Ali Al-Tantawi Biography

As if it were a handful from the land of the Levant, kneaded by the Nile and Euphrates rivers, the sun of the Arab desert waved it.

That is the great scholar, the eminent jurist, and the suspicious writer Sheikh Ali Al-Tantawi, who the nation lost some time ago, to make a great indentation, which doubled our pain and bloodied our hearts.

Sheikh Al-Tantawi was an intellectual force among the forces of the Islamic nation and a source from which seekers of knowledge and literature sprang from everywhere. “Have you heard of it? I had a weapon with which to fight in the battlements, and with which the cavalry stabbed me, and my weapon was my pen. I carried it for many years, with it I met the men, and with it I fought the heroes, so I return once with the cave of victory and return once to wipe the dust of failure from my face. A pen if you want it is a gift that grows from The flower splits, and perfume drops from it, and if you want it, you will smash the rock with it, and burn the stone with it.

Sheikh Ali Al-Tantawi was born in the city of Damascus on Jumada Al-Awwal 23 1327 AH ((June 12, 1909 AD)) from a family of knowledge and religion. His father, Sheikh Mustafa Al-Tantawi, was among the scholars. His grandfather, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Tantawi, was a great scholar, and his uncle, Professor Muhib Al-Din Al-Khatib, the great Islamic writer and journalist famous.

His consciousness opens on the bombs of the allies, the capital of the Umayyads is destroyed, and the remnants of the Turks leave the city, and the homes of the Levant are deserted, after food has grown old, and an ounce of sugar (200 grams) has become a glorious riyal that was sufficient before the war for a large feast. The first harsh lesson he learned and lived through was the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the transformation of its former states into states. Syria has become four countries: one for the Druze, the second for the Alawites, the third for Damascus, and the fourth for Aleppo

The boy Ali Al-Tantawi was still a student at the school, but his awareness was ahead of his age. When he announced in his school that he would participate in a march to receive the new High Commissioner, General Wevan, who replaced General Gouraud, he refused and gave an enthusiastic speech, in which he said: “The French are the enemies of our religion.” and our homeland, and it is not permissible for us to go out to receive their leader))

God is aware, boy, did you realize what adults did not realize, so how can a nation receive its enemy who robbed it of its freedom and how can it forget what the leader of this enemy said after the Battle of Maysalun and the entry of Levant when General Goro visited Salah El-Din’s tomb and said to him: “Here we are back, Salah El-Din.. Now the wars are over.” crusade.

That battle, which was a turning point in the consciousness of the young Ali al-Tantawi, came out of it with a lesson covered with the blood of the martyrs and the independence of the nation.. A lesson that says that the masses who have no tools of war but enthusiasm cannot respond to an invading army. The French occupation has become a new reality in Syria, and the dream of an independent state has become an effect after an eye, and as it happened in all parts of the Islamic world, the scholars were the spearhead in confronting the occupier. Sheikh Badr al-Din al-Husseini, the sheikh of scholars in the cities of Syria, led the revolution of scholars who roamed the country, inciting against the colonizer. The revolution came out of Ghouta of Damascus, and the demonstrations were coming out of the Umayyad Mosque after the Friday prayer, and the occupation soldiers confronted them with water cannons and then with bullets, and the young man, Ali Al-Tantawi, was at the center of these events.

Orator of Resistance

One day, he was on a date for Friday prayers at the Qasab Mosque in Damascus, so his companions told him: The mosque has gathered a crowd of loyalists to the French and they have prepared for him for days andhade prepared their preachers, so we saw that they can only have strength for them, so he tried to apologize, so they blocked his way when they told him that this is a decision The Bloc ((the resistance fighters of the occupation were under the banner of an organization called the National Bloc, and Tantawi was a member of it)) so he went with them and had a loud voice, so he stood on the embankment of the following ((the door of architecture)) and called: to me to the servants of God, and it was an unfamiliar call at the time, Then that became his motto every time he delivered a sermon, and when they gathered around him, he began with Shawqi’s poem:

 And if they come to us in many rows * * * We come with one row, they will not break

He pointed to their rows stacked in the middle of the mosque, and to the row of his few brothers, then he began to speak on two chords that resonate with people: religion and independence. And when he came out, the crowd followed him behind him, and it was a demonstration for the homeland, not against him

In 1928, his uncle Moheb Al-Din Al-Khatib invited him to come to Egypt, and he published the “Al-Fath” magazine two years earlier. Ali Al-Tantawi traveled to Egypt to study at the Faculty of Dar Al-Uloom, but the cultural climate in Egypt at that time made him engage in journalistic work, which was witnessing intellectual battles and debates. It was natural for the young Ali al-Tantawi to take his position in the ranks of the anti-colonialists and his followers of Islam. loophole.

