Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
In January of the year 1993, I visited the deportees’ camp in Marj al-Zuhur in the Western Bekaa in Lebanon, and I slept in the camp one night, and I conducted many interviews. After the noon and afternoon prayers (combined and short), the deportees held a celebration full of chants and chants. And the dabke, as it later became clear to me, was joy at the Security Council’s decision that they must return to their homes on January 17, 1993.. It included a sermon by the preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Hamid Al-Bitawi, and a poem from a distinguished sheikh whom I had not known before that time (out of ignorance on my part), as the deportees demanded Sheikh “Abu Fouad” with one of his poems, so the preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Muhammad Fouad Abu Zaid, got up and unfolded a piece of paper containing a “fresh” poem about deportation, entitled “The Cry of the Deported,” and read it at that popular party.
He was one of the few who published a poetry collection in that camp, and he agreed with one of the publishers, who issued a poetry collection containing his poems that he wrote in the camp, entitled (Heartbeats from the Meadow of Flowers). I made successive visits to the camp, which became a struggle, and then a historical, symbol of the Palestinian cause .
, as this sheikh was not one man in one job, but rather the preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the founders of the Islamic movement in Palestine, the Mufti of Jenin, a member of the Palestinian Scholars Association, a member of the Supreme Fatwa Council, and a symbol. One of the symbols of advocacy and reform, and the founder of a number of zakat funds in the West Bank...
his life
Sheikh Muhammad Fouad Abu Zeid was born in the town of Qabatiya in 1934. His father was a farmer, but he loved science and scientists, which influenced his son’s academic life. Our poet enrolled in Qabatiya Primary School and studied there until 1948. Then he continued his studies and completed his secondary studies known as matriculation, fulfilling the necessary requirements to enter the university.
After that, our poet moved to Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Cairo to study Sharia science in 1952, and continued his Sharia studies at the Faculty of Fundamentals of Religion at Al-Azhar University, where he obtained a diploma in Sharia in 1954. But because of his participation in activities opposing the Egyptian authority’s agreement with the British, the Egyptian authorities arrested him. He was subjected to severe torture until he lost hearing in one ear. When he was released, he was told that he was not wanted in Egypt.
He returned to Palestine and went to join the University of Damascus, specializing in Sharia sciences, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in Sharia law in 1960. He studied in Damascus under a number of scholars, including Sheikh Mustafa Al-Sibai and Sheikh Mustafa Al-Zarqa.
Sheikh Abu Zeid worked in the field of advocacy in the cities and villages of the West Bank before the setback. Then his activity expanded and he was one of the first to spread the call inside Palestine, especially in the Triangle and Galilee. He was active in the field of reform, resolving tribal and organizational disputes, and arbitration in various events at the level of Jenin Governorate. He participated in the Zakat Funds Committee for Jenin Governorate. He was chosen as a member of the Supreme Islamic Authority in Jerusalem and the Supreme Palestinian Fatwa Council.
After graduating, he worked as a teacher at the Sharia College of the Jordanian Ministry of Endowments in Amman, then at the Ministry of Education for 15 years. He started it at the Sharia Secondary School in the city of Amman, for three years, then taught at Madaba Secondary School and Jenin High School until 1971, and Qabatiya Secondary School until 1977. In this year he took over the administration of the Nablus Endowments, then the administration of the Jenin Endowments until 1996, and he took over the fatwa. In Hunayn Governorate.
But what he was most proud of was his work over the many years as a preacher, teacher, mentor to imams and preachers, and a preacher in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Sheikh wrote many articles in religious magazines, gave lectures, and participated in seminars in educational, social, and sports institutions.
Sheikh Abu Fouad spent more than six years in the occupation prisons, during which he was deported to Lebanon on 12/17/1992 with 416 others. He stayed in the deportees’ camp in Marj al-Zuhur for a full year during which he emerged as one of the camp’s leaders, where he was elected to the leadership committee and played his role. He used his experience to guide the deportees on various issues.
When Sheikh Al-Poet returned from Marj Al-Zuhur, he did not stop working in Palestine, and assumed several senior positions. The sheikh continued his previous work before his arrest as the imam of the Tiger Mosque in Jenin, and he was the star of religious and national celebrations and events. He was brought together in this mosque in the 1980s by a meeting with Dr. Muhammad Siam, President of the Islamic University in Gaza, and in that meeting he recited a powerful poem entitled “Arise, O Salah.” Religion: The sons of Arabism are asleep.”
Sheikh, scholar, mujahid, poet, Muhammad Fouad Abdel Rahman Abu Zaid, died on Sunday, December 18, 2011, and was buried in Jenin.
His works:
Our poet did not collect his poems that preceded his deportation in 1992, but he collected his poems that he composed during that time in the collection “Heartbeat in the Meadow of Flowers,” in which he published fifteen poems. It was arranged and published by the late Jamal Obaida, director of the Lebanese Dar Al-Rashad. The following is one of his poems in Marj al-Zuhur:
It is time to leave...
It is time to leave, for my family is thirsty for my return
.
My heart is there.. My heart is there..
My heart is there hanging day and night
, and the hearts of all those deported from their homes.
All hearts are there with our people..
And sad mosques that yearn for us..
Schools and charitable institutions complain about our distance..
and universities moan about our distance..
our olives, figs, and palm trees, our grapes and almonds..
our plains and valleys.. our mountains..
and the child is the door of the house, watching our lute..
and the child wipes his tears at sunset.. because of our distance.
News about Muhammad Fouad Abu Zeid
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