Muhammad al-Yaqoubi

Muhammad Abul Huda al-Yaqoubi was born in Damascus on 7 May 1963 into a family of scholars; several of his forebears served as Maliki imam at the Umayyad Mosque, and he traces his descent to the Prophet through Idris II. His father, Ibrahim al-Yaqoubi (d. 1985), taught him and gave him his first authorisations, including as a guide in the Shadhili Sufi order. He also received licences from leading Syrian muftis and scholars.

He completed a degree in Arabic literature at the University of Damascus in 1987, studied philosophy in Beirut, and in 1991 began doctoral work in linguistics at the University of Gothenburg, where he taught and researched. In 1999 the Swedish Islamic Society appointed him mufti of Sweden. After returning to Syria in the mid-2000s he taught theology and hadith in Damascus and preached at the Hasan Mosque, until he was forced into exile in 2011 after criticising the government’s response to the uprising. He has since lived in Morocco and works with the Sacred Knowledge teaching initiative.

His books include a study of price-fixing in Islamic law, editions and commentaries in Arabic, Sufi poetry, and the English-language Refuting ISIS (2015), a theological and legal rebuttal of the group’s claims. He was listed among the 500 Most Influential Muslims in 2012.