of time were their apparent features that the legal controls that set them have weakened greatly, and constipation. What must be adhered to from the Shariah controls in social relations has also weakened, and as for my role and the role of those involved in religious matters like me is to clarify the Sharia rulings in social and other matters, and the Sharia ruling in these new facts.

In the field of advocacy for Islam, I have contributed to it as much as possible, by joining the Muslim Brotherhood since the 1950s, and through religious lessons in mosques and taking the method of commenting on the Friday sermon delivered by the Friday sermon, and that was after the completion of the Friday prayer and commenting on those who wanted in the mosque to hear the comment. I contributed to the advocacy field by contributing to writing in the Journal of the Islamic Education Association, the Journal of Islamic Brothers, the Muslim Magazine, and many others, and by giving lectures on religious occasions for which religious societies hold public celebrations and meetings And, with a group of my brothers in Islamic work (Dr. Abed Tawfiq Al-Hashemi, Dr. Fadel Al-Samarrai, Dr. Musaed Musallam Al-Hadithi, Dr. Hussein Al-Jubouri, and others), I sought to establish a college dealing with Islamic studies, and this endeavor culminated in the establishment of the College of Islamic Studies in Baghdad specialized in education The higher education in the sciences of the faith and Islamic law to preserve the Islamic heritage and perform the faithfulness of the Islamic message by teaching and advocacy, and to graduate working scholars with an Islamic culture, high scientific competence and the ability to bring the behavior of the individual and society closer to the principles of Islamic law.

I joined the Muslim Brotherhood, as I mentioned in the fifties, specifically in the summer of 1369 AH /1950 AD after I graduated from the Faculty of Law. And I remember that Brother (Mustafa Al-Waheb) gave me pamphlets about the Muslim Brotherhood and their approach to da'wah, so I liked it and decided to join this blessed group, so we went to Sawaf, and my joining the Brotherhood was since that time, and at that time I was attending the Brotherhood’s division center in Adhamiya and met Brother Numan al-Samarrai and it was At that time a generalized student in the College of Sharia.

 After he left Iraq for Saudi Arabia, His Eminence, the working scholar, Muhammad Mahmoud al-Sawaf, General Observer of the Brotherhood in 1377 AH / 1959 AD due to his threat to death by the regime and communism, I was chosen by the Central Association of the Brotherhood in Iraq as a general observer of the Muslim Brotherhood movement and I have continued in this capacity until now despite attempts Some work illegally and illegally to walk the group with a new observer.

Upon the arrival of the Ba'athists to power and the restriction of the Brotherhood, I issued a decision and circulated to the Brotherhood to change the work formula from the form of collective advocacy work to the form of individual advocacy work, and not, as some say - unfortunately - that I have frozen or stopped work, so the call to 
Allah  does not stop, but its form can be changed. And its methods according to the reality in which Muslims live.

The monarchy was a rule considered better than others or less bad than others, and the freedoms of individuals were apparent except in periods of internal rebellions, and after this era I got harassed during the various military coups in their different forms from time to time. And it ended by referring me to retirement and then I left Iraq, as I did not have the freedom that I wanted in terms of souls, coming and moving, and my stability in Yemen was until now.

Abdel Karim Zidan

Sunday 25 Rabi` al-Awwal 1435 AH corresponding to 1-26-2014 AD