Abdulaziz Sachedina

Abdulaziz Abdulhussein Sachedina (1942 – 3 December 2025) was a Tanzanian-born American Islamic scholar who was a professor and the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) Chair in Islamic Studies at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

Life and career Sachedina was born in 1942 in Tanganyika Territory, though his heritage originally was from India. He had an MA/PhD from the University of Toronto and BA degrees from Aligarh Muslim University in India, and Ferdowsi University of Mashad in Iran. Sachedina was a professor from 1975. He annually taught courses on Classical Islam, Islam in the Modern Age, Islam, Democracy and Human Rights, Islamic Bioethics and Muslim Theology. He was a member of the editorial board of the journal Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations.

In 1997, Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani thanked him for his translation of a book on Imam Mahdi into English, originally written by Ayatollah Ebrahim Amini. The acknowledgement letter was published by the Iranian Hawza magazine.

In 1998, Grand Ayatollah Sistani issued a statement against Sachedina that advised Muslims not to listen to his talks or to ask him questions about religious matters. (See original text in Persian ).

He spoke Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Gujarati, Swahili, and English.

Sachedina died on 3 December 2025, at the age of 83.