Al-Azhar University inherited the Al-Azhar Mosque, which dates back to the Fatimid era, where Jawhar Al-Saqili laid the foundation stone, by order of the Fatimid Caliph Al-Muizz Lidin Allah, on the 14th of Ramadan in the year 359 AH (971 AD). Al-Azhar was designated as an official mosque established by the state as a platform for its religious call and a symbol of its spiritual sovereignty. It was opened for prayer for the first time on the 5th of Ramadan in the year 361 AH. It was named Al-Azhar Mosque after Lady Fatima Al-Zahra, may God be pleased with her, to whom the Fatimids are affiliated.

The purpose of its establishment in the beginning was to call for the Shiite doctrine, then it soon became a university for spreading the Sunni doctrine, in which students of knowledge received various religious and mental sciences. The credit for bestowing an educational character on Al-Azhar goes to Minister Yaqoub Ibn Kilis, as he referred to the Caliph Al-Aziz in the year 378 AH by converting it into an institute for study, after it had been limited to religious worship, and spreading the Shiite message.

The study was actually held at Al-Azhar Mosque at the end of the Fatimid era of Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah, when the chief judge, Abu Al-Hasan bin Al-Nu'man Al-Maghribi, sat in the year 365 AH (October 975 AD), in the first educational scientific circle, and then the scientific circles followed after that.

Teaching circles were the method and basis of study at Al-Azhar (university and university), where the professor would sit and read his lesson in front of his students and listeners who gathered around him, and the jurists would also sit in the place designated for them in its corridors, and the professor would not be recognized to take over teaching until after his professors had approved him according to an examination system. It is all verbal in eleven terms, and an export fee is issued for it based on readings from the Caliph.

Al-Azhar (university and university) in its educational system was the first to invent the teaching assistant system in the entire world. The job of the teaching assistant was to repeat to the students what the professor said, and the student who wanted to join teaching had to pass the exam, and before that he must be approved by two scholars. The pillars of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif. If the two scholars approve it, he submits a request accompanied by a recommendation to the Sheikh of Al-Azhar in its history. The Sheikh of Al-Azhar forms a committee consisting of 6 scholars headed by the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, and a seventh member is added to them if the applicant wants to test in the Hanbali doctrine, and a decision is issued by the Sheikh of Al-Azhar. So that each school of jurisprudence was represented by two sheikhs, and the test was held orally and was not linked to a specific period, but the student was tested in eleven subjects, not eleven books, which he was completely proficient in orally. If he mastered them, he was passed and became a teacher from the third cycle, that is, he became a pillar professor and was then promoted to be a teacher. From the second episode.

On that date, Al-Azhar University provided what universities are competing for now, in terms of the credit hour system, and offering one course to more than one professor, and the student must choose. There was more than one specialist in one science, and the student was the one who chose his sheikh, without the slightest pressure on him to sit here or there. This is how the optional curriculum was present at the university, as well as the oral exam curriculum, which is one of the best types of exams.

Anyone who imagines that the seniority of the university in Al-Azhar Mosque does not extend to the date of its establishment in 972 AH is mistaken, but rather extends to the year 1920 AD when the royal decree was issued to establish three colleges. However, this decision by royal decree comes within a historical framework of the development of education in Al-Azhar, which was natural for it to develop in Every time.

The scholars at Al-Azhar University embarked on their educational mission to the fullest extent, and they not only taught the Islamic sciences, but they also taught philosophy, logic, mathematics, and medicine, albeit on a small scale at first, until Al-Hakim established “Dar Al-Hikmah,” and women attended some of the lessons. The study quickly expanded to include astronomy, arithmetic, medicine, architecture, geology, history, some social sciences, and other various sciences. Among the most famous scholars whose names were associated with Al-Azhar (university and university): Ibn Khaldun, Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani, and Al-Sakhawi. And Ibn Taghri Bardi, Musa bin Maimon, Al-Hasan bin Al-Haytham, Muhammad bin Yunus Al-Masry, Al-Qalqashandi, and other scholars produced for the whole world scientific productions that humanity owes to this day.

Although the holding of sermons at Al-Azhar Mosque was interrupted for about a hundred years during the era of the Ayyubid Empire, there is evidence that lessons continued there at intermittent intervals. The Mamluk Sultan al-Zahir Baibars al-Bunduqdari is credited with returning the sermon to the Sunni doctrine. He renewed and reconstructed it, and Al-Azhar quickly regained its position as a scientific university with a high reputation in Egypt and the Islamic world.

The Mamluk era is considered one of the prosperous eras of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif (university and university), when it became famous, took its place as an educational center, and was provided with libraries and precious books, until its library became one of the largest and greatest libraries in the East and the world, due to the treasures and valuables it contained. Its reconstruction continued by a number of Mamluk sultans, until it became the mother school in Cairo, and the major Islamic university that is not rivaled by any other university in the entire Islamic world.

