WATCH: Sheikh Al-Sudais first prayer as Imam Masjid Al Haram after 40 years
Dr Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais completes 40 years of his appointment as Imam of Saudi Grand Mosque in Makkah
March 16, 2023
ISLAMABAD: Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais on Wednesday completed 40 years of his appointment as Imam of Masjid Al Haram, Makkah.
Taking to Twitter, Saudi Embassy Press Attaché Dr Naif Alotaibi shared a videotape of Sheikh Al Sudais’s first Salah as an Imam of Masjid Al Haram.
Sharing details, he informed that Sheikh Al Sudais was appointed as an Imam of Masjid Al Haram, Makkah by a Royal Decree issued by the late custodian of the two Holy Mosques King Fahad bin Abdulaziz in 1984 (1404 AH) at the age of 22 years.
Sheikh Al Sudais led his first Salah on Shaban 22, 1404 AH corresponding to May 1984 and his first Salah in the Masjid Al Haram was the Asr prayer.
Who is Sheikh Al Sudais?
According to Arab News, Dr Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais has been president, at ministerial rank, of the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques since May 2012.
Grand Mosque Imam and prominent Islamic scholar Al-Sudais — who was born in 1962 in Riyad — is known for his melodious Quran recitations that have inspired Muslims around the world.
He attended Riyadh Scientific Institute, graduating from there with excellence in 1979. Four years later, he gained a bachelor’s degree from the Riyadh-based College of Shariah, where he was also appointed a lecturer in the department of the fundamentals of Islamic jurisprudence.
In 1988, he obtained a with-excellence master’s degree in Islamic jurisprudence from the college at Imam Mohammed bin Saud Islamic University, and then a PhD with excellence from Makkah’s Umm Al-Qura University. In 1996, he was promoted to assistant professor at the university’s college of Shariah.
In 2004, Al-Sudais became an associate professor and member of the teaching staff in Umm Al-Qura University’s higher Shariah studies department. Five years later, he was made professor of Islamic jurisprudence at the same university.
Al-Sudais, who had memorised the whole of the Quran by the age of 12, is an expert in both the Hafs bin Asim method of reading the Quran and the “Six Books,” which contain Prophetic Hadith and acts compiled by six Muslim scholars.
A year after his graduation from the College of Shariah, he was appointed an imam at the Grand Mosque in Makkah, beginning his new duty by leading the Asr prayer eight days before Ramadan. On June 15, 1984, he delivered his first Friday sermon at the Grand Mosque.
