Mohamed Sanusi Tejan
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (May 2018) |
Mohamed Sanusi Tejan | |
|---|---|
| Personal | |
| Born | January 19, 1950 |
| Died | August 17, 2016 Freetown, Sierra Leone |
| Nationality | Sierra Leonean |
| Denomination | Sunni |
| Jurisprudence | Maliki |
| Main interest(s) | Quran, Hadith, Islamic Theology, Islamic Jurisprudence |
| Occupation | |
| Senior posting | |
| Disciple of | Sheikh Sulaiman Alpha Carew |
Sheikh Mohamed Sanusi Tejam (January 19, 1950 – August 17, 2016) was a revered Sierra Leonean Sunni Muslim preacher, Islamic scholar, Islamic theologist, architect, and the former Chief Imam of the Jamiatul Atiq Masjid, also informally known as the Fourah Bay Mosque.
Sheikh Sanusi Tejan was one of the most highly influential and one of the most highly knowledgeable Muslim Scholars in Sierra Leone. He was highly knowledgeable of the Quran, the Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad, Islamic Jurisprudence, and Islamic Theology. He traveled extensively across Sierra Leone preaching about the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad.
Sheikh Sanusi Tejan was the Chief Imam of the Fourah Bay Mosque from 2006 until his death on August 17, 2016.[1] Sheikh Sanusi Tejan was the Muezzin of the Fourah Bay Mosque from 1989 until 2006, when he became the Chief imam, after the death of the previous Chief Imam Sheikh Alhaji Nazim Sahid. He gave Islamic lectures as special guess in mosque and many Muslim occasions across Sierra Leone. He was often on Radio and television preaching the teachings of Islam.
He was also a trained architect and he was a long term employee of the Sierra Leone Ministry of Works and Housings in the 1970s and 1980s during Siaka Stevens and Joseph Saidu Momoh presidencies. He also worked for the Sierra Leone Airport Authority in 1988 as a civil engineer. However, he later resigned so to concentrate entirely on preaching and spreading the teachings of Islam.
He was the most senior teacher at the prestigious Madrasatul Harounia, informally known as the Fourah Bay Madrassa Islamic school, a school he himself attended as a child under the teachings and guidians of the highly influential late Salafi Sheikh Alpha Sulaiman Carew. As one of the students of Sheikh Alpha Sulaiman Carew at the Fourah Bay Madrassa school, Sheikh Sanusi Tejan began studying the Quran at the Age of two, and he memorized the entire Quran at the age of twelve.[2] Sheikh Sanusi Tejan was also known for his high level of religious tolerance to Christians. He was also known for being generous to the poor, regardless of their religious beliefs.
Sheikh Sanusi Tejan was born and raised in a deeply conservative religious Muslim family from the Oku community in Fourah Bay, a conservative Muslim neighborhood in Freetown, Sierra Leone. His father Alpha Abdul Karim Tejan was a Muslim Scholar himself. Sheikh Sanusi Tejan had two wives, Isatu and Isha and was the father of six children.
For secular education, Sheikh Sanusi Tejan attended the Tower Hill Municipal Primary school in Freetown and the Methodist Boys High School also in Freetown.
When Sanusi Tejan died on August 17, 2016, his funeral service was attended by many of Sierra Leone"s Muslim religious clerics, politicians,including SLPP opposition leader now Sierra Leone "s president Julius Maada Bio, civil servants, and some notable Christian religious leaders also attended his funeral; as well as the general public, both Muslims and Christians attended his funeral. The Islamic Janazah prayer was held at the Fourah Bay Mosque in Freetown.