البهاء زهير

Mustafa Abdel Razek: Sheikh of the Al-Azhar Mosque, the renewer of Islamic philosophy in the modern era, the author of its first history in Arabic, and the founder of the Arab philosophical school, which he established on purely Islamic foundations. Sheikh Mustafa Abdel Razek was born in the year 1885 AD in the village of Abu Garg, affiliated to the Bani Mazar Center in the Minya Governorate in Upper Egypt, and grew up in the care of his father, Hassan Abdel Razek, who was a member of the semi-parliamentary councils that Egypt has known since the era of Khedive Ismail. He is also one of the founders of Al-Jarida newspaper and the Umma Party. He spent his childhood in his village, learning the principles of reading and writing and memorizing the Holy Quran. Then he moved at the age of ten to Cairo and joined Al-Azhar to obtain legal and linguistic sciences. He studied Shafi’i jurisprudence, the sciences of rhetoric, logic, literature, presentations, grammar and others. Since 1903 CE, he has been reluctant to attend the lessons of “Imam Muhammad Abdo” in the Abbasid hall, and he became one of the characteristics of his students, and was influenced by him. And his approach and reformist ideas. After obtaining the Al-Alameya certificate from Al-Azhar (bachelor’s degree) in 1908, he began his public life, and showed an interest in participating in scientific and literary societies, such as the Al-Azhar Society established by Muhammad Abdo, and became its president. Then, in 1911, it seemed to him that he would travel to Paris to complete his higher studies, learn about Western culture and know its sources. He joined the Sorbonne University to study the French language, attended philosophy classes, and studied sociology at the hands of Durkheim, then moved to the University of Lyon. To study the foundations of Islamic law on his teacher "Edward Lamper". After the outbreak of World War I, he returned to Egypt in 1914. He was then appointed as an employee in the Supreme Council of Al-Azhar, and as an inspector in the Sharia courts, then as a teacher of philosophy at the Egyptian University, then as Minister of Endowments twice, then was appointed Sheikh of Al-Azhar to succeed Sheikh “Al-Maraghi” in 1945 AD. The Sheikh left a number of books, so he wrote a small literary study on the well-known poet, Al-Baha Zuhair, and published his book “Preface to the History of Islamic Philosophy”, which is his most famous and most important book. It also includes: the book "The Arab Philosopher and the Second Teacher", "Imam Al-Shafi'i" and "Sheikh Muhammad Abdo", in addition to a group of articles compiled by his brother in a book entitled: "From the effects of Mustafa Abdel Razek". He passed away in 1947.