Mustafa Mahmoud

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[hide]This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk pa
This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. (April 2008)
This article relies too much on references to primary sources. (November 2014)

Mustafa Mahmoud

Mustafa Mahmoud.

Born

25 December 1921
Shibin El-Kom, Monufia, Egypt

Died

31 October 2009 (aged 87)[1]

Cairo, Egypt

Occupation Physician, author, thinker, philosopher, scientist,

explorer, Muslim scholar and reformer

Known for

Egyptian intellectual

Religion

Islam

Mustafa Kamal Mahmoud Husayn (Arabic: ( ) 25 December 1921 31 October

2009) commonly known asMustafa Mahmud (Arabic: ) was an Egyptian philosopher and
a prolific author. Mustafa Mahmoud was born in Shibin el-Kom, Munufiyya province, Egypt. He was
trained as a doctor, but later chose a career as a journalist and author, traveling widely and writing
on many subjects.[2]
Contents
[hide]

1 Autobiography
o

1.1 Early life

1.2 His frequent journeys

1.3 Marriage

1.4 Death

2 His thoughts

3 Commentary

4 Bibliography

5 Memorials and honors

6 see also

7 References

8 External links

Autobiography[edit]
The material in this section is derived from self-published information by the subject. [2]

Early life[edit]
Mustafa Mahmoud says that he was raised in a middle-class family. His father was employed as a
secretary in the province of El Gharbiyya. He was a pious man with a model character - exemplary
behavior, patience, endurance, persistence and work. He steadfastly performed his Prayers at the
mosque, even the Dawn Prayer which he used to perform in congregation. Furthermore, he was
affectionate to his children and sacrificed himself for their sake as did his mother.

Mustafa Mahmud says he led his early life in a pleasant atmosphere wherein there was no
oppression or violence. Rather, he enjoyed freedom and responsibility. In his early age in elementary
school, he failed three years consecutively (He was a good student, but after an Arabic language
teacher physically abused him, he got frustrated and left the school. But after the teacher reallocated
to teach in another school, Mustafa came back to his school to continue studying there), yet he was
left without any reproach or blame. In his childhood, he used to lay down ill. Thus, he was deprived
of enjoying rough play, and running, which the children used to indulge in. He remained an introvert
and spent his early days in imagination and dreams. He dreamed of being a great inventor or a
discoverer or a traveler or a famous scientist. His role models were Christopher
Columbus, Edison, Marconi and Pasteur.
Living in Tanta next to As Sayyid El Badawy Mosque, attending the celebrations in El Mawlid (a
religious festival) and the Sufi and Dervishes' recitals all had a great influence on his psychological
and innovative structure.
Mustafa Mahmud's father suffered from paralysis for seven years and died in 1939. His death
occurred after he had finished his secondary school, when he was making the decision to join the
Faculty of Medicine. Shortly thereafter, his family left Tanta for Cairo along with his mother.
Mustafa Mahmud had described his life during adolescence as similar to that of the taming an unruly
horse, the bridle of which was free for one time, and controlled for many others. The struggle was so
hard, as it went on for a long time, leaving behind a body covered by wounds and contusions.
Medical Studies
Mustafa Mahmud chose medicine as a field of study. In his autobiography, he says that felt content
with it, and that he would be able to acquire science and knowledge of the mysteries. The study was
intense, and it required strong desire, concentration, and devotion. Even though he needed to be
more strict with himself, he was ambitious and his love for science and knowledge inspired him.
However, he was often dissatisfied because of his feebleness; most of the time his ailing body forced
him to stay in bed.
In his third year of studies he was admitted into hospital for two years of treatment. He describes this
long isolation as a positive contribution to the development of his character, when he could indulge
himself totally to reading and thinking of literary works. In these two years, the meditative character
was fashioned within himself, and thus the writer was born.
After his recovery, he resumed his medical studies and says that he subsequently realized an
immense change within himself. He discovered within himself the artist who reflects, reads, and
peruses regularly the major sources of literature, plays, and novels. Owing to this new activity,
(which in no time he became an expert at), he began to write regularly to the newspapers, (in his
final year of Medicine). Accordingly, he had to intensify his effort to graduate and attain success. He
started writing for El Tahrir and Rose El Yusef magazines. Due to his illness he graduated two or
three years after his colleagues, in 1953.
He states that illness, suffering, and long isolation in the hospital caused his talents to gush forth
and pain was the very effective source and the real motive for all of those positive characteristics
and benefits he developed as a human, a man of letters and a thinker. Pain also refined his
character, made his innate nature so clear, revealed his religious sense, which led to his
enlightenment, awareness and remembrance of God.

