Hamza Yusuf

Not to be confused with the Scottish politician Humza Yousaf.
Hamza Yusuf
Yusuf in 2022
TitleShaykh
Personal
Born
Mark Hanson

1958 (age 65–66)
Walla Walla, Washington, U.S.
ReligionIslam
DenominationSunni
JurisprudenceMaliki[1]
CreedAsh'ari
MovementIslamic neo-traditionalism
Main interest(s)Tasawwuf, Aqida, Fiqh, Islamic Eschatology
Education
OccupationIslamic scholar, Author
YouTube information
Channel
Years activeApril 25, 2013–present
Subscribers128 thousand[4]
Total views8.7 million[4]
Associated actsZaytuna College
100,000 subscribers
Last updated: 26 October 2022
Websitesandala.org

Hamza Yusuf (born Mark Hanson; 1958)[5] is an American Islamic neo-traditionalist,[6][7] Islamic scholar,[3][8] and co-founder of Zaytuna College.[2][9] He is a proponent of classical learning in Islam and has promoted Islamic sciences and classical teaching methodologies throughout the world.[10]

He is an advisor to both the Center for Islamic Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and the Islamic Studies programme at Stanford University.[11][12][13] In addition, he serves as vice-president for the Global Center for Guidance and Renewal, which was founded and is currently presided over by Abdallah bin Bayyah.[14][15] He also serves as vice-president of the UAE-based Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies, where Abdallah bin Bayyah also serves as president.[16] The Forum has attracted huge controversy for its close ties to the UAE dictatorship as well as Hamza Yusuf's personal support for authoritarian leaders since the Arab Spring.[17][18][19]

The Guardian has referred to Yusuf as "arguably the West's most influential Islamic scholar".[20] The New Yorker magazine also called him "perhaps the most influential Islamic scholar in the Western world",[21] and journalist Graeme Wood has called him "one the two most prominent Muslim scholars in the United States today".[22] He has been listed in the top 50 of The 500 Most Influential Muslims.[23] His detractors, however, have widely criticised him for his stance on race, politics, the Syrian revolution, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]

  1. ^ "Prominent Malikis in the American milieu include the founder of the Zaytuna Institute Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Hanson". Jocelyne Cesari, Encyclopedia of Islam in the United States, p 23.
  2. ^ a b E. Curtis, Edward (2009). The Columbia Sourcebook of Muslims in the United States. Columbia University Press. p. 405. ISBN 978-0231139571.
  3. ^ a b Cesari, Jocelyne (2004). When Islam and Democracy Meet: Muslims in Europe and in the United States. Pelgrave MacMillan. p. 150. ISBN 1403978565.
  4. ^ a b "About Hamza Yusuf". YouTube.
  5. ^ "إضاءات :. حمزة يوسف". youtube.com. 5 October 2011. Archived from the original on 2021-12-12.
  6. ^ al-Azami, U. (2019-09-26). Neo-traditionalist Sufis and Arab politics: a preliminary mapping of the transnational networks of counter-revolutionary scholars after the Arab revolutions. C.Hurst & Co. Ltd. ISBN 978-1-78738-134-6.
  7. ^ Quisay, Walaa (2019). Neo-traditionalism in the West: navigating modernity, tradition, and politics (PhD thesis). University of Oxford.
  8. ^ Multiple sources :
  9. ^ Grewal, Zareena (2014). Islam Is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority. New York University Press. p. 377. ISBN 978-1479800568.
  10. ^ Cesari, Jocelyne (2007). Encyclopedia of Islam in the United States. Greenwood Press. p. 643. ISBN 978-0313336256.
  11. ^ "Carnegie Workshop Biographies". 10 May 2012.
  12. ^ Affairs, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World. "Hamza Yusuf". berkleycenter.georgetown.edu. Retrieved 2022-07-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ "Sheikh Hamza Yusuf Hanson". Religions for Peace. 13 October 2020. Retrieved 2022-07-13.
  14. ^ "Introducing global center for renewal and guidance « Bin Bayyah". binbayyah.net. Archived from the original on 2012-11-12.
  15. ^ Haque, Mozammel. "Introducing global center for renewal and guidance". Saudi Gazette. Archived from the original on December 19, 2014. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
  16. ^ Yusuf, Hamza (2016-06-24). "Opinion | The Orlando shooter Googled my name. I wish he had reached out to me". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-01-20.
  17. ^ Sarant, Louise (2015-07-22). "UAE's Masdar launches first models to predict Emirates' climate evolution". Nature Middle East. doi:10.1038/nmiddleeast.2015.121. ISSN 2042-6046.
  18. ^ Parikh, Crystal (2009-04-13), "Epilogue: The Traitors in Our Midst", An Ethics of Betrayal, Fordham University Press, pp. 160–172, doi:10.5422/fso/9780823230426.003.0006, ISBN 9780823230426, S2CID 183278363, retrieved 2023-03-14
  19. ^ AL-AZAMI, USAAMA (2022). ISLAM AND THE ARAB REVOLUTIONS : the ulama between democracy and autocracy. [S.l.]: C HURST & CO PUB LTD. ISBN 978-1-78738-822-2. OCLC 1304817590.
  20. ^ O'Sullivan, Jack (October 7, 2001). "If you hate the west, emigrate to a Muslim country". The Guardian. London. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
  21. ^ Romig, Rollo (May 20, 2013). "Where Islam Meets America". New Yorker. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
  22. ^ Wood, Graeme (2016). "The War of the End of Time". The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State. Random House. p. 214. ISBN 9780812988765.
  23. ^ "Hamza Yusuf Hanson". The Muslim 500. 27 May 2018. Retrieved 2020-01-13.
  24. ^ "Sheikh Hamza Yusuf Hanson". The Muslim 500. 27 May 2018. Retrieved 2019-09-28.
  25. ^ Bokth, Noshin (2019-07-19). "The controversy of Hamza Yusuf being appointed Human Rights Adviser to the Trump administration - TMV". Retrieved 2019-09-28.
  26. ^ Hamza Yusuf under fire for comments about the Syrian revolution, 11 September 2019, archived from the original on 2021-12-12, retrieved 2019-09-28
  27. ^ Hilal, Maha. "It's time for Muslim Americans to condemn Hamza Yusuf". aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2019-09-28.
  28. ^ "Hamza Yusuf and the struggle for the soul of western Islam". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 2019-09-28.
  29. ^ 5Pillars (2016-12-25). "Hamza Yusuf stokes controversy with comments about Black Lives Matter and political Islam". 5Pillars. Retrieved 2019-09-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  30. ^ "Influential Muslim scholar criticised for calling the UAE a 'tolerant country'". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 2019-09-28.
  31. ^ al-Azami, Dr Usaama (2019-09-15). "Shaykh Hamza Yusuf And The Question of Rebellion In The Islamic Tradition". MuslimMatters.org. Retrieved 2023-04-29.
  32. ^ "American Islamic scholar Hamza Yusuf interrupted at Canada conference over Gaza remarks – Middle East Monitor".