Sheikh Ata Abu Rashta (Ameer)
Sheikh Abu Yaseen Ata ibn Khaleel Abul Rashtah, (born in 1943 in Ra’na, Hebron, Palestine); is an Islamic jurist, scholar and writer. He is the current global leader of the Islamic political party Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Sheikh Ata is a very rare Islamic scholar. He was born into an observant Islamic family in 1943 in the small village of Ra’na in the Hebron area of the Palestinian territories. He observed first-hand the Israeli destruction of Ra’na in 1948 and thereafter moved with his family to a refugee camp near Hebron.
His primary and middle education was completed at the refugee camp. He subsequently obtained his first certificate of secondary education in 1960 from the Al Hussein Bin Ali school in Hebron and later completed his general secondary certificate at the Ibrahimiya school in Jerusalem in 1961.
Sheikh Ata Abu Rashta then joined the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University in Egypt and graduated in civil engineering in 1966. After graduating, Sheikh Ata Abu Rashta worked in a number of Arab countries as a civil engineer and wrote a book concerning the calculation of quantities in relation to the construction of buildings and roads.
Joining Hizb ut-Tahrir
Sheikh Ata Abu Rashta joined Hizb ut-Tahrir in the mid-1950s and subsequently carried out party activism throughout the Arab world. He worked closely with Sheikh Taqiuddin an-Nabhani, the founder of Hizb ut-Tahrir and Sheikh Abdul Qadeem Zallum who became the leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir following Sheikh Nabhani’s death in 1977. In the 1980s he was a leading member of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Jordan and was appointed as Hizb ut-Tahrir’s official spokesperson.
Sheikh Ata Abu Rashta played a prominent role in Jordan during the Persian Gulf War when he convened press conferences, lectures and debates at public venues throughout the country. He debated the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait at the Jerusalem Mosque in Amman at which he delivered a lecture entitled The Neo-Crusader Assault on the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf. He was regularly detained by the Jordanian authorities.
In 1994, in an interview, Sheikh Ata Abu Rashta said, “The establishment of the Caliphate is now a general demand among Muslims, who yearn for this: the call for Islamic government (the Caliphate) is widespread in Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Pakistan, Algeria and so on. Before Hizb al-Tahrir launched its careeer the subject of the Caliphate was unheard of. However, the party has succeeded in establishing its intellectual leadership, and now everyone has confidence in its ideas, and talks about it: this is clear from the media worldwide”.
His Leadership
Abu Rashta became the global leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir on 13th April 2003 following the death of Sheikh Abdul Qadeem Zallum.
Since assuming the leadership of Hizb ut-Tahrir, has spoken at conferences across the world including Indonesia, Pakistan and Yemen.
Most recently, he addressed Muslims in Syria in January 2013. He outlined the plans of global powers who, on the one hand, are supporting Assad while, on the other, are working to install a client regime; and motivated the Muslims of Syria from Quran and Sunnah to maintain their sincere struggle against the regime and to hold fast to Islam.
He is also distinguished by having written on the subject of the practical implementation of Islamic solutions to many of today’s problems, such as industrialisation and education in the Muslim world.
Sheikh Ata regularly addresses matters of global political importance, economic matters and matters of Islamic Jurisprudence.
His Books
Economic crises – the reality and the perspective of Islam [zamat Iqtisadiyya – waqi’uha wa mu’alajatuha min wijhat nadhar al-Islam ]
A 40 page paper written after the 2008 Economic Crisis. …..
PDF (English) | PDF (Arabic)
Taysir fi Usul at-Tafsir – Surat al-Baqarah[Facilitation in the Principles of Exegesis]
A 460 page work comprising of a brief treatise on the principles of tafsir followed by their application through the tafsir of surat al-Baqarah. He wrote this marvelous work while in prison in Jordan.
PDF (Arabic)
Facilitation in acquiring an understanding of Usul [Taysir al-Wusool ila al-Usul ]
A 350 page work presenting the otherwise complicated subject matter of Usul al-Fiqh in simpler language and structure to serve as a primer in the subject.
PDF (Arabic)
The Policy of Industrialisation and the Islamic perspective of building a state industrially [Siyasat al-tasni’ wa bina’ al-dawla sana’iyyan min wijhat nadhar al-Islam]
PDF (Arabic)
Follow Him Via His Social Media
