Ali Al-Hudhaify

Ali al-Hudhaify (born 22 May 1947) is a Saudi reciter, chief imam and khatib of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina since 1979 and a professor at the Islamic University of Madinah, noted for a slow, deep-voiced recitation. In 2026 he was chosen to deliver the sermon at Arafat during the Hajj. ¹²

He was born at the village of Al-Qarn Al-Mustaqim in Al-Arda Al-Shamaliya, in the south of the Mecca region, on 1 Rajab 1366 AH (22 May 1947), into a scholarly family; his father was an imam in the Saudi army. He memorised the Qur'an in his village, studied law at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University (graduating 1972) and took his master's and doctorate at Al-Azhar in Cairo, the doctorate comparing the schools' rulings on endowments; he also received ijazat in the recitations from Ahmad Abd al-Aziz al-Zayyat and others. ²¹

He has taught at the Islamic University of Madinah since 1977 and has been an imam of the Prophet's Mosque since 1979 — briefly also of Quba Mosque in 1981 and of Masjid al-Haram in Ramadan 1987 — rising to chief imam; his tenure was interrupted briefly in 2017 and again in 2024. ²¹

For the Hajj of 1447 AH (2026) he was named to deliver the sermon at Arafat, the rite's central address, capping nearly five decades at the Prophet's Mosque. ¹²