Taqi al-Din al-Nabhani

Taqi al-Din al-Nabhani (1909–1977) was a Palestinian Islamic scholar and Sharia judge, founder in 1953 of the transnational party Hizb ut-Tahrir. Trained at al-Azhar and Dar al-Ulum in Cairo, he rose to the Jerusalem Sharia court of appeal before resigning in 1950, then settled in Beirut. His books, above all The System of Islam, made him one of the most influential Islamist thinkers of the twentieth century. ¹

Al-Nabhani was born in Ijzim, a village south of Haifa, into the Bani Nabhan tribe; the sources differ on his birth year, the English biography and Wikidata giving 1909 while the Arabic biography gives 1914, paired with 1332 AH, as the preponderant view. His full name was Muhammad Taqi al-Din bin Ibrahim bin Mustafa bin Isma'il bin Yusuf al-Nabhani. His father was a Sharia lecturer and his mother an Islamic scholar who had learned from her father, Shaykh Yusuf al-Nabhani, which made Yusuf his maternal grandfather. He studied Sharia at al-Azhar and at the Dar al-Ulum college in Cairo, graduating in 1931; the Arabic biography dates his al-Azhar world-degree in Sharia to 1932. ^{1 2}

He first taught, then entered the judiciary: the Arabic biography follows him from clerk of the Haifa court to judge at Ramla until 1948, then judge of the Jerusalem Sharia court and of its court of appeal, a post he resigned in 1950. After lecturing in Amman, he devoted himself from 1953 to the party he founded in Jerusalem, Hizb ut-Tahrir, built on the call to resume the Islamic way of life and restore the caliphate. The party was immediately banned in Jordan; barred from returning there, he settled in Beirut. ^{2 1}

His best-known works are The System of Islam (Nidham al-Islam), The Economic System of Islam, The Social System of Islam, The Ruling System of Islam, The Islamic State and The Islamic Personality, which set out his argument that Islam is a complete ideological system and that political change begins with thought. He died in Beirut in December 1977; the English lead and Wikidata give 11 December, matched by the Arabic biography's date of 1 Muharram 1398, while the English biography text prints 20 December. ^{1 2}