His frequent journeys[edit]

Mustafa Mahmud describes his frequent travels, starting with his journeys to the Tropics
in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, and the south of Sudan, where he stayed for two months with the tribe
of Niam Niam. Thereafter, he traveled to the Sahara Desert, to the oasis of Ghadamis, where he
stayed for a month with the tribe of El Tawariq. Furthermore, he traveled to many capitals of
European and American countries, such as: Italy, Germany, Greece, France, Canada and the United

States; and to the Arab countries, beginning with Morocco and Algeria in the west; and ending
with Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia in the east.
There was another journey, one within himself; he boarded the ship of science, knowledge, and
religion (starting from the Indian Fideism, Zoroaster, Buddha; and ending with Moses, Jesus,
and Muhammad. Finally he found his comfort and himself in the Qur'an. Thus he concluded his
traveling, and devoted himself totally to reflection and contemplation. He lived among the jurists,
scholars, and Sufis, and found that the Qur'an is an ocean around which all the branches of
knowledge gather together.
He wrote five books criticizing the Marxist thought: Islamic left Fib; Marxism and Islam; Leftism
Collapse; Why Did I Refuse Marxism?; and The Antichrist. He was persuaded that Marxism was one
of the pickaxes which destroyed the current civilization; at worst, it was an instrument that caused
the creation of a spiteful, negative and rejecting character. He has seventy-five books published, six
of them were adapted for stage: (Earthquake; Man and Shade; The Great Alexander; The Social
Gang (Shilla-t 'Uns); Blood Odor; The Devil Lives in our House), one of them (The Impossible) was
presented as a film; twenty-five books deal with Islamic subjects; and the rest consists of studies and
short stories. TV presented for him more than four hundred parts of the program "Science and
Faith", in which the movie, scientific substance and Sufi meditation guide us to the faith in God.[(that
program came to and end, Mustafa's son "Adham Mustafa Mahmoud" said that the program stopped
by orders issued from the Egyptian presidency to then-Information Minister Safwat al-Sharif,the
reason of those orders was a pressure from Zionists. as Mentioned in a press report held with
"Adham Mustafa Mahmoud" and published by Egyptian news paper "Egyptian today")] Source:
(Arabian Only) http://www.almasry-alyoum.com/article2.aspx?ArticleID=231773
In the very beginning of his writing literature, he met El Aqqad, who used to give him a hand by
reading his writings to the attendants in the meeting held by Aqqad on Fridays, and also by
publishing them in the Al Rissala (The Message) Magazine in the year 1947. He also met Kamal El
Shinnawy, because of his help he was able to publish Mustafa Mahmud's articles in the Akher
Sa`ah (the Last Hour) Magazine in the year 1948.
In the year 1960,he left his medical career, devoting himself totally to writing for newspapers. As a
physician, moving from one hospital to another (particularly, among the Hospitals of Chest Diseases
in Abbasiyya, Chest diseases in 'Almazha, Chest diseases in Dumyat, and the dispensary of Umm
el-Masriyyeen), between the years 1953 and 1960, all had a great influence on his writings,
principally: Storehouse No. 7 (`Anbar 7), the Social Gang (Shilla-t 'Uns), and Eating Bread (Akl`Aysh). In the meantime, it had an influence on his scientific and anatomical access to the public
adversities, to the human soul and to the characters he dealt with in all his writings.
Another character who had a profound effect on him was his father, whose long-time illness,
patience, faith, and pure innate nature remained in his mind throughout his life. As he grew older and
encountered life's affairs in his thirties, a woman played a great role in and had an effectual control
on his life, as a friend, a dialogist, and a lover. His faults were always due to losing control of himself
when he looked at any beautiful things. Above all, he believed that no man is a perfect one unless he
has found a woman to love, to marry, to have children with, and to feel parenthood and establish a
family.

