Ibn Rajab's Refutation of Those Who Do Not Follow the Four Schools


Book Description

Ibn Rajab's essay Refutation of Those Who Do Not Follow the Four Schools advocates for the necessity of following Islamic scholarship in general, and legal scholarship in particular. A large portion of the essay covers the history of the development of Islamic scholarship and how the Muslim Community came to recognize scholars as the source for authoritative knowledge. Readers of the essay will notice that Ibn Rajab is engaging individuals who saw themselves as equal or superior to prior generations of scholars, free to cast aside scholarship and to reinterpret without any need for requisite skills and knowledge. Although written seven centuries ago, it might as well have written with today's reformers in mind.




Understanding Islam


Book Description

Misconceptions and misunderstandings about Islam and fear of causing offence can be barriers to being an effective teacher in a diverse school. This book aims to give non-Muslim teachers the confidence to engage meaningfully with important facets of Muslim pupils’ lives leading to a richer and more rewarding experience in the classroom. Aspects of Islam explored include: the foundations and obligations of faith, ethical dimensions placed upon Muslims, the importance of education in Muslim communities and contemporary issues faced by communities in the UK. To deepen your understanding, each chapter is enriched by case studies linked to the classroom, expert voices that offer authenticity and reflective tasks that encourage you to consider key concepts in greater depth. This is essential reading for new and experienced teachers in primary and secondary schools wishing to deepen their knowledge of Islam.







Bid'ah (Innovation)


Book Description

Bid'ah (Innovation)1)The Islamic definition of Bid'ah.2)General rules to recognise Bid'ah.3)The dangers of Bid'ahand their evil effects.4)Claimed 'evidences' of the innovators and their refutations.5)Reasons for innovating.6)Ways to eradicate Bid'ah.7)Related Qur'anic verses.8)Related Ahaadeeth.9)Related words of the Salaf.10)Related stories.




Mālik and Medina


Book Description

This book studies the legal reasoning of Mālik ibn Anas (d. 179 H./795 C.E.) in the Muwaṭṭa’ and Mudawwana. Although focusing on Mālik, the book presents a broad comparative study of legal reasoning in the first three centuries of Islam. It reexamines the role of considered opinion (ra’y), dissent, and legal ḥadīths and challenges the paradigm that Muslim jurists ultimately concurred on a “four-source” (Qurʾān, sunna, consensus, and analogy) theory of law. Instead, Mālik and Medina emphasizes that the four Sunnī schools of law (madhāhib) emerged during the formative period as distinctive, consistent, yet largely unspoken legal methodologies and persistently maintained their independence and continuity over the next millennium.




Hanbali Acts of Worship


Book Description

This slim volume presents a practical introduction to acts of worship according to the Hanbali school of Islamic law. The text comes from Shaykh Ibn Balban's Supreme Synopsis (Akhsar al-Mukhtasarat), a favorite introduction covering the full range of topics. The chapters of this volume cover purification, prayer, zakat, fasting, pilgrimage, and jihad. The text includes numerous explanatory notes to equip students for personal practice, and to prepare them for more advanced studies. This edition includes the Arabic text, its translation, and notes drawn from its commentaries-especially Shaykh Abd al-Rahman al-Ba'li's Kashf al-Mukhaddarat. This volume covers the first third of Shaykh Ibn Balban's Supreme Synopsis. Future volumes will cover the rest of the text.




Infamies of the Soul and Their Treatments


Book Description

Infamies of the soul (ʿUyūb al-nafs) is one of Islam’s earliest comprehensive theories for the purification of the soul. In this short guide, the hadith narrator, Shāfiʿī legist, and historian of the early sufis, Imam Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī, presents sixty-nine wicked traits and habits of the soul, including anger, laziness, negligence, self-pity, envy, avarice, lying, and pride. Each infamy is described with its common causes and treatments, usually with relevant Prophetic narrations and statements from early Muslim sages. These infamies incline the soul towards evil and self-reproach. Treating them restores its serenity and certainty. With this translation, English readers can now benefit from the simplicity and practicality of Imam al-Sulamī’s classic self-help manual that Arabic readers have utilized for the past millennium.




Opposing the Imam


Book Description

Islam's fourth caliph, Ali, can be considered one of the most revered figures in Islamic history. His nearly universal portrayal in Muslim literature as a pious authority obscures centuries of contestation and the eventual rehabilitation of his character. In this book, Nebil Husayn examines the enduring legacy of the nawasib, early Muslims who disliked Ali and his descendants. The nawasib participated in politics and scholarly discussions on religion at least until the ninth century. However, their virtual disappearance in Muslim societies has led many to ignore their existence and the subtle ways in which their views subsequently affected Islamic historiography and theology. By surveying medieval Muslim literature across multiple genres and traditions including the Sunni, Mu'tazili, and Ibadi, Husayn reconstructs the claims and arguments of the nawasib and illuminates the methods that Sunni scholars employed to gradually rehabilitate the image of Ali from a villainous character to a righteous one.




The Revival of Islamic Rationalism


Book Description

A rapidly expanding Islamic revival movement shows that Islamic rationalism and not jihadism is to define twenty-first century Islam.




Islamic Thought


Book Description

Islamic Thought is a fresh and contemporary introduction to the philosophies and doctrines of Islam. Abdullah Saeed, a distinguished Muslim scholar, traces the development of religious knowledge in Islam, from the pre-modern to the modern period. The book focuses on Muslim thought, as well as the development, production and transmission of religious knowledge, and the trends, schools and movements that have contributed to the production of this knowledge. Key topics in Islamic culture are explored, including the development of the Islamic intellectual tradition, the two foundation texts, the Qur’an and Hadith, legal thought, theological thought, mystical thought, Islamic Art, philosophical thought, political thought, and renewal, reform and rethinking today. Through this rich and varied discussion, Saeed presents a fascinating depiction of how Islam was lived in the past and how its adherents practise it in the present. Islamic Thought is essential reading for students beginning the study of Islam but will also interest anyone seeking to learn more about one of the world’s great religions.