The life and works of Mustafa Said El-Hinn, one of the last Islamic jurists

ABSTRACT Mustafa Saîd al-Hınn, one of the late Islamic jurists, was born in Syria in 1922 as the child of a family with a deep-rooted scholarly tradition. He completed his primary education in official schools in Syria, and at the same time he taught Islamic sciences according to the classical madrasah method. Mustafa Said al-Hinn went to Egypt for his undergraduate education and enrolled in Al-Azhar University Faculty of Sharia. When the Faculty of Sharia was opened within the University of Damascus in 1955, al-Hınn, who had an al-Azhar diploma, became the first teacher appointed to the institution. Between 1955 and 1962, he taught courses such as comparative jurisprudence, hadith terminology and usul al-fiqh at the Damascus University Faculty of Sharia, and between 1962 and 1966, he taught at the al-Imam Muhammad b. Su'ud al-Islamiyyah University Faculty of Sharia and Faculty of Arabic in Riyadh. Afterwards, he went to Al-Azhar University and started his doctoral education and completed his doctoral thesis titled "Eseru'l-ihtilâf fi'l-kavâ'idi'l-usûliyye fi ihtilâfi'l-fukahâ", one of the works that brought him real fame, under the supervision of Dr. Mustafa Abdulkhalik in 1971. After completing his doctorate at Al-Azhar University, he was appointed as a lecturer at the Faculty of Sharia at Damascus University and continued his service at this institution until his retirement in 1983. Mustafa Said al-Hinn, who wrote numerous works on many Islamic sciences, especially the usul al-fiqh, and who served to educate hundreds of students, passed away in Syria on February 1, 2008. Key Words: Fiqh, Usul of Fiqh, Syria, Mustafa Said al-Hinn, Eseru'l-ihtilâf fi'l-kavâ'idi'l-usûliyye fi ihtilâfi'l-fukahâ