Yusuf an-Nabhani

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Imam al-Qadi Yusuf bin (son of) Ismail bin Yusuf bin Ismail bin Muhammad Nâsir al-Dîn al-Nabhani (1849 - 1932) born in Ijzim in historical Palestine, now north of Haifa in Israel, died in Beirut. Yusuf was a Sunni Sufi Ottoman Palestinian Islamic Scholar, judge, prolific Poet, and defender of the Ottoman Caliphate. His teachings have influenced all of Sufi Islam in the 19th and 20th century. The son of his daughter Taqiuddin al-Nabhani was sent by Yusuf to Yusuf's Islamic colleagues & teachers in Cairo at the Al-Azhar university. Taqiuddin later went on to establish the Islamist political party Hizb_ut-Tahrir.

Many of Yusuf's poems, books, and teachings have remained, but very little is printed about his personal life, and activities. What is known is that he worked and campaigned against the Wahabi movement and the reformers in Cairo like Muhammad Abduh and al-Afghani whom he believed were changing Sunni Islam. Unlike some Sufis; Yusuf was a firm believer in the law, or Shariah in restricting all Sufi activity, being of the Shafi madhab or thought of Sunni Islam holding a similar stance to al-Ghazali in his later years on Sufism.

His father Shaykh Ismail al-Nabhani taught him to memorise the whole quran at a very young age, taught him the sciences of Islamic jurisprudence and then sent Yusuf to begin study at the university of al-Azhar Cairo on the 16th May 1866 at the age of 17. Yusuf graduated from Al-Azhar in October 1872 at the age of 23 with qualifications from the official cirriculem of al-Azhar and many other qualifications obtained from extra study under multiple Islamic scholars in mnay of the sciences of the Shariah and its preparatory disciplines. [1]

After he graduated and returned home to Ijzim, he began to hold a number of religious courses in `Akka and his home town of Ijzim. He travelled frequently to Beirut, then Damascus where he met eminent Ulema or Islamic Scholars. Chief among them was the Chief Jurist of Damascus at the time, Shaykh Mahmud Effendi Hamza with whom he studied the beginning of al-Bukhari, after which he gave Yusuf a general certificate Ijaza comprising the rest of the Hadith Collections. [2]

Then he headed for Istanbul the capital of the Ottoman Caliphate twice and worked there for several years. He edited the periodical al-Jawâ'ib until it folded. He also proofread the Arabic books that came out of its press. He left the publishers for a new position with the Ottoman Caliphate's government as a judge or Qadi. [3]

He left Istanbul, the first time, for Iraq, to the province of Mosul, then returned to Constantinople. He left a second time in 1300 Hijri when he was appointed Chief Justice of the al-Jaza court in Ladhiqiyya on the Syro-Palestinian sea-shore. After living there for five years the Ottoman government transferred him to be the grand Mufti, or Chief Justice of al-Quds or Jerusalem. Then he moved to be Chief Justice of Beirut in 1888 [4], although some records point to 1887 [5]

[edit] His Teachers

• Shaykh Shams al-Dîn Muhammad al-Anbabi al-Shafi the grand Professor and Imam (chief) of al-Azhar, who died in 1313 Hijra Calendar.
• Shaykh `Abd al-Rah.mân al-Sharbînî al-Shafi the Imam of al-Azhar, who died in 1326 Hijra Calendar.
• Shaykh Ibrâhîm al-Saqqâ al-Shafi who died in 1298 Hijra Calendar aged around ninety years.
• Shaykh al-Sayyid Muh.ammad al-Damanhûrî al-Shafi
• Shaykh `Abd al-Qâdir al-Râfi`î al-Hanafi al-Tarabulsî the head professor of the Damascenes' Porch (Ruwâq al-Shawâmm) in al-Azhar, who died in 1323 Hijra Calendar.
• Shaykh Yûsuf al-Barqâwî al-Hanbali the head Professor of the Hanbalîs' Porch in al-Azhar Mosque
• Shaykh Ibrâhîm al-Zurrû al-Khalîlî al-Shafi who died in 1287 Hijra Calendar, aged around seventy.
• Shaykh Ah.mad al-Ajhûrî al-D.arîr al-Shafi who died in 1293 Hijra Calendar, aged around sixty.
• Shaykh H.asan al-`Adawî al-Maliki who died in 1298 Hijra Calendar aged around eighty.
• Shaykh al-Sayyid `Abd al-Hâdî Najâ al-Abyârî who died in 1305 Hijra Calendar, aged just over seventy years.

..And many others, some of whom are named in his books "Hâdî al-Murîd" and "Jâmi` Karâmât al-Awliyâ" [6]

[edit] Books & Writings

• "Hadi al-Murid"
• "Jâmi` Karamaat al-Awliya" (A Collection of the Miracles of the Awliya or Friends of Allah)
• Khulasat-al-Kalaam [7]
• Shawahid al-haqq (Partly a Refutation of Wahabism)
• Hujjat-Allahi ala al-Alamin (The proof of Allah on all of creation)
• Jawahir al-bihar
• Sa'adat al-Darayn (Voluminous Islamic book written in Poetry & Prose)