This Day, That Year – February 10

This day in history we feature Abdul-Rahman Al-Sudais. One of the nine imams of the Grand Mosque, Masjid al-Haram in Makkah, Saudi Arabia was born on this day in 1960.

Trivia – Abdul-Rahman Al-Sudais

Abdul Rahman Ibn Abdul Aziz al-Sudais better known as Al-Sudais, is the president of the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques; a renowned Qāriʾ (reciter of the Qur’an); he was the Dubai International Holy Qur’an Award’s “Islamic Personality Of the Year” in 2005. Al-Sudais comes from the Anazzah clan, and he had memorized the Quran by the age of 12. Growing up in Riyadh, Al-Sudais studied at the Al Muthana Bin Harith Elementary School, and afterwards the Riyadh Scientific Institution from which he graduated in 1979 with a grade of excellent. He obtained a degree in Sharia from Riyadh University in 1983, his Master’s in Islamic fundamentals from the Sharia College of Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University in 1987 and received his Ph.D. in Islamic Sharia from Umm al-Qura University in 1995 while working there as an assistant professor after serving at Riyadh University.

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Al-Sudais has preached Islam’s opposition to “explosions and terrorism”, and has called for peaceful inter-faith dialogue, but also been sharply criticized for vilifying non-Muslims and especially Jews in his sermons. He has denounced the treatment of Palestinians by Israeli settlers and the state of Israel, and called for more aid to be sent to Palestinians. He has also been noted for identifying women’s un-Islamic behavior as in part responsible for the winter 2006 drought in Saudi Arabia. In 2016, he delivered the very important Hajj sermon to a multitude of pilgrims gathered at Arafat after prayers. Sudais took up his imamate in 1984, at just 24-years of age, and conducted his first sermon at Masjid Al-Haram in July 1984, other than this Sheikh Saud Al-Shuraim – has been his partner in Taraweeh Prayers from 1994 till 2006, and again in 2014, 2019 and 2020. They were titled “Twins of the Haram”. In 2005-2020, Sheikh Abdullah Awad Al Juhany and other imams of Masjid al-Haram such as Sheikh Yasser Al-Dossary and Sheikh Bander Baleela took over Al-Shuraim’s position as imam of the first Rakat of the Khatm Al Quran (End of the Quran) Taraweeh prayer. In 2005, Al-Sudais was named by the Dubai International Holy Quran Award (DIHQA) Organising Committee as its 9th annual “Islamic Personality Of the Year” in recognition of his devotion to the Quran and Islam. When accepting his award in Dubai, he said: “The message of Islam and Muslims is modesty, fairness, security, stability, sympathy, harmony and kindness.”He was appointed head of the “Presidency for the Two Holy Mosques at the rank of minister” by royal decree on 8 May 2012. He is also a member of the Arabic Language Academy at Mecca. Abdul Razzaq al-Mahdi, Nabil Al-Awadi, Tariq Abdelhaleem, and Hani al-Sibai who are linked to Al-Qaeda, in addition to others like Adnan al-Aroor, Abd Al-Aziz Al-Fawzan, Mohamad al-Arefe, Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais, Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdullah Al Shaykh and others were included on a death list by ISIS. In 2017, Al-Sudais supervised the film One Day In The Haram, a film about the Haram in Makkah, told through the eyes of the workers.

Source – Wikipedia