Background
Muhammand Sa'id al-'Ashmawi was born in 1932.
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Muhammad Sa'id al-'Ashmawi
Edit ProfileEducation
He graduated from Cairo University's law school in 1954 and became assistant district attorney and then district attorney in Alexandria.
Career
He was a specialist in comparative and Islamic law at Cairo University, described as "one of the most influential liberal Islamic thinkers today."
He was appointed a judge in 1961 and rose to become chief justice of the High Court, the High Criminal Court and the High Court for State Security. He was trained in usul al-din, sharia and comparative law and did formal legal study at Harvard Law School and elsewhere in the United States in 1978. He retired from the bench in July 1993.
Due to his views, Ashmawi relied on round-the-clock police protection due to death threats from Egyptian militants. One difference Ashmawi had with Islamists like Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Sayyid Qutb was whether the word Sharia as used in the Quran refers to one uniform "path" or "way" for everyone to obey. worship,
ethical code,
social intercourse."
Fiqh is thus not fixed and "must be reinterpreted anew" by scholars in every age in accordance with their understanding.
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Born
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Died
November 7, 2013 (aged 81) -
Nationality
Egypt -
Religion
Islam