Muhammad al-Hasan Walad ad-Dadaw

Muhammad al-Hasan Walad ad-Dadaw ash-Shinqiti (b. 1963 CE / 1383 AH) is a Mauritanian scholar widely recognized as one of the most learned Muslim scholars alive today. Born into a prominent scholarly family in Mauritania, he was raised in the rigorous Mauritanian tradition of memorization and oral scholarship. He is said to have memorized the Quran, thousands of hadith, extensive classical poetry, and numerous major texts in fiqh, usul, grammar, and other sciences.

Walad ad-Dadaw's encyclopedic knowledge encompasses virtually every traditional Islamic discipline: Quranic sciences, hadith, fiqh (with mastery of all four schools, though he is primarily Maliki), usul al-fiqh, Arabic grammar and rhetoric, seerah, and Islamic history. He teaches and lectures extensively, and his recorded lessons and lectures number in the thousands. While he has not produced traditional written scholarly works on the scale of earlier scholars, his oral contributions and fatawa have been widely compiled and distributed.

He is the founder and president of Markaz Takwin al-Ulama (Center for Scholar Formation) in Mauritania, dedicated to training the next generation of scholars. His extraordinary memory, ability to cite sources across all the Islamic sciences from memory, and mastery of the Arabic language have earned him widespread admiration across the Muslim world. Scholars from various orientations recognize his learning, and he regularly participates in international Islamic conferences and scholarly gatherings. He represents the continuation of the Mauritanian scholarly tradition that produced figures like Muhammad al-Amin ash-Shinqiti.