15 Facts About Quraish Shihab

Muhammad Quraish Shihab is an Indonesian Muslim scholar in the sciences of the Qur'an, an author, an Academic Scholar, and former Minister of Religious Affairs in the Seventh Development Cabinet.

Quraish Shihab is the older brother of the former Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, Alwi Shihab.

Quraish Shihab's father was Abdurrahman Shihab, an Islamic scholar and professor at State Institute of Islamic Sciences and his mother was Asma Aburisyi.

Quraish Shihab's three older siblings, Nur, Ali and Umar, and two younger siblings, Wardah and Alwi Shihab, were born in Rappang.

Quraish Shihab, called Bang Odes by his younger siblings, is an Arab Indonesian of Ba 'Alawi sada family, where his family lineage traces back to Muhammad, the Islamic prophet.

Quraish Shihab married Fatmawaty Assegaf on 2 February 1975 in Surakarta.

Quraish Shihab continued his education at the same faculty in 1969 and earned master's degree in Tafseer of the Qur'an with the thesis entitled Al-I'jaz Tashri'i li Al-Qur-an Al-Karim.

In 1980, Quraish Shihab returned to Cairo and continued his education at his old alma mater.

In 1984 Quraish Shihab was assigned as a lecturer in the Ushuluddin faculty and postgraduate faculty at IAIN Syarif Hidayatullah, Jakarta.

Quraish Shihab was entrusted to positions at various departments: among others; the co-chairman of Indonesian Ulema Council ; member of Lajnah Pentashih Qur'an at the Department of Religious Affairs and member of the Advisory Board of National Education.

Quraish Shihab is heavily involved in several professional organizations; he is a member of the Shari'ah Science Society; member of the Consortium of the Religions at the Ministry of Education and Culture, and is the Assistant Chief of the General Association of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals.

Quraish Shihab was appointed as Indonesian Minister of Religious Affairs in 1998 for about two months, and later appointed as The Indonesian Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to Egypt and accredited to Djibouti in Cairo from 1999 to 2002.

Quraish Shihab has written since he was twenty two years old, with his first book was 60-pages book written in Arabic titled Al- Khawathir published in Egypt.

Quraish Shihab has been mentioned as one of 500 the most influential Muslims in the world in 2012 to 2015 by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, a research entity affiliated with the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought headquartered in Amman, Jordan.

Quraish Shihab received Lifetime Achievement Award in the same year from the Department of Islamic Theology of the Islamic State University of Jakarta on 12 November 2009.