He did not complete his studies at the Faculty of Dar Al Uloom and returned to Damascus to join the Faculty of Law, from which he graduated in 1933, then worked as a teacher in Iraq. Iraq in 1936 and returned to his country, he soon moved to the judiciary, and he was the Sharia judge in Douma, then he still rose in judicial positions until he reached the highest of those positions, and he had gone to Egypt to study the conditions of the courts there.

Going to Saudi Arabia

Then he immigrated to Saudi Arabia in 1963 AD and worked as a teacher at the College of Arabic Language and the College of Sharia in Riyadh, then moved to teach at the College of Sharia in Makkah Al-Mukarramah, then devoted himself to working in the field of media. and guidance.”

Throughout his travels between the capitals of the Islamic world, he yearned for Damascus and was drawn to it by a renewed longing. He wrote a book about it, in one of which he says:

((Finally, O anonymous benefactor, who was content to visit Damascus on my behalf, when I was not able to visit it myself, I had only one need left, so do not turn away from me, but complete your kindness. In front of Al-Bahra Al-Dafaqah is a very narrow alley, a lane called Al-Maamshah. Enter it and you will see on your right a river, I mean a deep stream on its sides of roses and blossoms, and graceful plants, which decorate the gardens of palaces, and on his shoulder, a high waterwheel, put it on your right and walk through the city of the dead. The sanctity of the graves will enter our bodies like it

Leave the wide yard in its middle and this huge tree with its branches, walk forward until it remains between you and the southern wall of the cemetery, about fifty meters, you will see to your left two humble graves of clay on one of them is a witness in the name of Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tantawi, this is the grave of my grandfather, in which my father was buried and next to him My mother’s grave, so give them peace from me, and I ask God, who brought them together in life, and gathered them in the cemetery, to reunite them in Paradise, {Lord, forgive me and my parents} {Lord, have mercy on them as they raised me when I was young} Lord, have mercy on my daughter and forgive her, Lord and for Muslims and Muslim women).

Sheikh Ali Al-Tantawi is considered one of the great symbols of the Islamic call in the Islamic world and a popular and well-known personality who has won a lot of admiration and acceptance, and he has an honorable record in serving Islam and Muslims.

He had an easy, beautiful, attractive, unique style in which hardly anyone resembled him, which could be described as easy and abstaining, in which his expressions appear elegant and bright, in which beauty and ease, and this enabled him to present the most serious issues and ideas in a manner that delights the educated, comforts the commoner and understands him from the easiest some education.

Sheikh Al-Tantawi was famous for his broad-mindedness, frequent wanderings, presence of mind, and strong memory. Therefore, his rulings are characterized by moderation, far from the two blameworthy parties: excess and negligence.

He wrote in the newspapers of his country in the Levant and occupied a prominent position there, and then became one of the major writers, writing in major literary and Islamic magazines such as “Al-Zahraa”, “Al-Fath”, “Al-Risala”, “Muslims” and “Civilization of Islam” and others. Daily angles in a number of Damascene newspapers

Among the areas, she has previously written in children's literature and participated in the writing of school books. And the investigation of some heritage books, and he has toured in the world of the story, as he is one of the first of her books

His debates filled the intellectual and literary circles in length and breadth, and he did not stop issuing his letters in which he warns against the consequences of being deceived by false bees.

