Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ibn ʿAqīl

Muhammad bin Umar bin Abd al-Rahman bin Abd Allah al-Aqil, better known as Abu Abd al-Rahman Ibn Aqil al-Zahiri, is a Saudi Arabian polymath. He has, at various times, been referred to as a theologian, jurist, historian, ethnographer, geographer, poet, critic and author. As a member of Saudi Arabia's "Golden Generation," he knew of life both during the poverty of the pre-oil boom era and the prosperity of the 1950s onward.

Personal life Ibn Aqil was born in the city of Shaqra in Saudi Arabia's central Najd region in 1938. and a Master of Theology degree in exegesis of the Qur'an.

In his twenties and early thirties, Ibn Aqil worked as a lawyer within Saudi Arabia's theocratic justice system. He was eventually placed in administrative positions for public education in the country's eastern province in Dammam, and then later moved to the legal department in the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs. The King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies had invited Ibn Aqil to grant a symposium on the topic of comparative exegesis five years prior, likely reigniting public interest.

Currently, Ibn Aqil has mostly retired from public life. In addition to his renewed Qur'an study broadcasts, he is a member of the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo, and still serves as the editor-in-chief of an academic journal named after the UNESCO World Heritage Site Diriyah, which he founded and which holds its headquarters on his family estate. Being a part of Saudi Arabia's "Golden Generation," Ibn Aqil has generally been supportive of the House of Saud and the Saudi government, and an opponent of its critics among both liberal modernists and radical extremists.

Recently, Ibn Aqil called for the Saudi government to strip a dissident journalist of his citizenship due to his sharp criticisms of the Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia. On the other end of the spectrum, Ibn Aqil engaged in a public series of exchanges with fellow cleric Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak in 2011 due to the former's refusal to adopt a formal position on theological issues debated during the Mihna, a rare Medieval-era inquisition within Islam perpetrated by rationalists against their orthodox counterparts. Ibn Aqil has also fallen into conflict with Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi in a series of back-and-forth columns, though Qardawi did not mention Ibn Aqil by name. Ibn Aqil, who has expressed skepticism about the goals and results of the Arab Spring, considered Qardawi's various positions during the movement hypocritical and contradictory, charges which Qardawi denied.

Works Being a jurist and scholar of the Zahirite school of law within Sunni Islam, Ibn Aqil is also the current era's primary biographer of Zahirite theologian Ibn Hazm, having written detailed accounts even of Ibn Hazm's individual conflicts with rival jurist Abu al-Walid al-Baji. His bookstore is named after the Andalusian author, and Ibn Aqil has authored a number of books on the life and career of Ibn Hazm. The largest of these books is Nawadir al-Imam Ibn Hazm, a collection of Ibn Hazm's smaller, harder-to-find works, such as his poem on the fundamental principles of Zahirite law. He has also delivered a lecture explaining Ibn Rushd's attempts to reconcile philosophy and religion at the International Averroes Symposium, co-sponsored by UNESCO in Carthage between 16 and 22 February in 1998.

In addition to A Night in Garden City, other titles of some note are Descartes Between Scepticism and Certainty and The History of Najd During the Colloquial Epoch. Al-Humaydī. al-Dhahab al-masbuk fi wa'z al-muluk. Eds. Abu Abd al-Rahman Ibn Aqil al-Zahiri and Dr. Abd al-Halim Uways. Riyadh: Dar Alam al-Kutub, 1982. 235 pages. Kings and rulers. Ibn Hazm. Risalah al-Talkhis li-wujuh al-takhlis. Riyadh: Dar Ibn Hazm, 2005. With Abu Abd Allah Sa'id ibn Khalaf al-Shammari al-Zahiri. Ibn Jurays, Rashid ibn 'Ali al-Hanbali, d. 1880 or 81. Muthir al-wajd fi ansab muluk Najd. Eds. Abu Abd al-Rahman Ibn Aqil al-Zahiri, Abd al-Wahid Muhammad Raghib and Abd al-Rahman ibn 'Abd al-Latif Al al-Shaykh. 1st Ed. Darat al-Malik 'Abd al-'Aziz, 1999. 136 pages; 25 cm. Ibn Ḥazm, al-Taqrīb li-Ḥadd al-Manṭiq: bil-Alfāẓ al-ʿĀmiyya wal-Amthila al-fiqhiyya, ed. by Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAqīl al-Ẓāhirī & ʿِAbd al-Ḥaqq Mullā Ḥaqqī al-Turkmānī (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm)

Original works al-Aql al-lughawi. Mecca: Meccan Literary Club, 1994. 327 pages; 24 cm. Arabic language. Al-naghm alladhi ahbabtuhu. Dar al-Watan, 1979. 110 pages. Arabic poetry. Dunya al-watha'iq. al-Dir'iyya i/2, 1998. Pgs. 264–326. Hayy Miri. Riyadh: Dar Ibn Hazm, 1996. 126 pages; 25 cm. Humum siyasiyah. 1998. Ibn Hazam Khilal Alf Aam. Lebanon: Dar al-Gharab al-Islami, 1982. 303 pages. Ibn La‘b¯un : hay¯atuhu wa-shi‘ruh. Kuwait: Mu'assasat J¯a'izat ‘Abd al-‘Az¯iz Sa‘¯ud al-B¯abat¯in lil-Ibd¯a‘ al-Shi‘r¯i, 1997. 624 pages; 24 cm. Kutub al-faharis wa-al-baramij: waqiuha wa-ahammiyatuha. Riyadh: Dar Ibn Hazm, 1996. 121 pages; 24 cm. Mabadi' fi nazariyat al-shi'r wa-al-jamal. 1st Ed. Ha'il: Ha'il Literary Club, 1998. 1 volume; 24 cm. Arabic poetry; history and criticism. Mas¯a'il min t¯ar¯ikh al-Jaz¯irah al-‘Arab¯iyah. Riyadh: Mu'assasat D¯ar al-As¯alah, 1994. 4th ed. 295 pages; 24 cm. Min ahkam al-diyanah : ta'sil masa'il min al-ma'rifah al-shar'iyah, wa-tahrir masa'il tatbiqiyah. Riyadh: Dar Ibn Hazm lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzi', 1998. 1 volume; 25 cm. Islamic law. Muadalat fi kharait al-atlas: duwaywin shir. 1997. Najd f¯i ‘us¯ur al-‘¯amm¯iyah. Cairo: Matba‘at al-Taqaddum, 1974. 18 cm. al-Qasidah al-hadithah wa-a°ba al-tajawuz: dirasah tatbiqiyah li-usul al-iltizam wa-al-shart al-jamali. 1987. 286 pages. ASIN B0000D7274 Shay min al-tabarih: sirah dhatiyah-- wa-humum thaqafiyah. Riyadh: Dar Ibn Hazm, 1995. Tahrir ba'd al-masa'il 'ala madh'hab al ashab. 1st Ed. Riyadh: Maktabat Dar al-Ulum, 1981. Y¯a s¯ahir al-barq li-Ab¯i al-‘Al¯a' al-Ma‘arr¯i. Jizan: Jizan Literary Club, 1995. 127 pages; 21 cm.