Marriage[edit]
Mustafa Mahmud says that his first marriage in 1961 was not successful, though from it, he was
endowed with a girl and a boy, Amal and Adham. The marriage ended in 1973. His second marriage
in 1983 was also unsuccessful and ended in 1987. The reason behind these divorces was the
passion of writing that controlled his life, his preoccupation with his work and finally his isolation. Yet
both of them were to be blamed.
As soon as the second marriage had ended, he devoted himself totally to his mission and his goal,
working as a Muslim scholar, a writer, and a thinker. At last, he was satisfied with this as his fate.

Since then, he is residing in a small apartment attached to the mosque that he had built as a part of
the Islamic Center in Al Dukki, carrying out his regular work. From his point of view, successful and
prosperous work is to give treatment for all the physical and psychological diseases. The ability to
convene between work and innovation is the most favored gift bestowed upon mankind from
God(Allah).

Death[edit]
He was discovered unconscious on 1 November 2009, despite medics trying to resuscitate him he
was already dead. He died at the approximate age of 88.

His thoughts[edit]
On his website,[2] Mustafa Mahmud gives the following opinions about various things:

In the usual course of things, he does not care for malice, envy and
enmity, or wasting time arguing against them. He prefers keeping
away from these abhorrent qualities and their owners to avoid
wasting his power superfluously. The greatest triumph he has
achieved in his life according to him was himself. It was as a result
of the help of God, the strength with which He aided him, the
Insight, the Light guiding his life and the virtuous model he had in
his father, and his mother beside the righteous family he was
brought up within.

The defeat of 1967 and the economic and moral collapse were the
actual afflictions, which are still the most important ones, to be
afraid of in his country Egypt. The victory of 1973 eased that feeling.
Even though, the destructive influence of the communist system
was ready to exist in his Egyptian country up till now.

He believes that the Egyptians have to go out from this communist

environment, and from the remnants of the common economy
brought into being by Abdel Nasser i.e., public sector, aimless free
of charge educational system, the equality of workers and farmers
in the number of voters, the oppression of a land owner by the
tenant of the land whereby the tenant does not have any use of, but
sublets it to others, leaving the countryside for cities and towns,
agricultural collapse, the spirit of idleness, mutual dependence,
envy, malice, alienation, and passive behaviors of which
communism rooted in every field in the society.

The Egyptians have to cleanse our society from the fruitless and
destructive methods of Abdel Nasser, because new buildings
cannot be structured on a decayed foundation, taking into
consideration that the building is not to be raised on a ruin.
Unfortunately, the Egyptian set of laws is still suffering from Marxian
failure, nevertheless the total change in our economic system. The
very first problem, the Egyptians have to deal with is education i.e.,
its system and methods. These are to be completely changed. The
very first concern is the focus on the high moral standards of work.

Merging of knowledge and performance is the only way for the

economy to prosper, and for the population to change to bless. This
is so clear by comparing the population of Japan or India, finding
out that the Egyptians are less developed. As a result to working of
most of them, India has covered its needs of corn. On the other
hand, due to the high employment level, Japan overcame American
products. South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong have
been able to be in the fore-front.

Work is a Kind of worship, blessing and belief. As long as education

is exercised at home, in the mosque, in the factories, in the schools,
and in the media, the Egyptians would be able to advance all the
way. In Singapore, for example, the total number of its population is
only three million; the total production exported abroad is about
seventy billion dollars. This is tremendous as there is no
petroleum, natural gas, iron, copper nor ore deposits. They even
used to buy water from their neighbors. Hong Kong is one of the
cities that produces and exports a larger amount of products
estimated by doubles more than what Egypt, whose population is
more than sixty million, exports; this is because of the incredibly
high employment rate.

He is wondering, when will the Egyptians emerge from the field of

malice, laziness, and the psychological ruin of which our
authoritarian governments imbued in them, and become a
productive working nation.

At which time are we to return to the normal innate nature, and fresh minds of which the true Muslim
is characterized.

He hopes to be "himself" no more, and to introduce to the whole

world the best he has to offer, and to go on working until his last
breath, close to God, asking Him to be pleased with him. Finally, he
hopes God allows him to leave this world as good as he can.

Commentary[edit]
In the July 7, 2008 issue of Culture Magazine, published by Al Jazirah, a number of prominent
people commented on their respect for the works of Mustafa Mahmoud.[3]

Bibliography[edit]

1-Understanding The Qur'an : A Contemporary Approach ISBN 159008-022-X

2-Kalimat as-sirr. al-Qhira: Dr Abr al-Yaum. 1998. ISBN 97708-0694-3.

