Mosaad Anwar

Mosaad Anwar is an Egyptian Islamic preacher whom the Arabic Wikipedia describes as one of the best-known preachers in Egypt, known for presenting Islamic programmes on satellite channels, above all al-Rahma channel, whose content is lessons in religious knowledge. ^{1 2} The same article says he has given many lessons, lectures and talks in mosques and on television and is widely known in Egypt and the Arab countries. ¹ Neither the article nor Wikidata gives his date of birth. ^{1 2}

The Arabic Wikipedia relates that security forces raided his home in Hadaiq al-Qubba at two in the morning and arrested him, that the preacher Abd al-Rahman Mansour confirmed his arrest and that of his son Muhammad, and that the authorities issued no official statement on the reasons; the article gives no date. ¹ It says the prosecution confronted him with accusations of joining and funding a group founded contrary to the constitution, of inciting violence and of moving demonstrations, all of which he denied; he denied any link to the Muslim Brotherhood, said he had not intervened in politics since the demonstrations of 30 June 2013, and said that in his view demonstrations are forbidden in the Sharia. ¹ He was released after six hours of questioning and afterwards spoke words of praise and of certainty that the whole matter lies in God's hand. ¹

Neither the Arabic Wikipedia nor Wikidata names a school of law or creed for him, so his faith is recorded as unknown until two independent sources name it. ^{1 2}

The Assabile archive keeps two series of his: 'Those Given Glad Tidings of Paradise', in twenty-eight episodes, and 'Hamasat: the Prophet's Counsels to Women', in fourteen. ³ In the first episode of 'Those Given Glad Tidings of Paradise' he announces 'a new series' that he offers his listeners 'this year', stopping in each episode with one of those to whom the Prophet ﷺ gave the glad tidings of Paradise, who he says number in the hundreds, men and women. ^{4 5} In 'The Prophet's Counsels to Women' he gives the programme that name in its first episode, where he greets his listeners for the month and prays that they leave Ramadan freed from the Fire, so that episode was recorded in Ramadan by his own words. ^{6 7}

The episodes of 'Those Given Glad Tidings of Paradise' open and close with a sung nashid, followed by the greeting and the sermon of need, and he often tells his listeners that he calls God to witness that he loves them all for God's sake. ^{8 9} He opens the episodes on individual figures with a riddle, listing the subject's qualities and asking 'who is he?' before naming him. ^{10 11} He closes with a prayer to be gathered with the episode's subject and the formula 'I say these words and ask God's forgiveness for me and for you'. ^{12 13} He mixes formal Arabic with Egyptian colloquial, giving a hadith in formal Arabic and then retelling it in colloquial with everyday comparisons: the gold of Paradise's gates, he says, is not eighteen or twenty-one carat, and he brings its rivers home by likening them to a river like the Nile or larger. ^{14 15} He gives the source of most hadiths he relates, often with al-Albani's or al-Dhahabi's grading, gradings that he reports. ^{16 17} In 'The Prophet's Counsels to Women' he addresses women as 'daughter of Islam'. ¹⁸