Muhammad al-Mubarak
- Died
- 1402 AH
- Born in
- Damascus
Muhammad al-Mubarak (1331–1402 AH / 1912–1981 CE) was a Syrian Islamic thinker, educator, and politician who served as a university dean and government minister in Syria .
Early Life and Education
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Qadir al-Mubarak was born in Damascus to a family originating from Algeria, where his great-grandfather had migrated around 1845 following the French invasion . His father was the grammarian and scholar Abd al-Qadir al-Mubarak . He pursued religious studies alongside formal education in Damascus secondary schools, then enrolled at the University of Damascus, where he studied law and literature and graduated in 1935 . He subsequently traveled to Paris to study at the Sorbonne, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in arts in 1937 and a diploma in sociology and ethics in 1938 . His studies in France brought him into direct contact with Western thought and prominent European intellectuals; the French orientalist Jacques Berque characterized him as the proponent of a "new Islamic school of thought emanating from Islam itself" .
Academic and Political Career
Upon returning to Syria, al-Mubarak taught Arabic literature in Damascus secondary schools and served as a general inspector for the Arabic language and religious instruction . In 1947, he was appointed a lecturer in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Damascus, and later became a professor and dean of its Faculty of Sharia . In 1966, he headed the Islamic Studies Department at Omdurman Islamic University in Sudan, and in 1969 he became head of the Sharia Department at the Faculty of Sharia in Mecca . He also worked as an advisor to King Abdulaziz University and taught as a professor at the University of Jordan until his death .
In politics, al-Mubarak was elected to the Syrian parliament representing Damascus in 1947, and served again from 1954 to 1959 . Between 1949 and 1952, he held government ministerial posts as Minister of Public Works and Communications, and later as Minister of Agriculture .
In the realm of educational planning, al-Mubarak contributed to university curricula across the Arab world and was the first to introduce the courses Nizam al-Islam (The System of Islam) and Hadir al-'Alam al-Islami (The Contemporary Muslim World) into higher education . He attended numerous academic conferences, including the Muslim–Christian dialogue colloquium held in Paris in 1974 .
Death
Al-Mubarak traveled with his wife and daughter to visit Medina on 4 Safar 1402 AH . On the morning of Thursday, 7 Safar 1402 AH (December 3, 1981 CE), he suffered fatal heart failure while on his way to see a physician, shortly after passing by the al-Baqi cemetery and expressing a wish to be buried there . He was buried in al-Baqi, and the poet Diya al-Din al-Sabuni composed an elegy in his memory .
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List of Works
al-Wahda al-Islamiyya (Islamic Unity) is a treatise that analyzes the causes of political, cultural, and social fragmentation in the contemporary Muslim world. It examines the historical and modern factors underlying disunity and outlines practical pathways toward re-establishing Islamic solidarity and unity.