Dr. Yusuf Qaradawi passed away yesterday in Doha, Qatar. He was born in Egypt in 1926. He published more than 120 books and held numerous Islamic positions with different movements and universities. At one point he had more than 50 million viewers watching his TV program “Sharia and Life” which aired on the Qatar based satellite TV network Aljazeera.
He was orphaned at the age of two years old and was raised by his uncle. Shaykh Yusuf memorized the Qur’an by the age of nine and went on to hold a masters degree in Islamic studies.
He was imprisoned due to his connections to the Ikhwaan Al Muslimeen (Muslim Brotherhood) four different times from 1949 to 1961. He fled Egypt in 1961 and did not return until after the overthrow of then dictator Muhammad Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
He is regarded as one of the most influential Muslim scholars of this age. He had three sons and four daughters. One of his daughters, Ilham Yusuf Qaradawi, is an internationally recognized nuclear scientist
