Salem Abu Mukhdah
Salem Abu Mukhdah (Sālim Abū Makhadda) (سالم أبو مخدة), age 52, was an active scholar of Islamic law who published broadly on issues of Islamic legal doctrine and practice relevant to contemporary times. He served as an educator for many years, first as a teacher in Gazan schools and later as an associate professor, lecturer, department head, and vice-dean at the Islamic University in Gaza. He was a scholar-teacher who made significant contributions to his field as a researcher, instructor, and administrator.
Dr. Abu Mukhdah was born in the Gaza Strip in 1971 and completed his primary and secondary education in Gazan schools. He received a bachelor’s degree from the Faculty of Shari`a in 1995, a general diploma in education from the Faculty of Education in 1997, and a master’s degree in 2006 from the Faculty of Shari`a and Law in the field of Shari`a Jurisprudence, all from the Islamic University in Gaza. He earned his doctoral degree in 2012 from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in the field of Comparative Jurisprudence from Janan University in Lebanon, with a thesis entitled, Rulings on Dealing with the Enemy in Islamic fiqh: a Palestinian Case Study.
Dr. Abu Mukhdah worked as a teacher for the Palestinian Ministry of Education from 1998 to 2008. After completing his MA degree, he became a lecturer at the Faculty of Shari`a and Law at the Islamic University in Gaza in 2007. Once he completed his doctoral degree, he was tapped to become Deputy Dean of the College of Shari`a and Law for Scientific Research and Postgraduate Studies at the Islamic University from 2012-2013, and head of the Department of Islamic Shari`a at the Faculty of Shari`a and Law from 2013-2015 and again in 2018. He was also a member of the Fatwa Committee at the Islamic University from 2015 to the time of his death.
(Dr. Abu Mukhdah, second from left)
Dr. Abu Mukhdah was author and co-author of some 40 academic articles and posters on issues arising in contemporary Islamic legal doctrine and practice related to family relations, religious ritual, education, and business arrangements. Among them: “The extent of the judge’s authority in consensual and judicial khul`” [female-initiated divorce], published in the Journal of Islamic Sciences, Faculty of Islamic Sciences, Iraqi University, in 2019, and “Divorce of the Psychiatric Patient in Islamic Jurisprudence,” published in the Journal of Research and Sharia Studies in the Arab Republic of Egypt, in 2017.
Dr. Abu Mukhdah was killed along with his entire family by an Israeli airstrike that came without warning on his home in Dayr al-Balah on 18 October 2023.