And from the funny thing about what he was exposed to in one of his conversations, what he tells about himself ((We were one day in front of the library of “Arafa” and a man he did not know came and he dug in between us and stuffed himself in us, and started speaking strange words, we realized from him that he was calling for a bee of false bees, so they quarreled with him with the harsh response and mockery So I made a sign to them that he did not realize: that they called him for me, so they stopped him and I made him talk to him and turn around with him and familiarize himself with him, until I reached his understanding that I began to be convinced of what he was saying, but such a call must contain an argument that is more eloquent than words, so he was glad and said: What is it? So I moved the thumb on the index finger, and this is a reference to the money. He said: Present, and took out two golden lire when the golden lira was a great thing. He extended his hand with the two Lira and I took them in front of all those present, and the man left after we knew his name, he did not move away until the chests exploded with laughter, and they came to me jokingly. , from someone who shared with us, my brother, and said: Make it a feast, or a picnic in the orchard, I said, “You will see what I am making.” I went and wrote a letter, in which I spoke about boredom, bees, and atheistic sects, and made its title “Saif al-Islam” and wrote on its cover “Printed at the expense of so-and-so.” In the name of the man who paid the two pounds, I was informed that he was about to go crazy and did not know what to do, and he could not He denies something that seven of the country's writers testify to, and I have been informed that his group expelled him after punishing him).

As the deceased - may God have mercy on him - was a brave advocate, firm in his principle, unrelenting, not relentless, as he stormed the horrors, and the men, penetrating the den of the lions, and perhaps exposing himself - by his choice - to claws tearing the skin of the crocodile, all for the sake of his belief in his Islamic idea, and the sacrifice of To raise it at all costs

Sheikh Ali Al-Tantawi left a great impact on people and contributed to solving their problems through his writing, letters, and hadiths, and he had a good role in drafting the Personal Status Law in Syria, and he drafted this law on the foundations of Islamic Sharia, as well as setting the Fatwa Law in the Supreme Ifta Council He was elected a member of the Iraqi Scientific Academy in Baghdad. And in all his deeds, he sought reward from his Lord and sought His forgiveness, saying: “The law of {Our Lord, do not punish us if we forget or err.” Whoever reads something to me or listens to something, my reward from him is that he supplicates for me, and for one supplication from a sincere believer in the unseen is better than all the literary glory, fame, status, and prestige that I have achieved.

Tantawi as an educator

Sheikh Al-Jalil had five daughters, and the loss of one of them “Banan” - she was assassinated in the German city of “Aachen” with her husband Issam Al-Attar - had the greatest impact on himself, but God counted on her and adhered to patience and submission to the will of God, and his eminence had his distinguished method of education And the treatment of girls

His granddaughter Ibadah Al-Azm says: I grew up in the care of my grandfather and my mother, and I believe - as every child thinks and believes - that all people are brought up and go in an environment that is not the same as my environment, then it is similar to it. On the radio and television, they loved him, so they praised him, and I, like them, loved him very much, when I saw him, so I did not pay any attention to the matter.

I soon grew up a little, mixed with people, and began to realize little by little the essential differences between my grandfather an educator, and other educators, and whenever I met with my peers I sensed the contrast between his method of guidance and the style of the rest of the parents, and whenever I heard the problems of fathers in raising children, I recognized my grandfather for excellence and creativity. My aunts and mother helped me to enlighten myself, by what they told me of their stories with my grandfather, and for the respect, thanks, and appreciation they had for him, and for the deep faith they had in God, and the great principles they learned from God’s law.

I was not sure that I understood these facts and the great impact that my grandfather had on us until I began writing the important positions stuck in my memory, as I felt that these directives should not remain confined to the knowledge of some people who are the grandchildren of Tantawi but should be published for people to see, to be They have help in raising their sons and daughters, which is why I issued my book about it.

And about her book “This is how my grandfather raised us, Ali Al-Tantawi,” she says:

I wasn't there when my grandfather first showed him the book. My aunt's husband, Nader Hatchet, brought it to him as the book's publisher. When my grandfather read it, he called me on the phone and said: The book is good, rather it is very good, and its style is beautiful. But he said: It is difficult for me, my daughter, to praise this book or express my frank opinion about it, because it is about me, and I am afraid that people will think that I am doing it for that. Then he concluded his speech by saying: I am not as you described, you are the one who summed up the events and portrayed them in that way

And that was out of humility from him, for I did not write anything but the truth, and I photographed only what I saw, and my grandfather said that only out of humility.

