Abdillahi Nassir
{{Short description|Kenyan Islamic scholar (1932–2022)}}
{{more citations|date=November 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Sheikh Abdilahi Nassir
| image = File:Nassir2.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Hujjat al-Islam Sheikh Abdillahi Nassir.
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1932|06|01}}
| birth_place = Mombasa, colonial Kenya
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2022|01|11|1932|06|01}}
| death_place = Mombasa
| resting_place = Maziyara ya waKilindini, Ganjoni, Mombasa, Kenya
| monuments =
| nationality = Kenyan
| organization = Ahlul Bayt Centre
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| style =
| title = Spiritual Leader of the Shia Muslim Community of East Africa
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| parents =
| mother = Maryam Ahmad
| father = Nassir Juma
| relatives = 6 siblings, including Abdilatif Abdalla
| children = 10
| callsign =
| awards = Freedom of the City Award,
Abbasi Medal
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Abdilahi Nassir (1 June 1932 – 11 January 2022) was a Kenyan Shia cleric based in Mombasa. Raised a Sunni, Nassir converted to Shiism, and in the wake of Iran's Islamic revolution publicly identified himself as Twelver Shia.{{cite book|author=Scott Steven Reese|title=The Transmission of Learning in Islamic Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zP5Zk8ixR3QC&pg=PA227|date=1 January 2004|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-13779-3|pages=227–}}
Early life and education
Sheikh Abdillahi Nassir was born in Mombasa on 1 June 1932. His early education commenced with Madrasah education as he enrolled in Madrasah at a young age of four years and continued attending Madrasah from 1936 to 1946. At the same time, he had normal school education, attending the Arab Boys Primary School from 1941 to 1949, and later joined the Zanzibar's Bet-el-Ras Teacher Training College from 1950 to 1951. After completing his studies in Zanzibar, he moved back to Mombasa.
Early career
Upon his return to Mombasa he taught at the Arab Primary School from 1951 to 1954. Because of his health condition, he was medically boarded out.
Recovering from his ailment, he then joined the Mombasa Institute of Muslim Education as an accounts clerk and as a part-time religious Instructor, from 1955 to 1957.
He was elected to Kenya's pre-independence Legislative Council and served in this capacity from 1961 to 1963.
On 28 December 1961, Sheikh Abdilahi Nassir was appointed, by the minister for education (at that time), Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi, as one of the members in the Bursary Selection Board to advise the ministry on the award, renewal or variation of bursaries for a period of three years.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZB_h8rqQn6oC&q=%22Abdilahi+nassir%22&pg=PA47 |title=Kenya Gazette |date=1962-01-16 |language=en}} He was then appointed as one of the members of the Advisory Council on Arab Education, by the Minister of Education (at that time), Lawrence George Sagini, on 5 October 1962.
From 1964 to 1965, he was a full-time politician as member of KANU's executive council (Coast Province). He then worked as an Arabic/Swahili monitor with the BBC in Nairobi from 1965 to 1967.
Later, he joined the Oxford University Press and worked as a Swahili Editor with the Eastern Africa Branch of Oxford University Press in Nairobi from 1967 to 1975. He was the first Swahili Editor to be recruited (at OUP). Nassir played a key role in seeing Julius Nyerere's Swahili translations of Julius Caesar (Julius Kaisari) and The Merchant of Venice (Mabepari wa Venisi) through publication. In 1969, he moved to the Dar es Salam office, where he is credited, together with the manager (Lucius Thonya), with developing the important and lucrative Swahili publishing programme there. These projects meant that OUP was well placed to respond to the demand created by Julius Nyerere's 'Education for Self Reliance' and the introduction of Swahili as a teaching medium in Tanzanian schools.{{Cite book |last1=Louis |first1=Wm Roger |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YbcJAgAAQBAJ&dq=Julius+Kaisari&pg=PA747 |title=History of Oxford University Press: Volume III: 1896 to 1970 |last2=Gadd |first2=Ian Anders |last3=Eliot |first3=Simon |last4=Louis |first4=William Roger |last5=Robbins |first5=Keith |date=November 2013 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-956840-6 |language=en}}
In 1975, Sheikh Abdillahi left the Oxford University Press to form his own Shungwaya Publishers Ltd. In 1977 he was recalled by the Oxford University Press to head the Eastern Africa Branch as General Manager and served in this capacity from 1977 to 1980.
