Abu Ishaq Al Heweny

Abu Ishaq Al Heweny (born June 1956). He is Hijazi Muhammad Yousuf Sharif, regarded as a leading Muslim scholar. Born in the village of Hewen in Kafr el-Sheikh Governorate in Egypt.

His Family

Abu Ishaq grew up in a simple rural family. His father was married to three wives, and he was from the third wife, the third one of his brothers.He was religious like the majority of the villagers back then. Abu Ishaq was not his actual name at birth, but he decided to name himself with Abu Ishaq after the companion nickname Saad ibn Abi Waqas and the nickname of Imam Al Shatby, and Al Heweny because of his village name Hewen

 Education

Abu Ishaq studied for six years at the government primary school in a village about 2 kilometers far from his home town Hewen. Then he moved to study his middle school and high school in Kafr el-Sheikh city. After the high school, Abu Ishaq joined the Faculty of Languages Department to study Spanish Language at the University of Ain Shams in Cairo. After he graduated, Abu Ishaq was given a University Scholarship to travel to Spain to join the Spanish Language Academy, but after a certain time he went back to Egypt and he didn't finish his study in the Academy because he didn't adapt in the country.

 Change of Direction

Before the university years, Abu Ishaq wasn't that interested in the study of religious law known as Sharia, it was not until he traveled to Cairo during the last year of high school to stay at his brother's house in (1975). During his stay he used to go to Friday Prayer and listen to the sermons of Abd al-Hamid Kishk in the Mosque Len Hayat. On one occasion while he was walking he found a man selling books on the sidewalk, Abu Ishaq saw a book called The Prophet Muhammad's Prayer From The beginning To The Endwritten by Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani, Abu Ishaq took a look at the book and he became interested in buying it but he couldn't afford the cost of the book at that time, luckily he was able to find a summary of the book and he bought it instead. After reading the summary, Abu Ishaq found that the majority of the people including himself praying in a different way, and not the way described in the book. So he decided to buy the full original copy of the book. After he bought and read the book, Abu Ishaq liked the way that the book was written, especially the introduction of the book and it's strong reliance on Hadeeth. Eventhough Abu Ishaq was not very knowledgeble at the time. This small event had instilled in Abu Ishaq a greater desire to study Islam further and more specifically the field of Hadeeth.