Abdul Qader Arnaout

Islamic Scholar Abdul Qader Arnaout
Born	Kadri Sokoli 1928 Vrela, Istog, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, (now Kosovo)
Died	26 November 2004 Damascus, Syria
Other names	Shaykh'Abdul-Qadir al-Arna'ut
Nationality	Syrian
Ethnicity	Albanian
Era	Modern era
Region	Middle East
Religion	Islam
Denomination	Sunni
Movement	Salafi
Main interest(s)	Hadith studies,
Students Hassan al-Kattani

Abdul-Qader Arnaout, (Arabic: عبد القادر الأرناؤوط‎) (also Abdul Qadir al-Arna'ut, Arnaut, Abdul-Kader Arnauti, and other variants) born (Albanian: Kadri Sokoli) (1928–2004) was an Islamic scholar of Albanian origin,^[1] of the 20th century; he specialised in the fields of hadith and fiqh.^[2]

Biography

Early life

Abdul Qader was born into a poor family in the town of Vrela, Istog in Kosovo in 1347 AH/1928. Because of the Serbian oppression against the Albanians, his family emigrated (he was at the age of three) to Damascus where he started to learn Arabic and the Islamic science.^[3]

Hadith scholar

Abdul Qaders particular great love and concern was for the science of the Prophetic narrations, and in fact was considered by major scholars to be one of the world's top five Muhaddithin (Hadisth masters). His students relate how much care he would take over the statement of the Prophet, always quoting a complete chain of narration, giving its level of authenticity and always narrating by the exact words and not just by meaning as his become common amongst those less versed in this field.

Arnaoot received his initial religious training with Hanafi scholars, before breaking with them to continue his quest for knowledge through self-teaching.^[4] Among his students was Hassan al-Kattani, who learned Hadith studies from Arnaoot.^[5]

Relationship with the Syrian government

The Ba'ath government banned Arnaoot from giving lectures and teaching.^[6]

Arnaoot died in 2004 in Damascus under quasi-house arrest and without leaving a successor.^[7]

Notable publications

Arnaoot completed a number of works including the following:

• Jâmi' al-Usûl of Ibn Athir (encyclopaedic work)
• Al-Wajeez (A Brief Summary of the Early Muslim Generations Belief)
• The Virtues of the Qur'an
• Zâd al-Masîr fî 'Ilm at-Tafsîr (Provision of the Journey) by Abu-al-Faraj Ibn Al-Jawzi - 9 volumes
• Rreadatul Taibin - 12 volumes
• Zad al-Ma'ad of Ibn Qayyim - 6 volumes
• al-Adhkâr by Nawawi
• El Furkan^[8]
• al-Kâfi by Muwaffaq ud-Dîn al-Maqdisi - 3 volumes

Some of that work was a group work with other famous scholars such as Mishkât al-Masâbîh which was a shared work with Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani, and Zad al-Ma'ad which was a shared work with Shu'ayb al-Arna'ut.

References