Tantawi and the woman

And about Sheikh Al-Tantawi’s vision of women, especially since he did not have children, she says:

My grandfather is a human being like any other person who loves to provide for sons so that they carry his name and learn from what God has taught him and be his successors, and he did not even expect that he would not be born to a son. Care, care, and attention, unless another father of whom I know or have heard of has given him

As for his respect for women, it is something well known about him, and in his hadiths, he defended and defended women, and warned men against injustice and transgression, and he always repeated: that a man’s rank over a woman is one level, not a ladder. They even called him the Nasser of the Woman, and he is also with us, as he sometimes prefers us - the granddaughters - over the grandchildren, and he has done a lot for us, and he has honored us more than them in some situations, but without them realizing so as not to cause them harm.

And about the personality of Sheikh Ali Al-Tantawi and how he combined science, religion, literature, and life, she says: I asked myself this question once, then I found the answer in my grandfather’s biography.

He was a lonely orphan with no father, mother, or material or moral support, so God gave him sound belief and the strength of character, so he was with his tongue and pen a sword drawn against the enemies of God and His Messenger, so if he stalks the falsehood and kills it, he fights immorality and conquers it, and he fights infidelity, degeneration, and promiscuity, and he overcomes them all. He does not remain silent about denying an evil, nor does the prestige of a ruler prevent him from it, he is bold and does not fear anyone and does not fear except God, rebelling against customs and traditions that are contrary to Islam, so God by his work raised his mention among the people.

He loved solitude and solitude, so God gave him a love of knowledge, a passion for reading and knowledge, and endowed him with intelligence and a wondrous memory, and speed of assimilation. The way into people's minds.

And he was reluctant to meet with people, so God gave him the ability to address them from afar, that is, through the media of all kinds, and gave him a sense of humor, the sweetness of style, innovation in presentation, ability to persuade, and flexibility in giving fatwas, so he reached the hearts of many.

Aman Ali Al-Tantawi mourns her late father:

The eye sheds tears, the heart grieves, and we are saddened by you, father. Father, dearest and most precious of people, may God have mercy on you and put you in peace. On behalf of the totality of your lovers, they pray for mercy and forgiveness for you, to dwell in your vast gardens, to make your grave a garden from the gardens of Paradise, and to unite us with you in the paradise of eternity. Father, you have followed Banan, who always grieved for her, did not mention her name until this year, and did not insist on asking for her except when you were sick with the sign. May God make you and her among the people of Paradise

They said about him

Sheikh Mujahid Muhammad Al-Sawaf, who accompanied Sheikh Ali Al-Tantawi since he was ten years old, says: One of his most prominent features - may God have mercy on him - is the Sheikh’s calmness and understanding of what is going on in the world and his deep connection to the call to God and his commitment in that to the Qur’an and Sunnah, which enabled him to put forward his topics and what he aims at Spreading awareness and advocacy in a way that people accept. He was a wonderful writer if he held the pen and if he wanted to cry he would cry, and if he wanted to laugh he would laugh and combine in his advocacy style all the methods of education, he would answer tons of messages and he was not embarrassed to answer any question asked in our society, and he was able with his wisdom, moderation and wonderful style in asking Issues and problems to gain acceptance from all people

Distinctive style

Dr. Hassan Muhammad Safar, Professor of Islamic Governance Systems at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, said: With the loss of the scholar Sheikh Ali Al-Tantawi, the Islamic world has lost one of the prominent figures of Islamic thought and culture. With regard to issues, rulings, and fatwas, this interesting method was distinguished. His Eminence added to it from the side and stories that connect the subject with it, so lessons and sermons are drawn from it, and this method was popular with young people, may God have mercy on this blessed group of Islamic scholars and compensate us in His Eminence with all the best and may God protect our scholars to perform The message entrusted to them, thank God, anyway

Encyclopedia

Sheikh Muhammad Faisal Al-Sibai, Director of the Publication Department at Umm Al-Qura University and one of those close to Sheikh Al-Tantawi says: I accompanied Sheikh Ali Al-Tantawi in many periods when I knew his enthusiasm and his zeal for Islam, and I knew in him a symbol of science and education, I knew him, may God have mercy on him, for nearly half a century, and he was a working scholar. Much humility to all, especially in the field of calling to God with wisdom and good preaching, and he, may God have mercy on him, was a mobile encyclopedia, and we bear witness to his goodness and righteousness, and we do not commend him to his Lord.