Shaikh Hasan Hito: Rejuvenating Tradition in a Modern World
Pride overcomes prejudices when the man is evolved with intellect. Among them, we lost a legend who was only affable to knowledge and truth. The question he subsisted was only how the Muslim Ummah can retrieve such an inescapable absence.
Shaikh Hasan Hito, a Syrian Sunni Ash’arite scholar who devoted his entire life to the rejuvenation of traditional Islam and the reincarceration of the modern-day Muslim, had passed away earlier this Ramadan, leaving a void to be filled.
He was the one who recognized the inevitability of knowledge and the efficacy of reading, leading to a life that was pursuing intellectual development of the self and revitalizing the Ummah for an era, becoming an essence for the legion of Syrian scholars who were envisioned to make the traditional self ‘significant’ through his engagement with the religious notches of modern-day Muslims. What he has done was trivial, yet formidable, taking a mission for the transmission and conveyance of frosted ‘traditionals’ which became the vessels for epistemicide.
Aforementioned factor of Heetho wasn’t a revolutionary response from an individual, but an act of realization against the oppression of the Muslim Ummah in the modern world, where Ulamas who were once celebrated have gone through the worst phase of inferiorization. The scholars in that time were struggling with famine and poverty; even Heetho mentioned in his lectures about a teacher of his who was found deceased due to extreme poverty. We can imagine what he comprehended, but he never chose the other path and insisted on following the so-called ‘traditionals’ just to scuffle and eradicate inferiorization, making a strong remark against the system of superiority.
His father was against the decision that he made to pursue Islamic education from Al-Azhar instead of focusing on secular knowledge, warned him of the consequences and the devastation he called upon himself, and even arranged all the settings to go to a German university to study geography.
Understanding the situation, what Heetho did was adventurous, faking a journey to Germany and going for Azhar. When his father came to know the situation, he cut off the contact and the financial assistance for him, making his life more complicated and miserable. Somehow, he didn’t halt his battle against the insipid endowment of power episteme of the secular world and survived about one and a half years with Al-Azhar’s scholarship fund, just eating a toast for the long day lectures. Then the contact was rebuilt with the assistance of Saeed Ramadan Al-Boothi, meekly by making a phone call.
The academic journey of Heetho was much spontaneous, writing an encyclopedia of Islamic knowledge, which consists of 73 volumes, Muthafayhiqoon, Khulasa, and other prominent texts, which makes us recall the classical era of the golden Islamic age.