A Syrian scientist and preacher born in Damascus in 1944 and graduated from his university and speeches in his mosques, and after having restricted him from the Syrian regime, he immigrated to both the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Turkey. He was famous for his support for the Syrian Revolution against the regime of the President ousted Bashar Al -Assad, and after the fall of the regime, the new Syrian president, Ahmed Al -Shara, was appointed in March 2025, Mufti General of Syria.
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Sheikh Osama Abdel Karim Al -Rifai was born in Damascus in 1944, and he was the eldest son of Sheikh Al -Allama, the late Abdul Karim Al -Rifai, and the late brother of the preacher, Sariya al -rifai.
Scientific study and training
He studied primary, preparatory and secondary in Damascus, then he studied Arabic and his sciences at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Damascus, where he graduated in 1971.
He received the legal sciences from his father, Sheikh Abdul Karim Al -rifai, and on other elders, the most famous of them is Khaled Al -jibawi, Abdel -Ghani Al -Dagr, Ahmed Al -hami, Mahmoud Zaidan and Saeed Al -afghani.
Sheikh Osama Al -Rifai is calculated on the “Zaid group”, a mystical movement that appeared in the 1940s, and her father was led by her, and he was also appointed according to the Mosque of Zaid Bin Thabit in Damascus.
In 2004, the Syrian authorities granted more work for this group thanks to a charitable project known as “preservation of grace”, then returned and reduced it as well as its work in 2008.
His opposition to the Assad regime
Sheikh Osama Al -Rifai was one of the first Syrian scholars to oppose the regime of Bashar al -Assad and to support the Syrian revolution which broke out in 2011 and demanded the reversal of the regime.
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The mosque in which he spoke and launched lessons turned into a point for the gathering and the launch of demonstrations calling for the reversal of the regime.
He also opposed the fire regime, President Hafez Al -Assad, and criticized his massacres committed against the Syrian people, in particular the Hama massacre in 1982.
He assumed the task of the preacher of the Sheikh Abdul Karim Al -rifai mosque in the Kafr Sousse region in the Syrian capital, Damascus.
Due to prosecution and restrictions, he went to Saudi Arabia in 1981, and after mediations, he and his brother, Sheikh Saria, returned in 1993.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKBTGSTP0LI
Sheikh al -rifai confirms that he is against what he calls “Takfiri’s thought” and that he has no place in Syria, and accused the Islamic State of spreading this thought.
He also considered in several press statements according to which Al -Qaeda “Takfiri as a Takfiri authority destroys the blood of Muslims”, and he saw that foreigners who came to Syria and joined “extremist organizations have formed more affliction on the Syrians than the same regime”.
He was also known for him positions in which Iran accused “fueling sectarian conflicts” and “sabotage life” in the region, especially in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
At the dawn of August 27, 2011, elements of Syrian security and Shabiha attacked the Sheikh Abdul Karim Al -Rifai mosque, in Tahajjud’s prayer, and they hit prostrations, and the Cheikh Osama was not dismissed, and he was transferred to Andalusia Hospital in Damascus for treatment.
Sheikh Osama left the country, went to Türkiye, settled in Istanbul and became a lesson every Friday in the “Mehraima Sultan” mosque in the Al -Fateh district.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0dwza75gru
Establish the Syrian Islamic Council
From Istanbul, Al -Rifai announced the revival of “the association of Levant scholars”, which was created before in 1937, but remained secret.
In 2014, Al -Rifai and other Syrian scientists founded the Syrian Islamic Council and were elected presidents in November 2021, as well as a mufti of Syria, during its annual meeting, which was held in the city of Gaziantep in southern Turkey, and attended 130 members.
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The Syrian Islamic Council included around 40 Islamic organizations and links of Sunnis and the group inside and outside Syria, and also includes legal organizations of the largest Islamic factions in Syria.
Its founder considered it “the representative of the reference of sciences and academics, the Syrian Council of Ifta and the specialized body of the Fatwa”, and Sheikh Al -Rifai was elected a general mufti for Syria after the Bashar Al -Assad regime canceled Mufti’s position.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SutPLL4QS8
Mufti of the Syrian Republic
After the fall of the Bashar Al -Assad regime, and on March 28, 2025, Syrian President Ahmed Al -Sharaa announced the appointment of Sheikh Osama al -rifai as Mufti of the country.
“Today, we are all striving to rebuild Syria with its executives, its academics and its children.”
He added: “It is not a secret for anyone responsible for the Fatwa, his honesty and his role in the construction of the new state, especially after Janab Al -Fatwa was raped without his family, and it is not effective.”
He continued: “This position takes place today a man of the best scholars of the Levant.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JJHX5PMP0
Tasks and responsibilities
- President of the association of Scholars of the Levant.
- President of the Syrian Islamic Council.
- The preacher of the Sheikh Abdul Karim Al -rifai mosque in Damascus.
- The Grand Mufti of Syria.