Muhammad al-Tijani
Muhammad al-Tijani | |
---|---|
محمد التيجاني | |
Personal | |
Born | |
Religion | Islam |
Era | Modern era |
Region | North Africa |
Denomination | Shia |
Creed | Usuli Twelver Shi'a |
Muslim leader | |
Influenced by |
Muhammad al-Tijani al-Samawi (Arabic: محمد التيجاني السماوي, romanized: Muḥammad al-Tījānī al-Samāwī; born 2 February 1943) is a Tunisian Islamic scholar and theologian. He converted from Sunni Islam to Twelver Shiaism.
Personal life[edit]
Muhammad al-Tijani was born on 2 February 1943 in Gafsa, Regency of Tunis. The family were Sufis attached to the Tijani order and adherents of the Maliki school of Sunni Islam. He was eighteen years of age when the Les Scouts Tunisiens agreed to send him as one of six Tunisian representatives to the first conference for Islamic and Arab scouts which took place in Mecca. He used the opportunity to perform the Hajj. He stayed twenty five days in Saudi Arabia, during which he met many prominent Salafi scholars, listened to their lectures and became heavily influenced by the Salafism.
Upon returning to Tunisia, al-Tijani started actively promoting and spreading Salafism during the religious classes and sermons that he gave, including in the Great Mosque of Kairouan. He then traveled to Egypt’s al-Azhar University. On the way back to Tunisia, al-Tijani met a Shia Iraqi lecturer from the University of Baghdad named Mun'im. He came to Cairo to submit his Ph.D. thesis at al-Azhar University and Mun'im invited him to Iraq. Al-Tijani spent several weeks with Mun'im; visited Baghdad and Najaf, and met with several leading Twelver Shii scholars, including Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei, Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, and Muhammad Husayn Tabataba'i, who taught him about Shi'a Islam. After long debates with the Shia scholars, he became a Shia Muslim.[1]
Works[edit]
Al-Tijani's books are banned in some countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. He has written six books:
- Then I Was Guided
- Ask Those Who Know
- To Be with the Truthful
- The Shi'ah are the real Ahlul-Sunnah
- All Solutions Are with the Prophet's Progeny
- Black Thursday
References[edit]
- ^ Note: Most of this information is from Al-Tijani's own work, available in the English translation of Then I Was Guided. See al-Islam.org
External links[edit]
- A series of books by Muhammad al-Tijani with English translations
- Striving for Right Guidance — A speech delivered by Dr. Muhammad al-Tijani al-Samawi