Gad al-Haq Ali Gad al-Haq also spelled Jadd al-Haqq (; 5 April 1917 – 15 March 1996) was

Grand Imam of Al-Azhar The Grand Imam of al-Azhar (), also known as Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar (), is a prestigious and a prominent official title in Egypt and the Islamic world. The current Grand Imam is Ahmed el-Tayeb, who assumed the role on 10 March 2010. The Grand ...

from 1982 to 1996. Tim Winterbr>OBITUARY: Sheikh Gad al-Haq Ali Gad al-Haq
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 18 March 1996. Accessed 13 January 2013.

Life

Born in Batra, Dakahlia Governorate and educated at a village school in the

Nile Delta The Nile Delta (, or simply , ) is the River delta, delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's larger deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the eas ...

, he gained his scholar degree from

al-Azhar University The Al-Azhar University ( ; , , ) is a public university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and is known as one of the most prestigious universities for Islamic ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

. Finding a job as a clerk in the Mufti's office, he was promoted to the post of amin al-fatwa. In 1954 he became a judge. Nasser appointed him to the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in 1960. In 1978

Anwar Sadat Muhammad Anwar es-Sadat (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until Assassination of Anwar Sadat, his assassination by fundame ...

appointed him as Grand Mufti of Egypt. In 1982 he became Minister of Religious Affairs, and then Grand Imam of Al-Azhar. A conservative voice, he pleased the Egyptian government with his strong opposition to the fundamentalist

Wahhabi Wahhabism is an exonym for a Salafi revivalist movement within Sunni Islam named after the 18th-century Hanbali scholar Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. It was initially established in the central Arabian region of Najd and later spread to other ...

doctrine. However, the government was less pleased by his criticism of

abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...

(for which he collaborated with the Vatican delegation) at the 1994 UN Population Conference in

. He refused to accept the

Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of interim agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993; and the Oslo II Accord, signed in Taba, Egypt, in 1995. They marked the st ...

, since they did not acknowledge the

Palestinian right of return The Palestinian right of return is the political position or principle that Palestinian refugees, both Immigrant generations#First generation, first-generation refugees ( people still alive ) and their descendants ( people ), have a right to ...

. He also issued a fatwa against Farag Foda, who was subsequently assassinated. He died in

Awards and honors

Gad al-Haq was awarded the

King Faisal International Prize The King Faisal Prize (, formerly King Faisal International Prize), is an annual award sponsored by King Faisal Foundation presented to "dedicated men and women whose contributions make a positive difference". The foundation awards prizes in fiv ...

in 1995.

Works

* ''Hadha Bayan li'l'Nas'' * An Nabī ﷺ fil Qur'ān

References

1917 births 1996 deaths Al-Azhar University alumni Grand Imams of al-Azhar Grand Muftis of Egypt People from Dakahlia Governorate Endowments ministers of Egypt {{islam-bio-stub