Shaykh Abdul Karim Mudarris Al Bayyarah

He is ‘Abd al-Karim b. Mu’ammad Fatta’ b. Mus afa b. Sulayman b. Mu’ammad al-Kurdi al-Sharazuri and was born in the region of Halabjah in Iraq in 1901. Raised under the guidance and care of his parents he began learning the Qur’an from his father at the age of six, completing it in a short time. At the age of ten he began studying books in ‘Aqida, rhetoric, Tarif al-Zanjani and various other books in Arabic Grammar. He also studied the commentary to Alfiya Ibn Malik by al-Suyu+i under al-:ajj Mulla ‘Aziz who was the Imam of a mosque in the Suleimaniyah district. When the First World War began in 1914, he left this area and moved to another village until he eventually settled with some students studying with Shaykh Mullah Abdullah in his Khanqa. Thereafter he moved to the school of Shaykh Husam al-Din, following which he moved to the school of Shaykh ‘Ala al-Din b. Shaykh ‘Umar Far‘ani where he studied various books on Arabic grammar, logic, the art of debate and argumentation, Fiqh and inheritance.

At the Abu Ubaydah School he also studied al-Burhan in logic under Shaykh Mulla Mu’ammad Sa‘id al-‘Ubaydi. He later returned to Suleimaniyah where he continued his studies in the Mawlana Khalid Khanqa School. He studied under Shaykh ‘Umar b. Shaykh Mu’ammad Amin al-Qara’daghi in 1920.

Shaykh ‘Abd al-Karim al-Mudarris studied numerous works in Arabic grammar, astrolabe, Shar’ Tahdhib al-Kalam, Jamu‘ al-Jawami‘ in uul al-fiqh, many books in Fiqh, inheritance, some chapters of Shar’ al-Manhaj by Shaykh Zakariyya al-An*ari and al-Tu’fa by Shaykh Ibn :ajar al-Haytami. He studied all the prescribed books at the time over a period of four years. Thereafter his teacher, Shaykh Umar granted him an ijaza in the presence of some reputable scholars of the time including Shaykh Mu’ammad Najib al-Qara’daghi, Shaykh Jalal al-Din (teacher at Masjid al-Khaffafi), Shaykh Mulla Husayn al-Baskandi and Shaykh Ba Ba ‘Ali.

In 1924, he was appointed as a teacher in a district in Halabjah and in 1927, the murshid of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order. Shaykh ‘Ala al-Din b. Shaykh ‘Umar Diya’ al-Din b. Shaykh ‘Uthman Siraj al-Din (a successor to Shaykh Khalid) requested that he go to area of Bayarah to teach the Islamic Sciences where he remained for about 24 years and served as a kha,ib for approximately 18 years.Iin 1951, he moved back to Suleimaniyah where he taught at the Mosque of al-Hajj Ahan for about three years.

In 1954 (1374 H) he moved to Kirkuk where he taught at the al-Hajj Jamilal-Ialibani Centre. In 1960 he moved to Baghdad where he was Imam and khatib at Jami’ al-A’madi and a teacher at the Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jaylani Mosque. He retired fromofficial duties in 1973 (1393 H) but continued teaching for the pleasure of Allah.After the death of Shaykh Najm al-Din al-Wa’iz, he was appointed as the Head of the ‘Ulama’League of Iraq. Many also regarded him as the Mufti of Baghdad. He performed Hajj in 1968(1388 H). Over the years many scholars benefited from his knowledge.
He authored books in Kurdish, Persian and Arabic on a wide variety of topics including sira,fiqh, ijtihad and taqlid, rhetoric, morphology, logic and a book on the biographies of someKurdish ‘Ulama’.He was a righteous and pious scholar who dedicated his life towards imparting theknowledge of Islam. He passed away on the 30th August 2005 and is buried in the Jaylani tomb.

Footage of The shaykh :