Sheikh Nedham Yaqubi-renowned Shari’a Scholar
Your family background?
I am a Bahraini and my family history goes back to the Abbasid dynasty. Immediately before settling in Bahrain my forefathers came from Iran where a strand of the Abbasi family got settled after the Mongol invasion of Abbasid-run Iraq. My father was a trader and this is something I have kept as my family business in Bahrain.
What do you enjoy the most?
Apart from visiting the great scholars of our times and learning from them directly, and reading books, I enjoy cooking the most. Whenever I have time and opportunity, I love to cook for my family, and I am sure they enjoy my food as I am an excellent cook.
What is your passion?
Reading and collecting scarce Islamic manuscripts is my lifetime passion. I have travelled around the world to read such manuscripts and have tried my best to collect as many of them as I can. In addition to the physical copies of such manuscripts, I have digital copies of thousands of Islamic scripts collected from all over the world. I am not sure but I believe I have the largest collection of Islamic manuscripts barring government and institutional collections.
What do you do in your spare time when you’re travelling?
I always try to find some time out of my professional engagements around the world. I visit libraries and alhamdo lillah I have benefitted from all major libraries in the world, which hold Islamic manuscripts. Also, I have since my childhood preferred to be in the company of scholars. Wherever I go in the world, I try to meet the local scholars to benefit from their knowledge.
What was your childhood ambition?
Although I come from a trading family and helped my father in his business when I was growing up, I always had an ambition of becoming a scholar. Whenever a great scholar would visit Bahrain, I would try to be in their company. Indeed, the company of such scholars helped me immensely to learn and understand religious thought.
Who has been your greatest mentor?
At different stages of my life, I have been inspired by different people. As a child, I was really impressed by Sheikh Abdullah Al-Farisi Al-Siddiqui who used to take me as his grandchild. After his death, I got my early religious education from his son, Sheikh Yousuf Al-Siddiqui. As for as Islamic finance is concerned, I was trained by Sheikh Mohamed Khatar Mohamed Al Sheikh, an Egyptian scholar of great repute. He was a very experienced Shari’a scholar. When he passed away at the age of 90, he had spent 30 years as a judge, with 50 years of legal practice experience. He also served as Grand Mufti of Egypt for about 12 years.
Sheikh Mohamed Khatar was an excellent teacher. When I was studying with him, modern IT technology had not entered pedagogy of Islamic sciences, and there was no indexing or IT packages to search for references in the books of hadeeth or fiqh. He would ask me to find a specific hadeeth in a book of hadeeth. I would spend the whole night searching for the particular item. In the morning before I would start, he would ask if I had found the reference. If I would say yes, he would tell me the chapter number and the page number before I would share findings of my research. Frustrated by this, I would ask him why he asked me if he already knew about the reference. “How much did you benefit from this search?” he would say smiling. It was indeed a great learning experience with him. May Allah reward him for this.
Where are you the happiest?
Without an iota of doubt, in Makkah and Medina! When I am not in the two holy cities, I feel the most comfortable being at home in Bahrain. For me, Bahrain is the best country because it is where I was born and grew up. It is my home.
If your 20 years old sees you today
what would he say?
I am not sure what he would say but I would definitely ask him how could I become like him once again… [smiles]
Any disappointment in life?
Alhamdo lillah, Allah has been very kind to me and I can genuinely say that I have no disappointment in my life.
Any message for those involved in Islamic banking and finance?
It is important that everyone takes their job or business seriously. Islamic banking and finance practitioners are not an exception. As long as they are serious about their job and stick to professionalism, Islamic banking and finance will continue to grow.
