The Art of Reading – Shaykh Ahmed Hussein El Azhary

The Art of Reading by Shaykh Ahmed Hussein El Azhary

In this new podcast series, Shaykh Ahmed Hussein El Azhary will discuss why the art of reading is critical for students of knowledge to master. One of the greatest barriers in mastering a science is the inability to read with structure and comprehension. In this series, Shaykh Ahmed will provide students with a detailed approach to rectifying this problem.

In addition to offering practical tips and guidance in improving one’s reading and learning skills, Shaykh Ahmed will also elaborate on the development of the instrumental (foundational) sciences within the Islamic tradition and how they compare to medieval and modern theories of literary comprehension.

In episode 1, Dr. Yusuf Patel asks Shaykh Ahmed Hussein El Azhary why many students of knowledge are not able to read and master texts that they have studied. Furthermore, Shaykh Ahmed discusses the various phases of mastery that students should attain during their studies, and how the science of learning developed in the classical Islamic period and in modern times.

Click here to listen to Episode 1 of The Art of Reading.

Biography of Shaykh Ahmed Hussein El Azhary:

Shaykh Ahmed El Azhary is a researcher in Islamic intellectual history and a teacher of Islamic traditional sciences. He’s currently a teacher of Hadith, Usūl, Logic and Kalam at Rawdatul-Na`īm under the supervision of Habib `Ali al-Jifrī; and at Madyafat Shaykh Ismaīl Sadiq al-`Adawī (RA), a prominent learning center by al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo.

Formerly, Shaykh Ahmed worked as a Lead Researcher at Tabah Foundation. He was appointed by Habib `Ali al-Jifrī to architect the philosophical framework of Suaal initiative – an initiative concerned with modelling an Islamic philosophical response to contemporary existential questions, supervised by Shaykh `Ali Jumu`ah, Habib `Umar and Shaykh Usama al-Azhary. Shaykh Ahmed continues to participate in Suaal initiative through essays, public lectures and workshops.

His previous experiences include: participating as a teaching assistant and then as a mentor at “Learning How to Learn,” the most popular course of all time on Coursera provided by University of California – San Diego; and working as a high school teacher of business, economics and psychology courses as well as supervising character development programs at Green Heights International School.

Shaykh Ahmed studied Anthropology at American University in Cairo and received his training in Leadership Communication from Tulane University and The University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is also a life-long learner. He holds a diversified portfolio of almost 50 certificates in a variety of subjects – extending from Teaching Character and Clinical Psychology of Children and Young People to Complexity Theory, Model Thinking and Conflict Analysis.

Shaykh Ahmed began his journey of studying traditional sciences about 20 years ago. In addition to studying with scholars from al-Azhar, he had the privilege of studying with visiting scholars from Algeria and India in a one-on-one format, and was thus given an exceptional opportunity to study and discuss advanced-level texts of different sorts and over a long period of time. Shaykh Ahmed has more than 70 Ijazas from scholars from all over the Muslim world.

Having read hundreds of books and conducted countless hours in research and study, Shaykh Ahmed has contributed to academic scholarship through four printed publications that help us understand the post-classical scholarly community in the Islamicate world. One of which is al-Matali` fī Adāb al-Mutali`, a compendium of seven edited treatises in the art of deep reading. He’s currently working on a second compendium that will include another three treatises in the same subject.

Beside a number of edited works about to be released in Islamic pedagogy, linguistics and Hanafi Usūl, Shaykh Ahmed has authored Rūh al-`Ilm – a treatise in the art of scientific investigation, based on a survey of roughly 200 traditional Islamic texts, and has been endorsed by Dr. Jamāl Fārūq, the Dean of Islamic Da`wah College at al-Azhar University and Dr. Ahmed Mamdūh, the Chair of Research Division at Dar al-Iftaa’ al-Masrīyah. Rūh al-`Ilm will be published by Tabah Foundation in the early of summer of 2019.