Nassir's positions have included serving as the principal of the Shia Theological Seminary near Mombasa,{{cite book|author=Arye Oded|author-link=Arye Oded|title=Islam and Politics in Kenya|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8_UL9yJrD4QC&pg=PA17|date=1 January 2000|publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers|isbn=978-1-55587-929-7|pages=17–}} and his role in the Coastal People's Party.{{cite book|author1=Mohamed Bakari|author2=Saad Yahya|title=Islam in Kenya: proceedings of the National Seminar on Contemporary Islam in Kenya|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NB4QAQAAIAAJ|year=1995|publisher=Mewa Publications}}
Death
Nassir died on Tuesday, 11 January 2022, at the age of 89, in Mombasa, Kenya.{{cite web |url=https://www.citizen.digital/news/celebrated-scholar-and-historian-sheikh-abdillahi-nassir-dies-in-mombasa-n290027#google_vignette |title=Celebrated scholar and historian Sheikh Abdillahi Nassir dies in Mombasa |date=2022-01-11 |access-date=2025-06-22 |website=Citizen Digital}}
Awards
File:Freedom of City Award awarded to Sheikh Abdilahi Nassir by the Mayor of Nairobi.jpg giving Nassir the Freedom of the City Award]]
On 22 December 2006, Sheikh Abdilahi Nassir was among the 17 Kenyans who received the Freedom of the City of Nairobi Award, issued to those who attended the Lancaster House conference, in the United Kingdom, which gave birth to the Constitution for Independent Kenya.{{Cite web |title=Kenya: Nairobi Honours Lancaster House Conference Veterans |url=https://allafrica.com/stories/200612210961.html}}
In April 2011 at the 72nd Supreme Council Session in Mombasa, the then Africa Federation Chairman Alhaj Anwarali Dharamsi bestowed the Abbasi Medal to Sheikh Abdillahi Nassir.{{Cite web |date=2022-02-16 |title=Obituary – Alhaj Sheikh Abdillahi Nassir Juma |url=https://africafederation.org/2022/02/16/obituary-alhaj-sheikh-abdillahi-nassir-juma/ |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=Africa Federation |language=en-US}}
Selected works
- [https://www.oxford.co.ke/book/kamusi-sanifu-ya-msingi# Kamusi Sanifu Ya Msingi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812155921/https://oxford.co.ke/book/kamusi-sanifu-ya-msingi |date=12 August 2022 }}. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|9780195739077}}.
- {{cite book|title=Tafsiri ya Juzuu ya 'Amma|publisher=Bilal Muslim Mission of Kenya|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iv7PDwAAQBAJ}}
- {{cite book|title=Tafsiri ya Sura At-Talaq|publisher=Shungwaya Publishers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7P7PDwAAQBAJ}}
- {{cite book|title=Shia na Qur'ani: Majibu na Maelezo|publisher=Bilal Muslim Mission of Tanzania|isbn=9976956819|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JwCkBAAAQBAJ}}
- {{cite book|title=Shia na Sahaba: Majibu na Maelezo|publisher=Bilal Muslim Mission of Tanzania|isbn=9976956835|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mL3CBAAAQBAJ}}
- {{cite book|title=Shia na Hadith: Majibu na Maelezo|publisher=Bilal Muslim Mission of Tanzania|isbn=9976956827|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G8qrBAAAQBAJ}}
- {{cite book|title=Maulidi: Si Bida, Si Haramu|publisher=Bilal Muslim Mission of Kenya|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qv_NDAAAQBAJ}}
- {{cite book|title=Ukweli wa Hadith ya Karatasi|date=January 2003|publisher=Ahlul Bayt Centre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bTFgCgAAQBAJ}}
- {{cite book|title=Mut'a Ndoa ya Halali|publisher=Ahlul Bayt Centre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TFgCgAAQBAJ}}
- {{cite book|title=Shia na Taqiya: Majibu na Maelezo|date=January 2003|publisher=Ahlul Bayt Centre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y70ZDgAAQBAJ}}
- {{cite book|title=Malumbano Baina ya Sunni na Shia|publisher=Ahlul Bayt Centre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gqnYCgAAQBAJ}}
- {{cite book|title=Sura Al-Ahzab: Tafsiri na Maelekezo|year=2005|publisher=Ahlul Bayt Centre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eLFSDwAAQBAJ}}
- {{cite book|title=Yazid Hakuwa Amirul-Mu'minin|publisher=Bilal Muslim Mission of Kenya|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CueiBAAAQBAJ}}
- {{cite book|title=Hadith Al-Thaqalayn: Hadith Sahihi|publisher=Ahlul Bayt Centre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MnXqDAAAQBAJ}}
- {{cite book|title=Ahlul Bayt: Ni Nani, Si Nani|publisher=Ahlul Bayt Centre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bjFEDQAAQBAJ}}