Taha Jabir Alalwani

Taha Jabir Al-Alwani (طه جابر علواني), Ph.D. (1935 – March 4, 2016), was the President of Cordoba University in Ashburn, Virginia, United States. He also held the Imam Al-Shafi'i Chair in the Islamic Legal Theory at The Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences at Corboda University. Al-Alwani concentrated on the fields of Islamic legal theory, jurisprudence (fiqh), usul al-fiqh, Qur'anic sciences, and general Islamic thought.

Al-Alwani was founder and former chairman of the Fiqh Council of North America.

Born in 1935 in Iraq, Al-Alwani received his high school diploma from Al-Azhar in 1953 and received his bachelor's from the College of Shari’ah and Law at al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt in 1959. He continued at the college and earned a master's degree in 1968 and a doctorate in Usul al-fiqh in 1973.

Following his undergraduate studies, Al-Alwani returned to Iraq and became a lieutenant in the Iraqi Military Reserves. He taught in the Military Academy of Iraq in Baghdad and also taught in the College of Islamic Studies where he was a professor for 6 years. While in Baghdad Al-Alwani studied with some of Iraq's most prominent figures including: Sheikh Amjad al-Zahawi, Sheikh Qasim Al-Qaysi, (Grand Mufty of Iraq), Sheikh Mohammad Fu'ad Al-Aloosi, Sheikh Abdul 'Aziz Salem Al-Samerai, Sheikh Mohammed Al-Qazilchi. Al-Alwani led Jummah (Friday Prayers) in the famous Mosque of Hajja Haseebah Al-Pachatchi from 1953 until 1969. He was forced to leave Iraq in 1969 due to his opposition of the Ba'ath party.

He returned to Al-Azhar in Egypt where he earned his PhD. After his PhD graduation he taught for 10 years at the Imam Muhammad ibn Sa’ood University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Al-Alwani then decided to immigrate to the United States in 1983 where he settled down in Northern Virginia for 23 years.

There he studied the history of several religious groups, specifically Jewish history and focused his attention on Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakay, who established the famous Jewish school in Haifa and founded the jurisprudence for Jewish minorities across the globe. Al-Alwani learned many of his lessons on Muslim integration into American society from Rabbi Yohanan. Al-Alwani's openness to gaining knowledge from any source strengthened his benefit to the Islamic community in the United States.

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