Said Hawwa
- Died
- 1409 AH
- Born in
- Hama
Said Hawwa (1354–1409 AH / 1935–1989 CE) was a Syrian Islamic scholar, author, and prominent leader within the Muslim Brotherhood, best known for his extensive multivolume Quranic commentary al-Asas fi al-Tafsir ("The Foundation in Exegesis") .
Early Life and Education
Said ibn Muhammad ibn Dib Hawwa was born on 27 September 1935 in the al-Ulayliyyat neighborhood of Hama, Syria, to a family whose elders traced their lineage to the Prophet Muhammad . His mother died when he was two years old, and he was raised by his grandmother under the care of his father, who was known for resisting French colonial rule . During his youth, Hawwa worked alongside his father selling produce and grain, and he left regular schooling for three years before continuing his education at a night school . He read the Quran with a visually impaired female relative and developed an avid reading habit, being profoundly influenced by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali's Ihya Ulum al-Din ("The Revival of the Religious Sciences") .
During his secondary school years in Hama, he studied under the Naqshbandi scholar Muhammad al-Hamid and attended his study circle at the Sultan Mosque, an association that left a lasting impact on his religious development . In 1372 AH, during his first year of high school, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood . In 1376 AH, he enrolled in the Faculty of Sharia at Damascus University, graduating in 1961 . Among his principal teachers were Muhammad al-Hamid, Muhammad al-Hashimi, Abd al-Wahhab Dibs wa Zayt, Abd al-Karim al-Rifa'i, Mustafa al-Sibai, Mustafa al-Zarqa, Hasan Habannaka, and Ma'ruf al-Dawalibi .
Activism, Imprisonment, and Leadership
Hawwa served as a reserve officer in the military in 1963, married in 1964, and had four children . Following his active role in the Syrian constitutional protests of 1973, he was arrested on 5 March 1973 and imprisoned for nearly five years until his release on 29 January 1978 . While incarcerated, he completed the eleven volumes of his Quranic commentary al-Asas fi al-Tafsir alongside several other writings .
After his release, Hawwa served as an executive member of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood leadership from 1978 to 1982, participated in the movement's international leadership from 1982 to 1984, and continued political and organizational work until 1987 . He traveled widely to lecture and preach across the Middle East, South Asia, Europe, and North America, delivering addresses in countries including Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, Germany, and the United States . He recorded his reflections on Syria's modern political history and his personal trajectory in his memoirs, Hadhihi Tajribati wa Hadhihi Shahadati ("This Is My Experience and This Is My Testimony") .
Standing and Reception
Hawwa was tasked with designing educational and ideological curricula for the Muslim Brotherhood, and his publications were widely circulated across the Islamic world . His writings drew broad readership as well as critical evaluation from contemporary scholars; notably, Salim al-Hilali published a dedicated critical assessment of his thought and writings in 1403 AH .
Illness and Death
In his later years, Hawwa suffered from multiple chronic ailments, including partial paralysis, diabetes, hypertension, arteriosclerosis, kidney disease, and eye afflictions, which forced him into retirement on 14 March 1987 . He fell into a coma on 14 December 1988 and died without regaining consciousness at noon on Thursday, 9 March 1989 (1 Sha'ban 1409 AH) in Amman, Jordan .
Answer updated
List of Works
al-Asas fi al-Sunna wa Fiqhiha - al-Sira al-Nabawiyya is a multi-volume biographical work dedicated to reconstructing and analyzing the life of the Prophet Muhammad through the primary collections of hadith.
al-Asas fi al-Sunnah wa Fiqhiha - al-Aqaid al-Islamiyya is a multivolume treatise on Islamic theology and creed. It constitutes the second major section of the broader hadith compendium al-Asas fi al-Sunnah wa Fiqhiha.
al-Asas fi al-Tafsir is an eleven-volume commentary on the Quran totaling 6,799 pages. It serves as the opening part of the broader three-work project al-Asas fi al-Manhaj.
al-Asas fi al-Sunna wa Fiqhiha - al-Ibadat fi al-Islam is an extensive work on Islamic ritual law and prophetic traditions. It serves as a comprehensive manual of Islamic worship (ʿibādāt), deducing legal regulations, moral objectives, and spiritual virtues directly from the corpuses of hadith.