Saudi Gazette report
MADINAH — Sheikh Ali Abdulrahman Al-Hudhaifi is one of the imams of the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah.
Al-Hudhaifi was born in the Al-Qarn Al-Mustaqeem village to the north of Makkah and grew up in a pious family. His father was an imam for the Saudi Army.
The young Hudhaifi learned the Qur'an from teachers in his village. He memorized several chapters of the Qur’an as a student and has rigorously studied the Shariah and its sciences.
He joined the private Salafiyah School in Baljurashi in 1961 and finished secondary school there. Then he joined the Scientific Institute in the same Province in 1963 and completed his high school education in 1968.
Al-Hudhaifi continued his undergraduate studies at the College of Shariah at Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, graduating in 1972, and was appointed an instructor at the Scientific Institute where he had studied.
He used to teach Islamic Sciences and Arabic besides being an imam and preacher at a mosque in Baljurashi. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1975 and subsequently a PhD from Al-Azhar University in Cairo.
He joined his alma mater, Imam Muhammad Bin Saud University, in 1977 where he taught Islamic sciences at the College of Shariah. He also taught undergraduate students the Islamic schools of thought and the recitation of the Qur’an at the College of the Holy Qur’an.
Al-Hudhaifi is considered one of the most distinguished Qur’an reciters in the Kingdom and across the Islamic World. He has many national and international recordings and certifications for his recitation from many notable sheikhs including Ahmad Abdulaziz Alziyat, Amer Alsaid Uthman, Abdulfattah Alqadi and Hammad Al-Ansari.
Alongside his academic career, Al-Hudhaifi was an imam at the Quba Mosque. He became an imam of the Prophet’s Mosque in 1979. Except for a brief interval in 1981-82 when he was appointed the imam of the Grand Mosque in Makkah, Al-Hudhaifi continued to lead prayers at the Prophet’s Mosque since then. He also serves as the head of the committee that reviews copies of the Qur’an printed in Madinah as well as a member of the supervisory committee for audio copies of the Qur’an and the higher committee in the King Fahd Qur’an Printing Complex.
