Abdullah Yusuf Azzam was born in a village in the North of
Palestine named Selat Al Harithia in Genine District in the year 1941. His
father's name was Mustafa Azzam who died a year after his son was
assassinated. His mother was Zakia Saleh who died one year before the
Sheikh was killed. She was buried in Pabi camp.
The Azzam family is a well-known family, one of its members being
Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, distinguished as child, who started making Da'wah
at an early age. He was already showing signs of excellence and was
recognized by his teachers while he was in elementary school. His peers
knew him as a pious child. Since he was a small boy he was known for his
determination and serious dispositions. Before he had even come of age, he
joined the Muslim Brotherhood.
Sheikh Abdullah Azzam received his early elementary and secondary
school education in his village, and continued his education at the
agricultural Khadorri College where he obtained a Diploma. Although he was
the youngest of his colleagues, he was the brightest and most astute.
After he graduated from Khodori College, he worked as a teacher in a
village named Adder in the South of Jordan. Later he joined Shariah
College in Damascus University where he obtained a B.A. Degree in Shariah
in 1966. After the Jews captured the West Bank in 1967, Sheikh Abdullah
Azzam decided to migrate to Jordan, because he could not live under the
Jewish occupation of Palestine. The sacrilege of the Israeli tanks rolling
in the West Bank without any resistance made him more determined to
migrate to learn the skills necessary to fight.
In the late 1960's he joined the Jihad against the Israeli occupation
of Palestine from Jordan. During that time he received a Masters degree in
Shariah from the University of Al Azhar. In 1970 and after the jihad came
to a halt, when the PLO was forced out of Jordan, he assumed a teaching
position in the Jordanian University in.Amman. In 1971 he was awarded a
scholarship to Al Azhar University in Cairo from which he obtained a Ph.D.
Degree in Ussul al Fiqh in 1973. During his stay in Egypt he came to know
the family of Saeed Qutb.
In 1979, when he was expelled from the university, he moved to Pakistan
to be close to the Afghan Jihad. There, he became aquatinted with the
leaders of the Jihad in Afghanistan. During the early period of his stay
in Pakistan, he was appointed as a teacher in the International Islamic
University in Islamabad. Eventually, it was necessary for him to resign
his position in order to devote his full time and energy to the Jihad in
Afghanistan.
Abdullah Azzam was greatly influenced by the Jihad in Afghanistan and
the Jihad was greatly influenced by him. To it he concentrated his full
effort, that he ultimately became the most prominent figure in the Afghani
Jihad aside from the Afghan leaders. He spared no effort to promote the
Afghan cause to the whole world, especially throughout the Muslim Ummah...
He changed the minds of Muslims about Jihad in Afghanistan and presented
the Jihad as an Islamic cause which concerns all Muslims around the world.
Due to his efforts, the Afghani Jihad became universal, in which Muslims
from every part of the world came to fight.
Jihad in Afghanistan had made Abdullah Azzam the main pillar of the
Jihad movement in modern times. By taking part in this Jihad, by promoting
it and banishing the misconceptions which had been planted in the path of
Jihad. He became an example to follow for the next generation that
responded to the call of Jihad.
Once he said, "I feel that I am nine years old, seven and a half years
in the Afghan Jihad, one and a half years in Jihad in Palestine and the
rest of the years have no value." On Friday the 24th of November 1989 in
Peshawar, Pakistan he was assassinated along with his two sons Mohammed
and Ibrahim, by 20kg of TNT activated by remote control while he was
driving to Friday prayer. His car was blown to fragments in the middle of
a busy street. Pieces his sons were discovered up to a hundred meters
away. One of his son's legs was suspended to an overhanging telephone
line. Nevertheless, Allah be glorified, the Sheikh was found intact,
except for an internal hemorrhage, that caused of his death. Many can
attest to the musk that emanated from his body. His son had asked that he
be taken Shaheed along with his father. Sheikh Abdullah Azzam was buried
in Pabi Graveyard of the Shuhada where he joined thousands of Shuhada
(martyrs).
