Ali Al-Sada

Ali Hussain Al-Sada is a Qatari businessman who founded a number of holding and investment companies in Qatar and neighbouring Arab countries. They include BH Mubasher Al Safwa, Ali bin Hussain Al-Sada Investment Group, Al-Sada Trading and Contracting Establishment, Al-Ruwais Real Estate and Investments and the Qatari-Syrian Investment Company.

He was born on 22 January 1962 and grew up in Al Ruwais in a traditional Qatari family that preserved its customs. Close relationships within the extended family and solidarity among neighbours, particularly on religious and social occasions, gave him a simple and happy childhood. During Ramadan, people gathered in the majlis at the Maghrib call to prayer to share iftar, a custom that continues in Al Ruwais. He enjoyed joining older people in the majlis, which he regarded as a comprehensive school. There he met figures who held important positions in Qatar and heard his uncles and other elders recount stories of inspiring people. These gatherings helped build his broad knowledge across many fields. His father, Ahmed Hussain Al-Sada, was affectionate and supportive not only towards his own family but towards the wider Al Ruwais community. He became an enduring role model, while other elders also passed on valuable principles and life experience.

He completed primary and preparatory education in Al Ruwais, then moved to Doha to attend Khalifa Secondary School because the science track he hoped to pursue was not available in his hometown.

After completing secondary school with distinction, he enrolled at Qatar University. Engineering was initially proposed, but it did not appeal to him, and he entered the College of Science instead. After one year, he realised that it was not the right path. He wanted a specialisation that would benefit both his professional life and his spiritual future, and ultimately chose the College of Sharia. The dean at first refused the transfer because the university encouraged high-achieving students to remain in scientific disciplines. He therefore spent three years completing the necessary requirements before receiving the Undersecretary’s approval to enter Sharia.

While still at secondary school, he launched his first investment: a first-class barbershop. Its income paid his personal expenses and the cost of private lessons with leading teachers in Qatar in mathematics, physics and chemistry, subjects in which he consequently became highly proficient.

Known as Abu Badr, he entered commerce on a larger and more formal scale, dividing his activity between real estate and shares. He bought his first plot of land in Al Ruwais from his late uncle for 20,000 riyals and sold it one month later for 210,000. He also entered share trading before the formal establishment of the stock exchange, when only a handful of people worked in the field. Trading required travel to complete transactions in person and involved difficult, complex procedures. When the exchange later opened, activity was initially modest and Qatar remained strongly influenced by foreign markets, before the Qatar Stock Exchange assumed a leading position among Gulf exchanges.

He first concentrated on property in Al Ruwais because of his attachment to the area. He also preferred to work with people around him, including cousins and other relatives, so that they could benefit. Service to and development of the community remained central to his outlook, while an ability to anticipate opportunities enabled him to recognise possibilities others had not seen.

Work in investment and shares exposed him to repeated challenges and substantial losses. They did not, however, materially diminish his career or standing in finance and business, because he accepted loss, like profit, as an inherent part of investment.

His children were strongly influenced by his example and followed his path. Without being asked, they attended his majlis and accompanied him, helping keep both his gathering and those of Al Ruwais active. The town remains one of the areas in which majlis traditions are most carefully preserved.

Al-Sada held positions in major Qatari and Arab companies and founded his own group. He was a director and founding partner of Al Ruwais Investment and Development Company in Syria; founder of the Qatari-Syrian Investment and Development Company; a former board member of Qatar Navigation; a board member of Aamal Holding and Suhail Marine Services; and Vice-Chairman of Al-Amal Financial Investments in Jordan. He also chaired the Syrian-Qatari Company and he Al-Sada Investment Group, served on the board of the Maritime Transport Company and, according to the source edition, had been a member of Qatar National Bank and Al Dlala Holding for twenty years.

From the beginning of his career, Al-Sada placed social and humanitarian responsibility alongside investment. In Qatar, his charitable work included establishing a Qur’an-memorisation centre bearing his name in Al Ruwais and providing a building there for Qatar Charity. Abroad, he built mosques in Arab countries and other Muslim communities. They included a mosque bearing his name in Kerala, India, with space for approximately 17,000 worshippers; a mosque in Sudan; and the reconstruction of Al-Taqwa Mosque in Gaza after its destruction by the Israeli occupation. He also organised and covered the marriage costs of 120 young men and women in Gaza and supported many orphaned children there and in other countries.

Alongside his charitable and community interests, he contributed to culture and knowledge by establishing he Al-Sada Endowment Library for readers and researchers, fulfilling an ambition he had held since 2011. Its collection covers jurisprudence, Qur’anic interpretation, language, literature, economics and many other branches of knowledge, and contains more than 20,000 books.