Abdillahi Nassir

Nassir died on Tuesday, 11 January 2022, at the age of 89, in Mombasa, Kenya.

During a commemoration ceremony, held online and in person on Tuesday, January 18, 2022, many Islamic scholars eulogised Sheikh Abdilahi Nassir including:

Hassan Omar Hassan, Kenyan politician who served as Mombasa Senator between 2013 and 2017, eulogised him as "a towering figure in our politics and scholarship, the impact he has had on our region and society is immense and will live on. I will greatly miss Sheikh Abdillahi. A thinker, an orator, an astute politician, a scholar and a mentor to me and many."

In April 2011 at the 72nd Supreme Council Session in Mombasa, the then Africa Federation Chairman Alhaj Anwarali Dharamsi bestowed the Abbasi Medal to Sheikh Abdillahi Nassir in recognition of his long outstanding, honorable and dedicated services in the cause of Islam and for propagating the madh’hab of Ahlul Bayt (‘A).

On 22 December 2006, Sheikh Abdilahi Nassir was among the 17 Kenyans who were honoured with the Freedom of the City of Nairobi Award. The award was issued to senior citizens who attended the Lancaster House conference, in the United Kingdom, which gave birth to the Constitution for Independent Kenya.

Sheikh Abdilahi Nassir’s vision was to inspire a healthier community by creating a platform (Ahlul Bayt Centre) for the people to connect, motivate and educate each other. To this end, in 2001, he established Ahlul Bayt Centre, a non-political, non-sectarian, multi-purpose voluntary Community-based organization that combines lobbying, raising of public awareness, and practical work to ensure education, personal growth and healthier communities. The organization aims at empowering the community to their maximum potential by creating a sense of cooperation, integration and unity among the people and motivate the youth to take better participation in developing the community.

Among other speakers for the Muharram majalis were Sharif Khitamy, Sharif Badawy, Prof. Bakari of Nairobi University and a number of other Sunni scholars from Mombasa and Lamu. When the Bilal Muslim Mission of Kenya Assembly Hall was formally opened in 1988, Swahili majalis for the months Muharram and additional lecture series were then held at the Bilal Hall. Nassir would be among the main speakers attracting good crowd.

Upon his return to Mombasa in the early 1980s, he was a regular lecturer for the Muharram Majalis organized by the Bilal Muslim Mission of Kenya held at the Huseini Imambargah.

From 1978 to 1980, he worked as East Africa Representative of the Jeddah based WAMY (World Assembly of Muslim Youths).

In 1977 he was recalled by the Oxford University Press to head the Eastern Africa Branch as General Manager and served in this capacity from 1977 to 1980.

With his intellectual knack, Nassir did not blindly follow the widely held common perceptions about the Shia faith. The spirit of inquiry led him to read books written by Shia scholars. At the same time, he interacted with members of the Shia community with a view to understanding the Shia faith better. In due course, he showed growing leanings towards the Shia faith and his question/answer sessions on the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation’s radio programs from 1977 to 1980 aroused much interest.

In 1975, Sheikh Abdillahi left the Oxford University Press to form his own Shungwaya Publishers Ltd.

Later, he joined the Oxford University Press and worked as a Swahili Editor with the Eastern Africa Branch of Oxford University Press in Nairobi from 1967 to 1975. He was the first Swahili Editor to be recruited (at OUP). Nassir played a key role in seeing Julius Nyerere's Swahili translations of Julius Caesar (Julius Kaisari) and The Merchant of Venice (Mabepari wa Venisi) through publication. In 1969, he moved to the Dar es Salam office, where he is credited, together with the manager (Lucius Thonya), with developing the important and lucrative Swahili publishing programme there. These projects meant that OUP was well placed to respond to the demand created by Julius Nyerere's 'Education for Self Reliance' and the introduction of Swahili as a teaching medium in Tanzanian schools.

He then worked as an Arabic/Swahili monitor with the BBC in Nairobi from 1965-1967.

From 1964 to 1965, he was a full-time politician as member of KANU's executive council (Coast Province).

He was then appointed as one of the members of the Advisory Council on Arab Education, by the Minister of Education (at that time), Mr. Lawrence George Sagini, on 5 October 1962.

On 28 December 1961, Sheikh Abdilahi Nassir was appointed, by the minister for education (at that time), Mr. Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi, as one of the members in the Bursary Selection Board to advise the ministry on the award, renewal or variation of bursaries for a period of three years.

Sheikh Abdillahi Nassir took active interest in pre independence Kenya politics from 1957 to 1963. He was elected to Kenya’s pre-independence Legislative Council and served in this capacity from 1961 to 1963. As a member of the Kenya Legislative Council, he also attended the historic Kenya Constitutional Conference held at the Lancaster House, London, in 1963.

Despite being active in Kenyan politics, Nassir devoted part time in preaching and tabligh activities from 1954 to 1959. During 1960-1980, he engaged in translating and commenting on the Qur’an during the months of Ramadan while living in Mombasa (1960–64) and later when he settled in Nairobi (1965–1980).

Upon his return to Mombasa he taught at the Arab Primary School from 1951 to 1954. Because of his health condition, he was medically boarded out. Recovering from his ailment, he then joined the Mombasa Institute of Muslim Education as an accounts clerk and as a part-time religious Instructor, from 1955 to 1957.

Abdilahi Nassir (1 June 1932 – 11 January 2022) was a Kenyan Shia cleric based in Mombasa. Though raised a Sunni, Nassir converted to Shiism, and in the wake of Iran's Islamic revolution publicly identified himself as Twelver Shia.

Sheikh Abdillahi Nassir was born in Mombasa on 1 June 1932. His early education commenced with Madrasah education as he enrolled in Madrasah at a young age of four years and continued attending Madrasah from 1936 to 1946. At the same time, he had normal school education, attending the Arab Boys Primary School from 1941 to 1949, and later joined the Zanzibar’s Bet-el-Ras Teacher Training College from 1950 to 1951.