Habib Muhammad Abd al-Rahman al-Saqqaf is a Ba Alawi teacher born in Seiyun, Hadramawt, in 1392 AH, corresponding to 1972. Muwasala identifies him as a descendant of a line of Alawi imams that includes Imam Taha bin Umar al-Safi, an early Alawi sayyid associated with Seiyun, and Shaykh Abd al-Rahman al-Saqqaf.
When he was about three years old, his family moved from Hadramawt to Jeddah during the period of socialist rule in South Yemen. His father, Sayyid Abd al-Rahman, was a physician who regularly attended scholarly gatherings, giving his son early access to the religious circles of the Hijaz.
Among Habib Muhammad’s teachers were Sayyid Muhammad bin Alawi al-Maliki, Habib Ahmad Mashhur al-Haddad and Habib Abd al-Qadir al-Saqqaf. He later studied under the direction of Habib Abu Bakr al-Mashhur and Habib Umar bin Hafiz.
His teaching and outreach have taken him to East and Southern Africa, the Arab world, Southeast Asia and Britain. Muwasala particularly notes his ability to communicate Islamic teaching to younger audiences and to connect different generations of students. He has also participated in educational and community projects and authored several short works. The source names Felicitous Ascensions among his best known writings.
Sources
Muwasala, source biography: https://muwasala.org/2021/01/18/habib-muhammad-abd-al-rahman-al-saqqaf/