Professor Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al‑Faisal — may God grant him success — wrote in Al‑Jazirah newspaper on 10‑10‑1435 AH an article titled “King Saud and the Mishrāq (the Dawn)”, reminding readers of some of the blessings God bestowed upon King Saud, and of the many favors King Saud bestowed upon this blessed land and state. Among them:
- His exceptional generosity, rare in its kind.
- His role as the right hand of his great father, may God have mercy on him, in his struggle to make the word of God supreme and to unify this blessed Kingdom upon monotheism and the Sunnah.
- His role as his father’s right hand in transforming the people of the Kingdom from ignorance to knowledge, from poverty to prosperity, and from fear to security — a divine reward for demolishing the idols of shrines and tombs, removing forbidden innovations and Sufi lodges, and commanding pure monotheism, adherence to the Sunnah, and the rejection of shirk and all forms of religious innovation.
- He risked his own life for his father, receiving the treacherous stabs of Yemeni daggers in his stead.
- His construction of the modern Saudi state after assuming the throne — with its systems, institutions, structures, and enduring foundations that remain to this day, a testament to his distinguished legacy.
Dr. Mohammed — a faculty member at Imam University, whose earliest foundations were laid by King Saud when he established the College of Sharia and the Arabic Language in 1373 AH after assuming the throne, and who had earlier founded its scientific institutes in 1371 AH while overseeing the state’s administrative affairs five years before his father’s death (see Sawanih al‑Dhikrayat by Hamad Al‑Jasir, may God have mercy on him) — chose the word “al‑Mishrāq” (the Dawn) most appropriately. For the history of King Saud, may God have mercy on him, does not suit the word “sunset” (the end of the day), but rather “sunrise” (its beginning). Many of King Saud’s achievements were the first to receive the touch of the rising sun: King Saud Medical City (Al‑Shumaisi), the ministry buildings on the old airport road, the first expansion of the Two Holy Mosques, the first road linking the Eastern Province to Makkah — and the list hardly ends. God placed abundant blessing in these works, in number, benefit, and endurance, all accomplished in a short period when oil production did not exceed one million barrels and the price of a barrel did not exceed two dollars.
Yet Dr. Mohammed overlooked the most important achievements of King Saud, may God have mercy on him:
- The Islamic University in Madinah, founded by King Saud in 1380 AH, to which he donated 28 houses from his own palace to hasten its operation. This was one of his unique virtues. He had also donated three of his houses in blessed Makkah for education — I myself studied in the first College of Sharia in Makkah in one of those houses between 1374 and 1376 AH — and he donated seven of his houses in Jeddah for education, which became known as “King Saud Scientific City.”
- His support and funding of the effort by Sheikh Abdulrahman ibn Qasim and his son to compile the fatwas of Ibn Taymiyyah, may God have mercy on them. King Saud printed them for the first time, and they were our graduation gift in 1376 AH.
- His humility, not only toward his parents but toward the scholars of the Ummah. I have never known a ruler more respectful and submissive before scholars. Remember how three Abbasid rulers — may God forgive them — including Al‑Mu‘tasim (of the “Wa Mu‘tasimāh!” legend), whom the ignorant turned into a hero, imprisoned, tortured, and flogged scholars for over a decade, including Imam Ahmad, may God have mercy on him, to force them into the misguided doctrine of the Mu‘tazilah.
King Saud, may God have mercy on him, also humbled himself before the common people:
He once visited Shaqra’. A local carpenter came to him carrying his paralyzed son, seeking help. The king ordered that the boy be brought to Riyadh. The man arrived after the evening prayer at Al‑Nasiriyyah Palace and was taken directly to the king’s private quarters. The king, preparing for sleep, came out in his pajamas and wearing glasses. The child thought he was a doctor, but his father reassured him: “This is your uncle, King Saud — not a doctor.” The king took 5,000 riyals from his own pocket — equivalent today to between 50,000 and 100,000 riyals — may God have mercy on him and forgive him.
- Education was King Saud’s greatest concern. He constantly urged Hamad Al‑Jasir (Director of Education) to open schools, especially in Najd, where they were scarce. We had to study intermediate and secondary school in Taif, as Riyadh — let alone the villages — had neither intermediate nor secondary schools.
When Al‑Jasir repeatedly apologized for the lack of teachers, the king said:
“Open a school in every village: its principal and teacher shall be the imam of the mosque, and its servant and supervisor shall be the muezzin. Then we will be patient until they grow, God willing, with time.”
May God reward King Saud, may He have mercy on him, with a palace in the highest Paradise. And may He reward Dr. Mohammed Al‑Faisal for reminding the Ummah of some of the king’s virtues and distinctions.
May God also reward the renewers from the House of Saud and the House of Al‑Sheikh with the best reward He grants to those who revive His religion and call to it upon the Prophetic path — after a thousand years of neglect among Muslim states following the blessed early generations.
And I consider King Saud, may God have mercy on him, the seventh renewer in this great and blessed state — for printing religious references for the first time in history, for establishing institutes, schools, and colleges, and for elevating the status of scholars. God is the granter of success.
S‘ad ibn Abdulrahman Al‑Husayn — Makkah Al‑Mukarramah