Championing Arabic: The Inspiring Journey of Al-Azhar Sheikh Ibrahim Hamroush

Grand Imam Sheikh Ibrahim Hamroush—may Allah have mercy on him—was not merely an Azharite scholar who combined teaching, judiciary work, and administration; rather, he was one of those scholars who made the Arabic language a field of research and renewal. He believed that the strength of Arabic lies not in marginalizing its heritage or restricting its vocabulary, but rather in understanding the laws governing its growth and exploring the methods of the Arabs in expression, derivation, and generation.

His linguistic works and the researches he presented to the Academy of the Arabic Language reveal a scientific mind that combines the preservation of the foundations of Arabic with openness to its evolving needs. He discussed semantic inclusion and the substitution of letters, major derivation, blending (portmanteau), and the writing of foreign words. He also participated in discussions concerning the facilitation of Arabic and the script of the Quran (Rasm al-Musaf), basing his views on linguistic evidence, the texts of its scholars, and the requirements of actual usage, as we will explain in this article.

The Sheikh’s attention to the language was not separate from his Azharite background and scholarly career; he acquired knowledge at the hands of the leading scholars of his era, with Imam Muhammad Abduh being among his most prominent teachers. His scholarly influence subsequently extended to generations of scholars who graduated under him, foremost among them Imam Sheikh Muhammad Metwally Al-Shaarawi, who testified to his teacher's abundance of knowledge and diverse benefits.

Hence, the biography of Sheikh Ibrahim Hamroush appears as more than just a translation of an Azharite scholar who assumed high scholarly positions; it is the biography of a scholar who lived through the issues of Arabic at a time when the language was facing questions of renewal, facilitation, and the preservation of its origins. He left behind research and stances on these issues that reveal his vision of the language as a living entity capable of growth without losing its connection to its roots.

From the Village to the Halls of Al-Azhar

Our Sheikh was born in the village of Al-Khawaled, affiliated with Itay El-Baroud Center in the Beheira Directorate, on the 20th of Rabi' al-Awwal 1297 AH, corresponding to March 1, 1880 CE.

He grew up in his village where he was born, and enrolled in the village kuttab ( Quranic school), memorizing the entire Holy Quran by the age of twelve. His father sent him to Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, where he enrolled, making the Sheikh—may Allah have mercy on him—one of the vanguard youths to whom the new law of Azharite education was applied.

Professor Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah Draz—may Allah have mercy on him—stated that the new Al-Azhar Mosque law was issued on the 20th of Muharram 1314 AH / July 1, 1896 CE, issued by Khedive Abbas at the request of Imam Muhammad Abduh—may Allah have mercy on him. That law stipulated that certain mathematical sciences such as arithmetic and algebra be considered compulsory subjects (Article 17), while sciences such as geometry, geography, and history were optional, with preference and priority given to them (Article 18).

His Teachers: Deep-Rooted Foundations

Among his teachers from whom he acquired knowledge at Al-Azhar were Sheikh Muhammad Bakhit Al-Muti'i and Sheikh Ahmad Abu Khatwa. He grew deeply attached to and loved the latter Sheikh to the extent that he named his son Ahmad Abu Khatwa bin Ibrahim Hamroush. They also included Sheikh Ali Al-Salhi Al-Maliki and Imam Sheikh Muhammad Abduh, whom he accompanied and from whom he learned the secrets of rhetoric and the proofs of inimitability of Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani, as well as Al-Basa'ir al-Nusayriyah fi al-Mantiq (The Nusayri Insights in Logic). This latter book was authored by Qadi Zayn al-Din Umar ibn Sahlan al-Sawi, and Imam Muhammad Abduh had written commentaries and investigations upon it. The administration of Al-Azhar decided on the 5th of Rajab 1316 AH / November 19, 1898 CE, to teach this book with its commentaries in Al-Azhar Mosque.

His Students: Knowledge Spanning Generations

Among his most brilliant students whose fame spread and whose knowledge brought widespread benefit were His Eminence Sheikh Hasan Mamoun, who assumed the Grand Sheikhdom of Al-Azhar; His Eminence Sheikh Allam Nassar and His Eminence Sheikh Hassanein Makhlouf, both of whom assumed the position of Mufti of the Egyptian Lands; and His Eminence Sheikh Muhammad Metwally Al-Shaarawi, who said about his teacher: "As for Sheikh Ibrahim Hamroush, he influenced my life in a way no one else did. This man—you never enter upon him seeking a matter except that you leave him with a rare benefit, a piece of wisdom, a general piece of information, a scholarly anecdote, or other beneficial matters, and he was abundantly knowledgeable in language and other subjects."

