Sheikh Muhammad Khaal; First Author of A Kurdish Interpretation of Quran
He wrote many books in the field of Quran and Islamic sciences and created a major scholarly movement in Sulaymaniyah, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Some consider him to be the most eminent Kurdish scholar of the contemporary era.
He was born in 1904 into a Kurdish family known for its scholarly and literary figures. His family was also famous for their efforts to encourage authoring books in the Kurdish language and preserving Kurdish traditions and heritage.
Muhammad Khaal studied with his grandfather Sheikh Amin al-Khaal until 9 and learned the entire Quran by heart.
He then continued his studies in the field of the Arabic language and religious sciences. One of his famous teachers was Sheikh Omar Amin Qaradaghi.
In 1939, Muhammad Khaal joined the Iraqi judiciary and served as a judge in teh governorates of Sulaymaniyah, Kirkuk and Mosul.
He also served as a member of the Islamic Rulings Council until 1967 when he retired.
Sheikh Muhammad Khaal paid special attention to the spread of Islamic teachings and in addition to writing books in the Kurdish language, encouraged others to do so and study the Kurds’ history.
One of his major works is the interpretation of the Quran in Kurdish. He published the interpretation of the 30th Juz (part) of the Quran in 1935. He then published the interpretation of 9 other Juzes in the following years.
Read More:
He also wrote books in the fields of Seerah of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and life of a number of Kurdish and Muslim figures.
Qamous al-Khaal is a dictionary of 40,000 Kurdish words written by Sheikh Muhammad Khaal.
He died on July 15, 1989, after a long illness.
His family donated his personal library to an institute in Sulaymaniyah seeking to revive the Kurdish heritage. The library includes more than 1750 books, including manuscripts, in Kurdish, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, English and Russian.
4237347
