Pope Francis met Ahmad Al-Tayyeb in Abu Dhabi on February 4, 2019, and the two signed The Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together. The encounter was carefully planned and linked to St. Francis, turning Abu Dhabi into more than a ceremonial stop.
On stage, Pope Francis and the grand imam embraced after declaring that God has created all human beings equal in rights, duties, and dignity, and has called them to live together as brothers and sisters. That line became central to the document and later reappeared in Pope Francis’s own account of the meeting.
Ahmad Al-Tayyeb and Al-Azhar
Ahmad Al-Tayyeb is the Egyptian grand imam of Al-Azhar, an institution described as the most important Sunni Muslim religious institution in Egypt and, arguably, the world. The Abu Dhabi meeting brought that standing into direct contact with the Vatican, and the text they signed set out a shared declaration rather than a theological debate.
Pope Francis later wrote in Fratelli Tutti, "I have felt particularly encouraged by the Grand Imam Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, with whom I met in Abu Dhabi, where we declared that “God has created all human beings equal in rights, duties, and dignity, and has called them to live together as brothers and sisters.”" He also described the meeting as "an episode in the life of St. Francis that shows his openness of heart, which knew no bounds and transcended differences of origin, nationality, color, or religion."
St. Francis, Malik al-Kamil
The connection to St. Francis was not an afterthought. The year 2019 marked the 800th anniversary of the meeting of St. Francis and Malik al-Kamil, and the Abu Dhabi encounter was presented as a modern parallel to that story of dialogue across religious difference. Pope Francis also chose the name Francis as the first pope to do so, and he titled two encyclicals Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti after Italian sayings of St. Francis.
The source says the Abu Dhabi meeting was the basis and inspiration for Fratelli Tutti, and Pope Francis signed that encyclical on October 3, the vigil of the Feast of St. Francis, in Assisi. A reader tracing the sequence sees a deliberate line: the 2019 meeting, the document it produced, and the later text that pulled that encounter into the center of Pope Francis’s teaching.
Fratelli Tutti in Assisi
The remaining question is not whether the meeting happened. It did, and the document exists. What remains open is how far the popular St. Francis and Malik al-Kamil story matches the historical events it invokes, because the source presents the Abu Dhabi moment as symbolic while also asking whether those images correspond with reality.
British Airways removes Abu Dhabi from 2027 plans, Ufc 333 in Abu Dhabi, and Abu Dhabi villa property news are separate stories, but this one stands on its own: Abu Dhabi became the place where a papal meeting, a signed declaration, and a later encyclical were tied to a much older religious narrative.
