AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Sheikh Seif Abdallah Linganaweka was born in 1939 in the city of Lindy, Tanzania. He went to Dar es Salaam to study seminary sciences for about ten years and after that, he immigrated to Iraq, Lebanon and Iran for about eleven years and returned to Tanzania in 1980.
He was a prominent Tanzanian cleric (who was not Shia from the beginning of his life) and one of the members of the World Assembly of Ahl al-Bayt (AS) who dedicated his blessed life to the publication and promotion of the Ahl al-Bayt (AS) speeches and lifestyle in the East African region and spent his life serving the followers of this enlightened family in the countries of Tanzania and Mozambique.
He was one of the main members of Shia Ithna-Ashari Community known as CIT and was the head of Shia Community in Tanzania until the end of his life.
The first spark of Abdullah Saif's conversion to Shia was created by Sheikh MbogaBure, one of the local Shia clerics, who was one of the first promoters of Shia in Tanzania. In 1964, he introduced Abdullah Saif to Allama Seyed Saeed Akhtar Razavi, and Abdullah Saif studied seminary courses with him for several years.
After returning to Tanzania in 1980, under the leadership of Allameh Sayed Akhtar Razavi, he was engaged in propagating Islam and the doctrine of Ahl al-Bayt (AS) in different parts of Tanzania. He also taught at the Bilal Muslim Center, which was founded by Allameh Seyed Saeed akhtar and other Shia scholars.
In 1990, this religious cleric went to Mozambique on behalf of Seyyed Akhtar Razavi, and established a branch of Bilal Muslim Mission in the city of Nampoul in the north of this country. He is known as the first preacher of Shia Ithna-Ashari in Mozambique.
He spent twelve years of his life in this region, engaged in preaching and teaching religious lessons, according to the Ahl al-Bayt’ way. After the death of Allama Syed Akhtar Razavi in 2002, Abdullah Saif returned to Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania, and continued preaching activities at the Bilal Muslim Mission Institute. He passed away in 2020 at the age of 81 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and was buried in his hometown, Lindi.
For his passing away, various personalities and institutions such as the Federation of Shia Khoja Ithna-Ashari communities of Africa, Bilal Muslim Council of Tanzania and the World Assembly of Ahl al-Bayt (AS) issued a message of condolence:
In a part of the statement of the World Assembly of Ahl al-Bayt (a.s.) it is written about him:
He was always enlightened like a shining sun in the East African region and he was an exponent of the religion of Islam and the knowledge of Ahl al-Bayt (a.s.).
Sheikh Abdallah Seif's biography was written under the name of "Seif Abdallah Sheikh Jasiri LINGANAWEKA"; Brave, by Mustafa Khatibo Nkonga, in Swahili language.
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