Shaykha Munira Qubaysi (also spelled Qubeysi; Arabic: منيرة القبيسي; 1933 – December 25, 2022) was an Islamic scholar.
Qubaysi completed a Bachelor’s degree in biology at the University of Damascus in the 1950s in an era when women in hijab studying at universities was either a rarity or entirely non-existent. She later earned another degree in Islamic studies (shariah) and learned both the outward and inward (Islamic spirituality) sciences of Islam from some of the most renowned scholars of Damascus.[1] She was given the authorization (ijaza) to teach and be a spiritual guide. She established her own independent women's spiritual movement while simultaneously maintaining collaborative connections with the major religious leaders of Syria as a Muslim spiritual leader in her own right. After she died, much of the major male religious figures in Syria and beyond came forward to pay condolences and recognize her work.[2]
She was born in 1938 to an Algerian father, Muhammad ʿAlī Ḥusaynī al-Jazāʾirī, who was a religious scholar and spiritual guide. She earned a PhD in mathematics from the Soviet Union. She came back and taught for a while in Algeria before marrying a Syrian man and settling in Damascus where she was appointed as a professor of mathematics at the University of Damascus.[3][better source needed]
