Current projects
Am currently engaged in the following projects:- Editing the Mawlid by Ibn Kathir. This is a small work on the birth of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. It is to be published by Turath Publishing.
- Editing Illuminating the Darkness by Habeeb Akande for Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd. This is a book examining the issue of blacks and Africa in Islam.
- Translating for Turath Publishing al-Balsam al-Marih the commentary by Shaykh at-tahir ibn ‘Ashur on Qasidat al-Burdah of Shaykh al-Busayri.
- Translating Ahkam as-Suq – Rules Governing the Market by Imam Faqih Abu Zakariyya ibn ‘Umar ibn Yusuf al-Kinani al-Andalusi (312/982) for Bahr Press.
Completed
- Editing and typesetting Islam in the School of Madina, Dr Asadullah Yate's translation of Mufeed al-'ibad sawaa'un al-'aakifu feehi wa al-baad, the commentary of Shaykh Ahmad ibn al-Basheer ash-Shinqeeti on al-Murshid al-mu'een of 'Abd al-Waahid ibn 'Ashir.
- Editing also, for the UK Islamic Academy, Hajja Aisha Bewley's translation of the Riyad as-saliheen by Imam an-Nawawi.
- Editing the translation of Mukhtasar al-Quduri by Sidi Tahir Kiani for Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd. PUBLISHED.
Future Projects
- Editing a commentary on the Muwatta’ translated by Aisha Bewley from two sources: Tanwir al-Hawalik by as-Suyuti and al-Musawwa by Shah Wali Allah ad-Dihlawi for Turath Publishing.
- Editing Aisha Bewley's translation of the tafsir of Ibn Juzayy Kitab at-Tashil li ‘Ulum at-Tanzil on the Qur'an also for Turath Publishing.
Unpublished Translations
Please note that these translations are not 'finished' translations as such, and are provided for your interest. Any comments, corrections or suggestions you might have are very welcome:
NEW:
English Dictionary of Qur'anic Arabic
This extract from the work in progress consists of all the entries for the letter Alif. I am following the Penrice Dictionary and Glossary of the Qur'an, revising it against Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon, and other sources. The file here is in a PDF form, and you will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to read it.
From Is'af al-Mubatta fi Rijal al-Muwatta
Jalal ad-Din as-Suyuti
This is Imam as-Suyuti's own introduction to his book on the Rijal or narrators of Imam Malik's Muwatta (the narration of Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi). See also Rijal: the narrators of the Muwatta Imam Muhammad by Ta-Ha Publishing Ltd.
From the Tafsir of Ibn Juzayy Kitab at-tashil li 'ulum at-tanzil
The Sciences of Tafsir
"The Sciences of Tafsir" is translated from Ibn Juzayy al-Kalbi's Kitab at-Tashil li 'Ulum at-Tanzil".
"The author was born in 693 AH. His name was Abu 'Abdullah Muhammad, called al-Qasim, ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Juzayy al-Kalbi, i.e. from the Arab tribe of Kalb, may Allah be pleased with him and make him contented, and make the Garden his shelter. He was al-Gharnati (from Granada in Andalusia, Spain) and thus European. Ibn Juzayy wrote widely on all the sciences of his day: hadith, fiqh, Qur'anic recitations and tafsir. He died fighting as a shaheed in the Battle of Tareef in the year 741 AH."
(from the introduction to "The Sciences of Tafsir")
The book includes his outline of all of the sciences of commentary on the Qur'an, and his commentary on the isti'adhah, the basmalah, the Fatihah, the last ten surahs of Qur'an from Surat al-Fil to the end, and the first ayat of Surat al-Baqarah.
The following file is PDF - Portable Document Format. I have used this format since it allows me to publish a document with a mix of English and Arabic in it. The book was written and the layout done with Nisus Writer on a Macintosh, but PDF is readable on almost any computer.
The Commentary on the Fatihah from the Sciences of Tafsir (84Kb).
The Sciences of Tafsir. This latter contains almost the entire first introduction on the sciences necessary for tafsir, the commentary on the seeking refuge, the basmalah, the last ten surahs, the Fatihah and on the first ayat of Surat al-Baqarah, with a considerable amount of explanatory notes and footnotes. This book is shortly to be issued as an e-book on this site insha'Allah.
The following files require no plugins:
Tawhid - the Unitary Knowledge
Khawf and Raja – Fear and Hope
From "al-Qawanin al-Fiqhiyyah" of Ibn Juzayy
From the Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun
The Fatimi (Mahdi)[80Kb]
This excerpt is an incomplete translation of the section which Ibn Khaldun devotes to the subject of the Mahdi, and comprises in full his study of the ahadith on him.
If we examine first the 'aqidahs which are acknowledged, such as those of at-Tahawi, an-Nasafi, or Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani (in his Risalah and the Kitab al-Jami') we find that none of them mention the Mahdi as a fundamental part of the 'aqidah of Islam, whereas all do indeed mention the return of 'Isa, peace be upon him, and the descent of the Dajjal, except in the Risalah, whose 'aqidah is brief.
When we turn to the works of ahadith, we find that Malik in Muwatta, and al-Bukhari mention nothing of the Mahdi at all, although Muslim does mention a hadith that in later times there will be an unnamed noble and generous khalifah. It is inconceivable for these great Imams to have neglected something which is a fundamental pillar of the 'aqidah.
The significance of this section is not to deny that there may be at some point in the future of Islam a great rightly-guided Khalifah, but that it is not a fundamental part of the 'aqidah and that it is a deviation of Islam to 'wait for the Mahdi' in order to establish Islam, wage jihad or restore the Khalifate.
In the later part of this section Ibn Khaldun devotes some space to Sufi writings on the Mahdi, and on some of the historical personages particularly in North Africa who rose in revolt proclaiming themselves to be Mahdis. Ibn Khaldun writes that if there is to be a Mahdi he will have to appear according to the dynamics of political power outlined in the Muqaddimah, and not as in the apocalyptic fantasies of some sources.
This section is by no means the last word on this matter, and Ibn Khaldun's chapter has met with criticism from other hadith scholars throughout the ages, but that is also of the nature of these sciences, since there are few scholars who have escaped criticism for some position they have taken. Some of the criticisms made of him are utterly baseless, such as that he was not a scholar of hadith. This is blatantly untrue since he was educated thoroughly in hadith and indeed later in Cairo taught both fiqh and hadith, and numbered among his pupils the great Ibn Hajar (not necessarily in the science of hadith) who is unquestionably one of the greatest authorities on the subject.
However, this chapter has particular interest for us because of the huge significance that the prophetic ahadith on the Mahdi are given in the time in which we live, and as a corrective to the transformation of the Mahdi into "al-Mahdi al-Muntadhar" (the Awaited Mahdi) whom one of our acquaintance wittily renamed "al-Mahdi al-Muntadhir" (the Waiting Mahdi).
The Introduction to al-Mawadd al-Ghaythiyyah by Shaykh al-Alawi of Mostaghanem
This is Shaykh al-Alawi's introduction to his commentary on the Hikam of Abu Madyan al-Ghawth, may Allah be pleased with both of them. [50Kb]
The Opening of Shaykh 'Abd al-'Aziz ad-Dabbagh, may Allah be pleased with him, from al-Ibriz - Pure Goldby Sayyidi Ahmad ibn al-Mubarak, a pupil of the Shaykh.
An unusually matter of fact description of the Shaykh's spiritual opening.