The passing of Yusuf al-Qaradawi in Qatar on Monday marks the end of an era in contemporary Islam. Al-Qaradawi was one of the world’s most influential Muslim scholars, and a vocal advocate for Palestinian liberation as well as for the Arab revolutions of 2011. His passing at the age of 96 brings to a close the career of one of the most important Muslim scholars of the last century.
Born in 1926 in a village in the Nile Delta of Egypt, which was still under British colonial rule, al-Qaradawi went to study at the prestigious Al-Azhar University based in Cairo. As a teenager, he was closely associated with it and the Muslim Brotherhood – two of the most important institutions of his day.
