His Eminence the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, Prof. Ahmad al-Tayyeb, attended the funeral prayer for the great scholar, Prof. Ahmed Omar Hashem, member of the Council of Senior Scholars and former President of Al-Azhar University, which was held today, Tuesday, at Al-Azhar Mosque, amidst a solemn presence of thousands of students, admirers, scholars and leaders of Al-Azhar.

 

 

The funeral prayer was attended by His Eminence Dr. Muhammad Al-Duwaini, Al-Azhar Undersecretary, Dr. Osama Al-Azhari, Minister of Endowments, Dr. Nazir Ayad, Grand Mufti of Egypt, Lieutenant General Sedki Sobhi, Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces and former Minister of Defense and Military Production, Dr. Salama Daoud, President of Al-Azhar University, Sheikh Ayman Abdel-Ghani, Head of Al-Azhar Institutes Sector, Dr. Muhammad Al-Gendi, Secretary-General of the Islamic Research Academy, Dr. Muhammad Mukhtar Juma, former Minister of Endowments, Dr. Shawqi Allam, former Grand Mufti of Egypt, Dr. Abdel-Hadi Al-Qasabi, Grand Sheikh of the Sufi Orders, Mr. Mahmoud Al-Sharif, Head of the Syndicate of al-Ashraf (Noble Families), and a number of political and religious leaders and a group of Al-Azhar leaders.

 

 

 

Professor Ahmed Omar Hashem was born on February 6, 1941, in the Sharqia Governorate. He graduated from the Faculty of Fundamentals of Religion, Al-Azhar University in 1961, and obtained a B.A. in 1967. He was then appointed as a teaching assistant in the Hadith Department at the Faculty of Fundamentals of Religion. He obtained a Master’s degree in Hadith and its sciences in 1969, then obtained a doctorate in his same specialization, and progressed in the academic ladder at the college until he obtained the rank of Professor in 1983

 

 

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His Eminence taught at Al-Azhar University and other Arab and Islamic universities. He also held numerous academic and administrative positions most notably the presidency of Al-Azhar University in 1995, a membership in the Council of Senior Scholars, the Islamic Research Academy, and the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs. 

 

The Arab and Islamic libraries are full of his diverse scientific contributions to the Prophetic Sunnah and Hadith sciences through authorship and verification, in addition to his participation and meetings in Islamic and international conferences, and his research published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and various international conferences. He was chosen as a member of Al-Ahar Council of Senior Scholars when it was established in 1433 AH/2012 AD.