Legal Scholar Dr. Tawfeeq El-Shawy Passes Away

Prominent legal scholar Dr. Tawfeeq Mohamed Ibrahim El-Shawy, from the first MB generation who accompanied Hasan El-Banna, passed away this morning at the age of 91.

Dr. Tawfeeq El-Shawy was born in 1918 in Ghunaymiyya village in Farskour, Dumyat.  He earned his elementary degree with distinction and joined preparatory school in Mansoura where he earned his preparatory degree ranking 2nd place at the national level.  He then entered Law School at Cairo University where he earned his legal license with distinction ranking 2nd place and was immediately appointed in Mansura Prosecution.

El-Shawy traveled to France to do his PhD in Paris University when doors for study abroad were opened in 1945. Upon earning his PhD Degree in 1949, El-Shawy returned to Egypt where he was appointed as a Professor in the School of Law at Cairo University.

Before his study abroad trip, El-Shawy had been appointed as an Assistant Professor in the School of Law where he had received his license, then as a Deputy Attorney General for two years before he was returned to the university in 1944.

In 1954, El-Shawy was deported from Cairo University along with a number of other professors. He was then called by the Moroccan government to teach at the School of Law in Mohamed V University in Rabat. El-Shawy then moved to Jeddah where he taught Comparative Jurisprudence in Abdul-Aziz University before he was returned once again to Cairo University in 1974.  After retiring, El-Shawy continued his legal practice and offered legal consultations.

In addition to his long journey as a University Professor, El-Shawy played a large role in the work of Islamic revival throughout different parts of the Arab and Islamic worlds.  In 1956, Morocco and Tunis had declared their independence.  During that time, his friends among the Moroccan ministers had called on him to help in establishing the country’s legal systems and modern laws.  El-Shawy was also appointed Judge of the Supreme Court in Rabat in 1959, a professor in Mohamed V University, a consultant to the Supreme Council of the Moroccan Court of Cassation, then a legal consultant to the Moroccan Parliament.

El-Shawy then moved to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1965 when the Ministry of Petroleum contracted him as a legal consultant on mineral wealth management in Jeddah.  King Faisal then appointed El-Shawy as Member of the Supreme Council of Riyadh University.

In 1966, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia further granted El-Shawy the Saudi citizenship and appointed him as a Professor of Law and Comparative Jurisprudence in the School of Economics in King Abdul-Aziz University in Jeddah.  El-Shawy continued cooperating with Prince Mohamed Faisal in his project for establishing the Manarat School and its administration since 1971 as well as the World Union for International Arab Islamic schools founded under the supervision of the Islamic Conference Organization and the Saudi government in 1976.

El-Shawy was also assigned by King Faisal to cooperate with “Tenco Abdurrahman,” who was then Secretary General of the Islamic Conference Organization, in drafting the agreement for the establishment of the Islamic Bank for Development.  El-Shawy also cooperated with Prince Mohamed Faisal and other pro-Islamic economy friends in the establishment of the Faisal Islamic Bank in Khartoum and Cairo and was a member in this bank’s board for five years leading him to publish three books on applied Islamic economics.  The first of these books is about the founding of Faisal Islamic Bank and its basic system; the second, which he worked on between 1960 and 1974, addresses the future economy and attempts to establish its institutions; and finally is his book on the Islamic Bank for Development and its basic system which he co-authored between 1971 and 1974; not to mention a list of other books on general knowledge and Islamic thought in addition to his legal researches published at different stages of his academic and professional life.

El-Shawy cooperated with late MB Chairs Omar El-Tilmisani and Mohamed Hamed Abul-Nasr in filing the lawsuit number 133 for year 32 of the Administrative Judicature requesting the cancellation of the Revolution Leadership Council’s decision to dissolve the MB.  The lawsuit continued to circulate until 1992 when the Administrative Judicature court finally decided to reject it for the absence of any administrative decision to dissolve the MB society.

Among the most important of El-Shawy’s writings are:  The Jurisprudence of Islamic Caliphate which developed into El-Sanhoury’s League of Nations, the Modern Encyclopedia of Islamic Criminal Jurisprudence, Half a Century of Islamic Work, and the Jurisprudence of the Islamic Government Between Sunnah and Shiites.