Saleh Al Maghamsi

Early life and education

He was born on 17 November 1963 (1 Rajab 1383 AH) in the village of Khayf al-Huzami in Wadi al-Safra, in the Badr governorate west of Medina, and grew up in Medina, where he completed all his schooling, including at al-Nasiriyya School. He went on to study Arabic and Islamic studies at the Medina branch of King Abdulaziz University. Among his teachers he names Sheikh Atiyya Muhammad Salim and Sheikh Abu Bakr al-Jaza'iri, adding that his contact with Sheikh Ibn Baz and Sheikh Ibn Uthaymin was more limited. He is known by the kunya Abu Hashim, after his eldest son.

Career

He first led prayers at al-Salam Mosque in Medina, where he remained imam for about twenty years. After serving as an educational supervisor for Arabic in the Medina education administration (1992), he became preacher of King Abdulaziz Mosque in 2001 and joined the teaching staff of the Teachers College in Medina in 2002; he later taught at Taibah University's College of Education and, from 2009, at the Higher Institute for Imams and Preachers. In 2008 he was named official mufti of Saudi Television and director general of the Medina Centre for Research and Studies. Since 2018 he has headed the Al-Bayan Centre for Quranic Reflection, and from 2019 he has taught Islamic culture at Prince Muqrin University.

He served for many years as imam and preacher of Quba Mosque until he was relieved of the post on 28 March 2020. On 21 February 2026 a royal decree appointed him an imam of the Prophet's Mosque.

Broadcasting

He has presented more than thirty television programmes on channels including Al-Majd, Saudi Television, Qatar TV, Dubai TV, MBC and Iqraa, among them Mahasin al-Ta'wil, Al-Qutuf al-Daniya and Ta'ammulat Qur'aniyya. In Ramadan 2023 he hosted Diwan al-Arab on Iqraa, a series on the history of Arabic poetry. His lessons in tafsir, fiqh, hadith commentary and the Prophet's biography are published on his website, Al-Rasikhun fi al-Ilm.