[3] In his youth, he studied at Midrash Bet Zilkha, the foremost yeshiva of its day, under the tutelage of Elisha Dangour, Av Beit Din of Baghdad.
Hussein founded Midrash Talmud Torah, the community heder (primary school) in Baghdad, which accepted hundreds of children regardless of their parents' ability to pay tuition.
As a result of these events, the Jews began to drift away from their traditional customs, taking on a more modern approach to their daily lives.
Eventually, certain people in the laity began to challenge some of Hussein's education policies, especially in regards to the unpopular meat tax, and his decision to omit most secular studies from the Talmud Torah's curriculum.
By calling for public protests, fasting, and the reading of kinnot (dirges), he eventually succeeded in blocking the reformers' initiatives, refusing to give in to his opponents' disregard for the traditions that had been bequeathed to him by his mentors.
To that end, he planted wheat in the backyard of the synagogue, separating from it the terumah and ma'aser (tithes), and relinquished the pe'ah (field corner for the poor).
[9] An anti-Zionist, Hussein refused to receive any benefit from his status in the community, recusing himself from any formal rabbinic position, although he did serve as dayan in the Sephardi Edah HaHaredith.
[1] Among Hussein's students were Sephardi Chief Rabbis of Israel Yitzhak Nissim and Mordechai Eliyahu;[10] deans of Porat Yosef Yeshiva Yehuda Tzadka and Ben Zion Abba Shaul;[11] and Yaakov Mutzafi,[12] who succeeded him as Av Beit Din and Rabbi of Shemesh Sedaqah Synagogue.