He is Habib Kathim bin Ja’far bin Muhammad al-Saqqaf. His lineage is traced back through the great Imams, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Saqqaf and al-Faqih al-Muqaddam Muhammad bin ‘Ali to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
He was born in Tarim, in Yemen’s Hadramawt Valley in 1967. Tarim, a land rich in preserved knowledge, culture and its blessed descendants. He memorised the Qur’an under the tutelage of Habib Sa’d bin ‘Alawi al-‘Aydarus at the revered school of Imam Muhammad Abu Murayyam. He also studied at the prestigious Ribat of Tarim and took knowledge from the main scholars of the city.
Habib Kathim then left Tarim to study under Habib Muhammad bin Abdullah al-Haddar at his Ribat in al-Bayda’ in Northern Yemen. He also studied under Habib Zayn bin Ibrahim bin Sumayt in the same Ribat and Habib Ibrahim bin `Aqil bin Yahya in Ta`izz.
He later returned to Hadramawt to assist Habib Umar bin Hafidh in his efforts calling people to Allah, and reviving Islam in a region that had suffered greatly under the oppression of the socialist regime in Southern Yemen. He served as the director of two well renowned seminaries – the Ribat of al-Shihr for a period of six years, thereafter as the director of the Ribat of al-Mukalla’ for a further two years.
An esteemed scholar in the Islamic world, Habib Kathim is considered an expert in all areas of the sacred sciences including but not limited to; Jurisprudence (Fiqh), the Prophetic Biography (Sirah), Theology (`Aqidah), Principles of Jurisprudence (Usul al Fiqh) and in particular, Hadith, Hadith nomenclature and its respective sciences.
Habib Kathim has continued to visit countries all over the world. With great concern for the Ummah, calling humanity to Allah, and the way of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, he embodies this inheritance in both lineage and sacred chains of transmission in knowledge, with the embellishment of Prophetic character.