Known for Egyptian intellectual TV shows Science and Faith Role Doctor | Name Mustafa Mahmoud Religion Islam | |
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Occupation Physician, author, Muslim scholar and reformer Died October 31, 2009, Giza, Egypt Books The Greatest Secret, The Devil Rules Children Adham Mustafa Mahmud, Amal Mustafa Mahmud Similar People Yusuf al‑Qaradawi, Mustafa Hosni, Ibrahim Elfiky, Muhammad Metwally El‑Shaarawy, Mustafa Kamil Pasha | ||
Mustafa Kamal Mahmoud Husayn (Arabic: مصطفى كمال محمود حسين) (25 December 1921 – 31 October 2009) commonly known as Mustafa Mahmud (Arabic: مصطفى محمود) was an Egyptian doctor, philosopher, and author. Mustafa Mahmoud was born in Shibin el-Kom, Munufiyya province, Egypt. He was trained as a doctor, but later chose a career as a journalist and author, traveling and writing on many subjects.
Contents
- Autobiography
- Early life
- His frequent journeys
- Marriage
- Death
- His thoughts
- Commentary
- Memorials and honors
- References
He wrote 89 books in science, philosophy, religion, politics, and society as well as plays, Tales, and travelogues.
Autobiography
The material in this section is derived from self-published information by the subject.
Early life
Mustafa Mahmoud says that he was raised in a middle-class family. His father was employed as a secretary in the province of El Gharbiyya.
Mustafa Mahmud says he led his early life in a pleasant atmosphere wherein there was no oppression or violence. Rather, he enjoyed freedom and responsibility. In his early age in elementary school, he failed three years consecutively (He was a good student, but after an Arabic language teacher physically abused him, he got frustrated and left the school. But after the teacher reallocated to teach in another school, Mustafa came back to his school to continue studying there), yet he was left without any reproach or blame. In his childhood, he used to lay down ill. Thus, he was deprived of enjoying rough play, and running, which the children used to indulge in. He remained an introvert and spent his early days in imagination and dreams. He dreamed of being a great inventor or a discoverer or a traveler or a famous scientist. His role models were Christopher Columbus, Edison, Marconi and Pasteur.
Medical Studies
Mustafa Mahmud chose medicine as a field of study.
In his third year of studies he was admitted into hospital for two years of treatment. He describes this long isolation as a positive contribution to the development of his character, when he could indulge himself totally to reading and thinking of literary works. In these two years, the meditative character was fashioned within himself, and thus the writer was born.
After his recovery, he resumed his medical studies and says that he subsequently realized an immense change within himself. He discovered within himself the artist who reflects, reads, and peruses regularly the major sources of literature, plays, and novels. Owing to this new activity, (which in no time he became an expert at), he began to write regularly to the newspapers, (in his final year of Medicine). Accordingly, he had to intensify his effort to graduate and attain success. He started writing for El Tahrir and Rose El Yusef magazines. Due to his illness he graduated two or three years after his colleagues, in 1953.
His frequent journeys
Mustafa Mahmud describes his frequent travels, starting with his journeys to the Tropics in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, and the south of Sudan, where he stayed for two months with the tribe of Niam Niam. Thereafter, he traveled to the Sahara Desert, to the oasis of Ghadamis, where he stayed for a month with the tribe of El Tawariq. Furthermore, he traveled to many capitals of European and American countries, such as: Italy, Germany, Greece, France, Canada and the United States; and to the Arab countries, beginning with Morocco and Algeria in the west; and ending with Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia in the east.
There was another journey, one within himself; he boarded the ship of science, knowledge, and religion (starting from the Indian Fideism, Zoroaster, Buddha; and ending with Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. Finally he found his comfort and himself in the Qur'an. Thus he concluded his traveling, and devoted himself totally to reflection and contemplation. He lived among the jurists, scholars, and Sufis, and found that the Qur'an is an ocean around which all the branches of knowledge gather together.
He wrote five books criticizing the Marxist thought: Islamic left Fib; Marxism and Islam; Leftism Collapse; Why Did I Refuse Marxism?; and The Antichrist. He was persuaded that Marxism was one of the pickaxes which destroyed the current civilization; at worst, it was an instrument that caused the creation of a spiteful, negative and rejecting character. He has seventy-five books published, six of them were adapted for stage: (Earthquake; Man and Shade; The Great Alexander; The Social Gang (Shilla-t 'Uns); Blood Odor; The Devil Lives in our House), one of them (The Impossible) was presented as a film; twenty-five books deal with Islamic subjects; and the rest consists of studies and short stories. TV presented for him more than four hundred parts of the program "Science and Faith", in which the movie, scientific substance and Sufi meditation guide us to the faith in God.[(that program came to and end, Mustafa's son "Adham Mustafa Mahmoud" said that the program stopped by orders issued from the Egyptian presidency to then-Information Minister Safwat al-Sharif,the reason of those orders was a pressure from Zionists. as Mentioned in a press report held with "Adham Mustafa Mahmoud" and published by Egyptian news paper "Egyptian today")] Source:(Arabian Only) http://www.almasry-alyoum.com/article2.aspx?ArticleID=231773
In the year 1960,he left his medical career, devoting himself totally to writing for newspapers. As a physician, moving from one hospital to another (particularly, among the Hospitals of Chest Diseases in Abbasiyya, Chest diseases in 'Almazha, Chest diseases in Dumyat, and the dispensary of Umm el-Masriyyeen), between the years 1953 and 1960, all had a great influence on his writings, principally: Storehouse No. 7 (`Anbar 7), the Social Gang (Shilla-t 'Uns), and Eating Bread (Akl-`Aysh). In the meantime, it had an influence on his scientific and anatomical access to the public adversities, to the human soul and to the characters he dealt with in all his writings.
Another character who had a profound effect on him was his father, whose long-time illness, patience, faith, and pure innate nature remained in his mind throughout his life. As he grew older and encountered life's affairs in his thirties, a woman played a great role in and had an effectual control on his life, as a friend, a dialogist, and a lover. His faults were always due to losing control of himself when he looked at any beautiful things. Above all, he believed that no man is a perfect one unless he has found a woman to love, to marry, to have children with, and to feel parenthood and establish a family.
Marriage
Mustafa Mahmud says that his first marriage in 1961 was not successful, though from it, he was endowed with a girl and a boy, Amal and Adham. The marriage ended in 1973. His second marriage in 1983 was also unsuccessful and ended in 1987. The reason behind these divorces was the passion of writing that controlled his life, his preoccupation with his work and finally his isolation. Yet both of them were to be blamed.
Death
He was discovered unconscious on 1 November 2009, despite medics trying to resuscitate him he was already dead. He died at the approximate age of 88.
His thoughts
On his website, Mustafa Mahmud gives the following opinions about various things:
At which time are we to return to the normal innate nature, and fresh minds of which the true Muslim is characterized.
Commentary
In the July 7, 2008 issue of Culture Magazine, published by Al Jazirah, a number of prominent people commented on their respect for the works of Mustafa Mahmoud.