Despite the inactivity and stagnation that befell the sciences and arts in Egypt under Ottoman rule, Al-Azhar University remained a safe haven for science and knowledge. Al-Azhar (a university and university) also led revolutions during the French campaign against Egypt, and stood with the people in choosing Muhammad Ali as governor of Egypt.

During these long decades, the university was the only source for obtaining science and graduating state employees and teachers in the Islamic world.

In the modern era, with the renaissance that Muhammad Ali began, there were only students and graduates of this university to be the nucleus of the various educational institutes, which were established to provide modern European-style education. They were also the nucleus of educational missions to Europe to transfer modern knowledge.

At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, Al-Azhar University witnessed the beginning of reform and modernization, the purpose of which was to transform it into an institution with an educational entity that takes modern systems. A number of scholars led this reform, led by Imam Muhammad Abduh, who formed the first board of directors for this institution on the 6th of Rajab. Year 1312 AH. This was followed by the issuance of Law No. 10 of 1911, which organized the study and made it stages, established a system for employees, conditions for accepting students, as well as organized examinations and certificates, and established a body to supervise it called the Supreme Al-Azhar Council.

In continuation of the development of this ancient institution, Law No. 49 of 1930 was issued, according to which the three Al-Azhar colleges were established, namely: Fundamentals of Religion, Sharia, and the Arabic Language. The law stipulated the possibility of expanding the establishment of other colleges.

Illegitimate sciences were also introduced in Al-Azhar institutes, such as mathematics, science, and social studies, to qualify graduates when they joined the various Al-Azhar colleges. This was followed by Law No. 26 of 1936, where a fourth stage was introduced, which is postgraduate studies. The process culminated in a law called the Development Law, which was issued on July 5, 1961 under No. 103 regarding the reorganization of Al-Azhar. In accordance with this law, its scientific university was established within Al-Azhar, which included a number of scientific colleges for the first time, such as the colleges of commerce, medicine, engineering, and agriculture. The doors of study at the university were opened for Muslim girls by establishing a college for girls, which, upon its establishment, included divisions for the study of medicine, commerce, science, Arab and Islamic studies, and humanities studies. The modern and scientific colleges at Al-Azhar University are distinguished from their counterparts in other university colleges by their interest in Islamic studies in addition to specialized studies.

The education systems at the university have expanded and have not stopped at the limits of space and time. They have moved to a modern and contemporary destination, and their mission is no longer limited to preaching, guidance and education. Rather, they have moved to greater horizons to have leadership in scientific research, in serving the Islamic nation, defending its issues, and spreading moderate Islam. Confronting the trends of extremism and extremism around the world.

Its giving is still continuous, abundant, and continuous with its foreign missions and cultural delegations that go to various African, European, American, and Asian countries and the continent of Australia, after it has laid, throughout its long history, the foundations of recognized university systems and traditions that are applied in all universities in the world.

Specifications of Al-Azhar graduate

Al-Azhar University takes pride in its practical colleges just as it prides itself in its Sharia colleges, because they have a major mission, whereby students learn worldly sciences and religious sciences, so that they can carry Al-Azhar’s message to the worlds wherever they go. This pride is based on a long historical foundation. Al-Hasan bin Al-Haytham, the well-known optics scholar, taught at Al-Azhar Al-Sharif. Muhammad bin Yunus Al-Masry, who died in 1009 AD, the inventor of trigonometry, also taught at Al-Azhar Al-Sharif. Al-Hasan bin Al-Haytham, who died in 1039 AD, is a well-known optics scientist. Al-Azhar Al-Sharif used to receive non-Muslim scholars of applied sciences at its university to study at Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, such as the well-known Jewish author Musa ibn Maimon, who lived in Andalusia.

The teaching of practical and experimental sciences began with Al-Azhar Al-Sharif on the same date in which the teaching of Arabic and Islamic sciences began. The first class graduated from the School of Medicine in Abu Zaabal, and their number was one hundred students, all of them students from Al-Azhar Al-Sharif. Medicine in Egypt was known through the students of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif.

When Muhammad Ali Pasha wanted to send educational missions to advance Egypt, he found only the Al-Azhar institution, and nine educational missions emerged from it to Italy, France, Austria, England, Russia, and others. More than 70% of the members of these missions were Azharians. These are the ones who returned to Egypt and founded the Al-Alsun School. , which later became the College of Al-Alsun. They also founded the translation movement, the military technical school, and others.

The one who guided these people was Sheikh Hassan Al-Attar, who wrote on astronomy, mathematics, and geography, and was a sheikh of Al-Azhar, and Sheikh Al-Damanhouri, who wrote more than 6 books on medicine and anatomy, was a sheikh of Al-Azhar, and he used to write on the principles of jurisprudence as well as on anatomy.

Thus, Al-Azhar University was the bearer of the torches of enlightenment and the beacon of the renaissance of the modern Egyptian state. It was the leader of enlightenment everywhere in the Islamic world, and in every time to an extent that always preceded its time, and its graduates were throughout history in the villages of Egypt and the world, and in the cities of Egypt and the world, people turned to them. From all sides and corners, they seek refuge in them and seek guidance from them.

