Abdullah al-Harari


Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn Yusuf Al-Harariyy was a Harari muhaddith and scholar of Islamic jurisprudence. He lived and taught in Beirut, Lebanon, and was the founder of Al-Ahbash, a Sufi religious movement.

History

Al-Harariyy was born in 1906 in Harar, Ethiopia.
In 1983, he founded Al-Ahbash, a Beirut-based organization also known as the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects. Al-Ahbash is a Sufi religious movement which claims to run its schools affiliated with Cairo's Al-Azhar University, a claim which has been denied by Al-Azhar. Due to the group's origins and activity in Lebanon, the Ahbash have been described as the "activist expression of Lebanese Sufism."
Al-Harariyy was one of the Ulama signatories of the Amman Message. Issued in 2004, the statement gives a broad foundation for defining Muslim orthodoxy. He was also licensed as a Shaykh by Al-Azhar University's branch in Lebanon.
Al-Harariyy died of natural causes on September 2, 2008, aged 102.