Abd al-Halim Abu Shuqqah عبد الحليم أبو شقة

Abd al-Halim Muhammad Abu Shuqqah (28 August 1924 – 18 September 1995 CE) was an Egyptian Islamic writer and thinker, born into a conservative Cairo family in the Gamaliyya quarter. After completing his schooling in Cairo, he entered Fuad I University (today Cairo University) and graduated from the Faculty of Arts, department of history. His early formation was shaped by a neighborhood mosque and its Islamic society, and through Syrian fellow students he came into contact with wider currents of the Islamic revival; he was associated for many years with that broader movement. Across his career he taught in Egypt, Syria, Qatar, and Kuwait, with a particular focus on the study of hadith.

His enduring work is Tahrir al-Marʾa fi ʿAsr al-Risala, the fruit of a roughly twenty-five-year study built on the Qurʾan and the major hadith collections. Spanning six volumes in Arabic, it gathers and analyzes the textual evidence for women's participation in worship, learning, social life, professional work, and public affairs during the Prophet's lifetime, arguing that early Islam granted women a fuller role than later custom often allowed. The work was translated into English in eight volumes as Women's Emancipation during the Prophet's Lifetime, covering the character of the Muslim woman, her attire and adornment, and her social, professional, and political participation. He died in 1995.