His Eminence, Sheikh Ahmad Muhammad Amin Kuftaro, the Grand Mufti of Syria, Head of the Supreme Council of Fatwa, was born in Damascus in 1915, son of Muhammad Amin Kuftaro (1875-1938), a great Muslim scholar of his day. Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro studied privately with the most renowned Jurists and scholars in Damascus, and holds several honorary doctorates in the principles and teachings of Islam, granted to His Eminence by universities throughout the Islamic world. Since 1938, at the death of his father, he had been, teaching in AbuNour mosque, preaching and calling for the pursuit of the universal knowledge, freedom of religion, moral rearmament among Muslims all over the world, interfaith cooperation, and, more recently, for protection of the global environment and for American moral leadership in the world.

In 1946, at the age of 31, he was a founding member of the League of Muslim Scholars, and in 1951 was appointed Mufti of Damascus.

In 1958, he was appointed First Mufti of Damascus and a member of the Supreme Council of Fatwa. In 1964, he was elected Grand mufti of Syria and Head of the Supreme Council of Fatwa as well as of the Supreme Council of Waqf (religious endowments).

In 1968 he was awarded the Sitaret Gold Medal of justice by the Pakistani president Ayyoub Khan.

In 1968, he was awarded his first honorary Ph.D. in the Science of Islamic Da'wah by the Indonesian University of Jakarta.