Noted Islamic scholar buried in Virginia

Taha Jabir Alawani published more than 30 books during his lifetime, on a range of Islamic topics

WASHINGTON – Taha Jabir Alawani, an internationally recognized Muslim scholar, was buried Sunday in northern Virginia.

Born in Iraq in 1935, Alawani went on to graduate from Egypt’s al-Azhar University, and taught Islamic jurisprudence for a decade in Saudi Arabia before settling in the United States in 1983.

He published more than 30 books during his lifetime, on a range of Islamic topics, and went on to found the Fiqh Council of North America. He also regularly contributed to the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences.

Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, hailed Alawani as a “major scholar, Islamic thinker, and reformer.”

“We all benefited from him, from his knowledge, from the wealth and the contribution of his literature and books,” he said. “He will be missed.”

At the time of his death, Alawani was president of Cordoba University, which is located in Ashburn, Virginia.

He leaves behind three children. He was 81.