Available opportunities and competitiveness of Al-Azhar University

When talking about the available opportunities and the competitiveness of Al-Azhar University alone, they are exclusive opportunities for Al-Azhar University only, because Al-Azhar is in demand and not a student, and you rarely find an institution that is in demand and not a student... Al-Azhar University is distinguished from any institution in the world in that it includes students coming from 107 countries. There is no educational institution in the entire world that includes these spectrums and colors from these countries except at Al-Azhar University, and its hosting of expatriates at Al-Azhar’s expense has exceeded more than five hundred years, and this is one of the available opportunities.

Also, graduates of Al-Azhar University are in demand in various countries of the world, and this is part of their competitiveness.

The total number of faculty members at Al-Azhar University reaches 15,155 faculty members, and the total administrative staff at the university is 13,074 employees. All of these serve approximately 500,000 male and female students, including expatriate students.

The university has 23 practical colleges with repetitive colleges, and this is what brings it out in the competition for leadership and distinction with others. If, for example, any university includes one college of medicine, then Al-Azhar University includes 4 colleges of medicine, and if any university includes one college of science, then Al-Azhar University includes 3. Faculties of science, and if any university includes a college of engineering, then Al-Azhar University includes 3 colleges of engineering, and if any university includes a college of pharmacy, then Al-Azhar University includes 3 colleges of pharmacy, and there is one under construction in Luxor, and if any university includes one college of dentistry, Al-Azhar University includes 3 colleges of dentistry, and there is one under construction in Luxor. All of this reveals the competitiveness of Al-Azhar University even at the level of practical colleges.

If other universities own one university hospital, Al-Azhar University owns 6 university hospitals and provides medical service to the public six times what any other university provides.

All of this puts the competitiveness of Al-Azhar University to the test. It has something that no other university has. In fact, it has a recently opened hospital with an area of ​​124,000 square metres, which is the largest hospital ever in the Middle East, and it has an airstrip.

Al-Azhar University curricula and graduate characteristics

The characteristics of a graduate of Al-Azhar University are what make him compete with any graduate in universities in the world. This is because Al-Azhar University’s curricula are based on three pillars that are not available in any educational institution in the entire world:

the first

The university teaches its children the transmitted sciences, i.e. the Qur’an and Sunnah.

the second

You teach them the sciences of the intelligible, like the sciences of the machine, which train the student to understand well, so the Al-Azhar student understands the text with multiple, not mutually exclusive, understandings. As for the one who was raised on the transmitted sciences alone, he has only one understanding from which he will not deviate; He makes others wrong, and even makes others unbelievers, and this is not the case with Al-Azhar Al-Sharif.

the third

The university teaches its students applied sciences - in addition to the Sharia and Arabic sciences - so that the Al-Azhari student grows up as a rational person, whose mind does not quarrel with transmission, and with whom religion does not quarrel with the world, and from here sectarian diversity was found... and acceptance of the other was found in Egypt...

Then we notice that pluralism and acceptance of the other are among the characteristics of the Al-Azhari approach. We find in one house someone who worships his Lord according to the Hanafi school of thought, another according to the Shafi’i school of thought, and a third according to the Maliki school of thought, without anyone criticizing anyone else, and without anyone making anyone wrong...

This education in the sciences of the transmitted, the sciences of the intelligible, and the sciences of the world creates a mind capable of comprehension, capable of keeping pace with development. Hence, graduates of Al-Azhar University are trained to perfect the jurisprudence of texts, and learn that the sciences of reasoning are the tool by which they arrive at an understanding of transmitted texts in their correct manner.

In the Sharia faculties, students study a new curriculum: “Contemporary Issues,” which deals with all emerging issues, and the scientific theses recorded at the university address these issues. This is how we grew up at Al-Azhar with the belief that jurisprudence is written in every time, and it must be written in every time. A jurisprudence that suits him, as the university believes that texts are limited, and facts are unlimited, meaning that texts must accommodate all facts and all developments.

Thus, Al-Azhar University continued to raise its children on the rational curriculum, and it was based on it for more than a thousand years... and the whole world received it with acceptance, so the curricula of Al-Azhar University remained the true inheritor of the legacy of prophecy, and through these curricula the world realized the value of the curriculum of Islam as a message and a messenger, and on the texts of those curricula you know The people of the world are aware of our nation’s history, its civilization, its men, its heroes, and those who brought glory to it. From the sciences of Al-Azhar and its university, I took the true standards by which people measure the pulse of life, and by which they know the standard of right and wrong, not only at the level of individual behavior, but also the civilizational and cultural standard of right and wrong for nations, peoples, and human societies.

Al-Azhar University remains the scientific and academic reference for Muslims and others related to the sciences of Islam, language, Arabic, and other social and humanitarian disciplines. It has been able, through its academic and cultural stock and its stock of scientific research, to provide effective solutions to the problems that threaten human societies in various fields.