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Ali al-Jifri

Oblique scholar

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ4120565 ↗
Source-derived summary

Habib Ali Zain al-Abidin al-Jifri (Arabic: الحبيب علي زين العابدين الجفري; born 16 April 1971) is a Yemeni Islamic scholar and spiritual educator based in Cairo, Egypt. He is the founder of Tabah Foundation (مؤسسة طابـة), a research institute based in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Early life

Ali Zain al-Abidin al-Jifri was born in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on 16 April 1971 (20th Safar 1391 AH). Al-Jifri is a direct descendant of Muhammad through his grandson Husayn ibn Ali. He has written books including "The Concept of Faith in Islam."

Awards and recognition

Since 2009, Al-Jifri has been listed as one of the top 50 most influential Muslims in the world by Georgetown University's Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre of Jordan. and in 2023 was number 22. He was a recipient of the Eugen Biser award in 2008 for his contribution to the document A Common Word Between Us and You.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ali al-Jifri” is oblique scholar. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through al-Jifri, Oblique and scholar, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1971, 1391, 2009, 2023—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1971-04-16. For this dossier, al-Jifri, Oblique and scholar is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “oblique scholar” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4120565. VIAF identifies the subject as 252750463. The Library of Congress control number is nr2006004532. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1971, 1391, 2009 and 2023.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ali al-Jifri”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ali al-Jifri primary sources, Ali al-Jifri archive and al-Jifri research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Ali al-Jifri” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.