Mustafa Mahmoud; From Fame to Isolation
Mustafa Kamal Mahmoud Hussein Al Mahfouz (December 27, 1021- October 31, 2009) wrote 89 books in the fields of Quran interpretation, religious thoughts, novels, plays, and travel accounts.
He left the world of medicine to become an author and TV producer. This helped him earn a lot of money but he lived a simple life and gave the most of the money to charity.
In 1971, with the money he had received for publication of his books, he bought a plot of land and built a mosque on it which is now known as Mustafa Mahmoud Mosque.
The mosque also includes an astronomy center and a geology museum that is run by experts in the field. In order to appreciate his services, Asteroid 296753 Mustafamahmoud, discovered in 2009, was named in his memory.
He also founded three medical clinics that treat needy patients and then established a convoy of 16 top physicians who would go to underprivileged areas to treat patients for free.
Mustafa Mahmoud would warn the Muslim world, Arab world and Egypt about the dangers of the Zionist regime. He made a lot of efforts to shed light in the Israeli regime’s attempts at making weapons of mass destruction and its projects that targeted the water resources of Arab countries like Syria and Egypt.
Egyptian authorities who sought normalization of ties with Israel did not like his views and, according to his son, that is why Egypt’s then president ordered a halt to his TV program “Science and Faith” after 400 episodes of the program.
Another problem he faced was about his book Shafa’a (intercession) that was published in 1999. It was a controversial book. He tried to discuss the issue with a critical view. Others wrote 14 books rejecting his views expressed in this book. One of them was written by Dr Mohamed Fuad Shaker in which he described Mustafa Mahmoud as a physician who is ignorant of religious sciences. Following this crisis, Mustafa Mahmoud went to isolation until the end of his life.