3-Al-Islam Al-Siyasi Wa-Al-Marakah Al-Qadimah (Political Islam and

the upcoming battle) ISBN 977-08-0403-7

4-Qiraah Lil-Mustaqbal (Reading for the future) ISBN 977-08-00376

5-Al-Sual Al-hair ISBN 977-02-2611-4 The Perplexed Question)

6-Haqiqat Al-Bahaiyah (Bahai Facts) (1985) ISBN 977-02-1502-3

7-Marxism and Islam (1984) ISBN 977-02-0969-4

8-Ayyuha Al-Sadah - Ikhlau Al-Aqniah (Gentlemen, Unveil These

Masks)(1984) ISBN 977-02-0901-5

9-Al-Islam - Ma Huwa (What is Islam?) (1984) ISBN 977-02-1110-9

10-Hal Huwa asr Al-Junun (Is It The Age of Insanity) (1983) ISBN
977-02-0499-4

11-Min Amrika Ila Al-Shati Al-akhar (From America to the other

shore) (1982) ISBN 977-02-0255-X

12-Dialog Antara Muslim Dan Atheis (1981) ISBN 9971-77-021-0

13-Ukdhubat Al-Yasar Al-Islami (1978) ISBN 977-247-404-2

14-Al-Islam fi khandak

15-Al Hob al kadeem (The old love)

16-Al Roh wal Gsad (The Spirit & The Body)

17-Al Sir Al A'zam (The Greatest Secret)

18-Al Sirk (The Circus)

19-Al Shaytan Yahkom (The Devil Rules )

20-Al Ghad al Moshta'il (The Burning Tomorrow)

21-Al Quran Ka'in Hai (Quran: A Living Creature)

22-Al Wgoud wal 'dm (Existence and nothingness)

23-Einstein and Relativity

24-Gohnam el-so'ra

25-Hekayat Mosafer

26-Ra'it Allah (I Saw God)

27-Rehlati men al shak ila al iman (My journey from Doubt to Belief)

28-Al- Ankabout (The Spider)

29-Asr el-orood (Age of Monkeys)

30-In Love and Life

31-Death mystery

32-Mohammed

33-Fire under the ashes

34-Getting out of the Coffin

35-Adventure in the Desert

36-Al-Torah

37-Quran: serious attempt to a modern understanding

38-Allah (GOD)

39-Smell of the Blood

40-Opium

41-What's Behind The Gate of Death

Memorials and honors[edit]

Mustafa Mahmud Square, Cairo, Egypt

I'jaz

see also[edit]

References[edit]
1.

Jump up^ The death of the great scientist, Mostafa Mahmoud after a
struggle with the disease masrawy.com (arabic)

2.

^ Jump up to:a b c "The Founder...A Biography" (in Arabic). Mustafa

Mahmud. Retrieved 2009-03-05.

3.

Jump up^ "Mustafa Mahmoud" Al Jazirah

WorldCat
VIAF: 56722093
LCCN: n81060131
ISNI: 0000 0001 2101 5592

Authority control

GND: 119042851
SUDOC: 034648437
BNF: cb12538209h (data)
NLA:36079973

External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has
media related to Mustafa
Mahmoud.

The Astronomical Society of Mahmoud Mosque

Mostafa Mahmoud: The Life Path of a Polymath

Dialogue With An Atheist

Categories:

Mujaddid

Ash'aris

1921 births

2009 deaths

Egyptian writers

Egyptian physicians

People from Monufia Governorate

Navigation menu

Create account

Log in

Read
Edit

Article
Talk

View history
Go

Main page

Contents

Featured content

Current events

Random article

Donate to Wikipedia

Wikipedia store
Interaction

Help

About Wikipedia

Community portal

Recent changes

Contact page
Tools

What links here

Related changes

Upload file

Special pages

Permanent link

Page information

Wikidata item

Cite this page

Print/export

Create a book

Download as PDF

Printable version
Languages

Deutsch

Franais

Italiano

Edit links

This page was last modified on 22 July 2015, at 02:05.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional

terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit
organization.

Privacy policy

About Wikipedia

Disclaimers

Contact Wikipedia

Developers

Mobile view