Sheikh Ibrahim Hamroush in the Body of Senior Scholars

The Sheikh’s scholarly life was crowned by his selection as a member of the Body of Senior Scholars on the 28th of Safar 1353 AH, corresponding to June 10, 1934 CE. To attain this rank, he submitted a distinguished treatise titled: Factors of Language Growth. In its introduction, he stated:

"And after... the Arabic language, thanks to its multiple factors, has seen a welcoming bosom, expanded scope, increased material, and diversified structures. It has acquired the beauty of logic, the majesty of signification, and the elegance of style. Through those factors, it accommodated the sciences of the Greeks, Persians, and others, and became the language of science and religion... I have written a word on generation by augmentation, substitution, metathesis, derivation, synonymy, homonymy, metaphor, blending, improvisation, and Arabization."

In the Halls of the Academy of the Arabic Language

In the same year the Sheikh entered the Body of Senior Scholars, he attained membership in the Academy of the Arabic Language. On the 16th of Jumada al-Akhirah 1352 AH / October 6, 1934 CE, a royal decree was issued appointing twenty members to the Academy of the Arabic Language, among whom was Professor Sheikh Ibrahim Hamroush.

His Scholarly Works

1. Inclusion and the Substitution of Some Letters for Others

A published research paper in the proceedings of the sessions of the first term of the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo, spanning five pages. It consists of texts the Sheikh quoted from Hashiyat al-Khudari ala Ibn Aqil, Hashiyat al-Sabban ala al-Ashmouni, Taqrir al-Anbabi ala Hashiyat al-Amir, two texts from Mughni al-Labib by Ibn Hisham (the first from part one, and the second from part two), and a text from Al-Risalah al-Bayaniyah by Al-Anbabi. He then concluded these texts with his opinion on inclusion, saying: "We therefore favor the view of the analogical validity of inclusion (qiyasiyat al-tadamin)."

2. The Response to the Proposals of Professor Ahmad Amin—May Allah Have Mercy on Him—Regarding the Facilitation of Arabic

During the seventh session of the conference of the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo in its tenth term held on 3/2/1363 AH, corresponding to 29/1/1944 CE, Professor Ahmad Amin delivered a research paper titled: A Proposal for Some Reform in the Text of the Language. In it, he mentioned that among the problems of the Arabic language hindering its mission are its excessive expansion in some places and its excessive restriction in others. To solve this, he proposed the following:

• A. Disencumbering the language of many vocabulary words—except historical lexicons—such as archaic (hawshi) words that are rejected and disliked by taste, eliminating unnecessary synonyms, and deleting antonyms to eradicate them.
• B. Opening the door of ijtihad in the language to expand the restricted via Arabization, derivation, and analogy.
• C. Reconsidering the chapter of masculine and feminine, and establishing some general rules such as permitting the feminization of every feminine by appending the feminine ta' (tā' al-ta'nīth), and for everything in which no text has been reported, the feminine form is with the ha' (hâ'), and anything that is not a true feminine without a feminine marker may be treated as either masculine or feminine, such as the well (bi'r).

Professor Sheikh Ibrahim Hamroush responded to this proposal in a six-page research paper published in the Journal of the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo, Part Six, pages 103–108. It was also published in the proceedings of the tenth term sessions, where the Sheikh presented it to the academicians in the fourteenth session of the conference in its tenth term held on 12 Safar 1363 AH / February 16, 1944 CE, and was also published in the proceedings of this term on pages 385–392.

Sheikh Hamroush agreed with Professor Ahmad Amin on deleting archaic words and limiting their documentation solely to historical lexicons, and he also agreed with him on expanding the language by coining augmented forms of triliteral verbs that have no attested augmented forms, provided that morphological rules are observed and the meaning remains sound, and that we apply analogy to non-attested verbal nouns (masadir) based on attested ones—analogizing al-biradah (filing) and al-niqashah (engraving) to al-khiyatah (sewing) and al-hiyakah (knitting), and so forth. He did not limit his support to stating his personal opinion, but rather backed it with what Ibn Jinni mentioned in Al-Khasa'is in the chapter "That whatever is analogized upon the speech of the Arabs is of the speech of the Arabs." However, he objected to the remainder of what was presented and supported his counter-argument with tangible evidence from the language of the Arabs and from the linguistic reality of past and present. Regarding the deletion of numerous synonyms and some examples of homonyms and antonyms, he stated, for instance: "As for putting to death many of the numerous synonyms, we do not agree to it because synonyms have run through literature in both its poetry and prose, and have persisted in ancient and modern literature. If we were to restrict ourselves to some synonyms, our successors would fall into confusion..."

