Bookwright – Page 8 – In the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful and may Allah bless His slave and messenger Muhammad and his family and companions and grant perfect peace.

The Priceless Value of Youth

If one, even if only for a moment, refuses to see the patternings that media and its pundits tell us are there, one begins to see others, and when one sees them, one can never again not see them.

It was while watching demonstrations – three in all – outside Downing Street, that it hit me. The young fiercely bearded Islamists, calling for shari’ah law – for heaven’s sake! – calling for shari’ah law outside Downing Street. The image was clear: mostly dark complexioned, with wonderful black beards, very full. The eyes and faces passionate, lit with, with more than excitement.

Continue reading “The Priceless Value of Youth”

New Tales for Old

Introduction

Horace thought an author should leave a poem for nine years before publishing it. Most of this book was written more than twenty years ago and only now sees the light of day.

Continue reading “New Tales for Old”

Jesus, a Muslim’s Perspective

A presentation at “Jesus, the Muslim and Christian Perspective” in Preston on 21st April 2015

Modernity

Early Modernity (1453–1789) arguably begins with the fall of Constantinople to the Osmanli Turks, but that would mislead us into thinking of that as its cause. Much more germane to our topic would be the life of Cosimo di Giovanni de’ Medici (27 September 1389 – 1 August 1464) and his heirs. Cosimo was a Christian but one with a guilt that plagued him. Heir to his father’s bank, he nevertheless was troubled by the knowledge that he was guilty of the mortal sin of usury. When this was confirmed by a cardinal who told him the only expiation would be to give the proceeds away, Cosimo decided to give ‘some’ of the proceeds away and to such illustrious figures as Michaelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci and more, thus launching the Renaissance. Among his achievements were to have Greek philosophical works, brought by Christians fleeing Constantinople, translated and studied, thus laying the bases for scientific and secular humanism. Continue reading “Jesus, a Muslim’s Perspective”

The Sciences of Tafsir

From the Tafsir of Ibn Juzayy Kitab at-tashil li ‘ulum at-tanzil

“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 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:

Taqwa – Fear of Allah

Dhikr – Remembrance of Allah

Tawhid – the Unitary Knowledge

Hamd – Praise

Sabr – Patience

Tawbah – Turning to Allah

Khawf and Raja – Fear and Hope

Ma?abbah – Love of Allah

From “al-Qawanin al-Fiqhiyyah” of Ibn Juzayy

The Imamate – the Khalifate

Awqaf or Hubus – Endowments

Heisenberg’s Quantum Leap

This article was written for and published by Globalia Magazine. It appeared in issue No.10 of July 2011.

Werner Heisenberg giving the lecture on Natural Law and the Structure of Matter delivered on the hill of pynx, on the 3rd of june 1964
Heisenberg’s most penetrating insight is still largely unknown

When we turn to Werner Heisenberg (December 1901 – 1 February 1976) we quickly realise that we have to consider, as it were, three different men: the mathematical physicist, the essayist and the man. The first who springs to mind is the brilliant theoretical physicist and mathematician who was at the forefront of the extraordinary revolution in human thinking known as quantum mechanics, and who, with great intellectual honesty, along with Nils Bohr, Wolfgang Pauli and a considerable number of others, held fast during the intellectual turmoil unleashed until they were able to formulate new insights with clarity. That alone will be enough for him to be remembered by history as one of the major thinkers of all time. Contrary to biographies of Einstein, which concentrate on his personal genius and scientific achievements, the key to understanding Heisenberg is the great brotherhood of science that transcended borders and ideologies before the Second World War, and which was arguably shattered beyond repair by those events. Continue reading “Heisenberg’s Quantum Leap”

The Virtues of Imam Abu Hanifa

Al-Imam al-A‘zam Abu Hanifa was the founder of the madhhab that bears his name, which was given its fullest expression by his ‘Two Companions’, Imam Abu Yusuf and Imam Muhammad ibn al-Hasan. It is the largest of the four madhhabs and is most extensive in the East, but with a sizeable presence in Europe and the West with the presence of immigrant Turkish and Pakistani Muslim communities.

Imam al-Dhahabi was born in Damascus in 673 AH. Over 1,200 scholars transmitted hadiths from him via direct transmission and ijaza. His authored works amount to almost one hundred books. He was a man of noted intelligence and a renowned hafiz. He continued to write until he lost his sight in the year 743, and died on the eve of Monday the 3rd of Dhul-Qa‘da, 748 in Damascus.

Shaykh Abu al-Wafa’ al-Afghani (1310-1395AH) was a prominent Hanafi Shaykh who studied with some of the foremost scholars of his time.

Shaykh Muhammad Zahid ibn Hasan al-Kawthari al- Hanafi al-Ash‘ari (1296-1371AH) was the adjunct to the last Shaykh al-Islam of the Ottoman Caliphate and a major Hanafi jurist praised by Imam Muhammad Abu Zahra as a Reviver (mujaddid) of the fourteenth Islamic century.

Published by Vision of Reality

The Sublime Truths of the Shadhili Path – Jalal ad-Din as-Suyuti

Shaykh Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili took the Path from Shaykh ‘Abd al-Salam ibn Mashish, who took it from Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Madani, and so on back one by one to al-Hasan ibn ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first qutb. The reason why the shaykhs of the Path of Sufi initiation have to be listed in this way is because it is a matter of transmission, and transmission requires a chain.

Shaykh Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili would be visited by scholars, such as Sultan al-‘Ulama Shaykh ‘Izz al-Din ibn ‘Abd al-Salam and Shaykh Taqi al-Din ibn Daqiq al-‘Id.

Abu’l-Fadl ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr ibn Muhammad Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (born on the 1st of Rajab 849AH/1445, died in 911AH/1505) was a Shafi‘i mujtahid Imam, Sufi, hadith master (hafidh) and historian, and a prolific writer who authored works in virtually every Islamic science.

Abdullah ibn Muaammad ibn al-Siddiq ibn Ahmad al-Ghumari was born in Tangiers in 1328/1910, a descendent of the Prophet a through Imam al-Hasan on his father’s side and through the Moroccan Sufi Ibn ‘Ajiba on his mother’s side. He came from a scholarly family with a large number of notable ‘ulama’. He was considered one of the foremost experts in hadith in recent times. He studied under traditional scholars in Morocco and in al-Azhar. He authored some 150 works and was recognised as an authority by his contemporaries. He died in 1413/1993.

Published by Visions of Reality