3. The Script of the Quran (Rasm al-Mushaf) Between Tradition and the Rules of Writing

In the thirteenth session of the sixth term held on January 25, 1950, the Sheikh—may Allah have mercy on him—delivered a research paper titled: Rasm al-Mushaf (The Quranic Script), which he began by stating a foundational principle of script: "The basis in this script is that it should be a portrayal of the spoken word using its alphabetical letters such that the written matches the uttered." He then noted that scholars of script ruptured this principle with a multitude of exceptions in letters, particularly the hamza.

He then mentioned certain phenomena of the Quranic script, such as the addition of ya' in (naba' and wara'), the omission of alif in the raised dual (al-muthanna al-marfu'), the omission of the dual alif in the raised imperfect verb (al-mudari' al-marfu'), and the writing of certain connected feminine *ta'*s with the open ta'.

He explained this by noting that the revelation scribes among the Companions—may Allah be pleased with them—did not possess an equal share of knowledge regarding the science of script, so each wrote according to what he knew.

He then discussed certain jurisprudential views regarding the ruling on writing the Holy Quran in ordinary conventional orthographic script. These included the view of Al-Baqillani, who was reported to have said: "Whoever claims that the Mushaf is written in a specific specialized script is required to provide proof"; the view of Imam Malik, who issued a legal opinion (fatwa) keeping the script upon its initial writing, but when questioners returned to him, he issued a fatwa permitting changes in the writing of chapters for teaching children; and the view of Izz al-Din ibn 'Abd al-Salam, who held that writing the Mushaf contrary to the prescribed script induces skepticism.

He then mentioned that in 1937 CE, a proposal was submitted to the Fatwa Committee at Al-Azhar concerning printing the Mushaf based on the ordinary writing script followed today. The committee issued a fatwa stating its view on the necessity of adhering to the traditional, transmitted writing and spelling of the Mushaf.

4. The Method of Writing Foreign Words in Arabic Letters

This is a research paper he presented to the conference of the Academy of the Arabic Language in its third term. In the twenty-ninth session held on Saturday, 19 Dhu al-Qi'dah 1354 AH, corresponding to February 22, 1936 CE, Dr. Muhammad Tawfiq Refaat opened the session by saying: "A research paper on the method of writing foreign words by Professor Sheikh Ibrahim Hamroush has been distributed to you, so let us discuss this topic tonight to finish it before the end of the term."

5. On Major Derivation

A research paper published in the Journal of the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo, Part Two, spanning eleven pages. The Sheikh began it by discussing the types of inquiry into language, stating that they are of two kinds: one may be to know the literal and metaphorical meanings of words, noting that this type does not extend to knowing the unifying aspects and general common meanings shared among multiple meanings. He mentioned that this type does not lead to deducing rules or extracting regulations, and its ultimate goal is knowing disparate meanings without finding a connection between them or recognizing what common meanings unite their multiplicities. The other kind is for knowing unifying aspects and general meanings through which multiple meanings appear as distinct factions and numerous groups, each united by a general meaning to which its individuals return and share in it, thereby distinguishing one group from another.

He then stated that this latter kind is the inquiry of derivationists, which enabled them to trace words sharing a single meaning back to one another through metathesis and substitution, and unveiled to them the secret of language generation and growth.

6. Blending (Portmanteau / Al-Naht)

A research paper he presented to the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo.

From Teaching to the Grand Sheikhdom of Al-Azhar: A Journey Full of Giving

Following his successful completion of the Alimiyah examination, Sheikh Ibrahim Hamroush was appointed as a teacher at Al-Azhar Al-Sharif on November 21, 1906.

In 1908, he was selected as a teacher at the School of Sharia Judiciary, where he taught jurisprudence (fiqh) and its foundations (usul), remaining there until June 12, 1916.

Subsequently, he was appointed as a judge in the Sharia courts and continued to rise through their ranks until 1928, when he was chosen as the Sheikh of the Assiut Religious Institute. A few months later, he was chosen as the Sheikh of the Zagazig Azharite Institute.

In 1931, he was selected as the Dean of the College of Arabic Language upon its establishment, remaining dean of the college until 1944 when he was transferred to serve as the Sheikh of the College of Sharia, resigning from this position in 1946.

In 1950, he was appointed head of the Fatwa Committee at Al-Azhar, and in 1951, he was appointed as the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif. He was relieved of this position after serving in it for six months and three days, before completing a year, on February 10, 1952.

The Sheikh Departed, and the Legacy Remained

Sheikh Ibrahim Hamroush answered his Lord’s call after a life replete with scholarly giving and national struggle, and after memorable stances in combating heresies and falsehoods, coupled with fruitful efforts in organizing Azharite institutes and colleges. This took place on the 26th of Jumada al-Ula 1380 AH, corresponding to November 15, 1960 CE.