I said to my Self,
“A Muslim hero’s hand was severed in battle and left dangling by a thin piece of flesh. This hampered him from continuing to fight, so he put the fingers of his dangling hand under his foot and stepped on it, freeing his body from the weight of his severed hand. […]

Shaykh Muhammad Hasan Hitu (Allah preserve him) is a contemporary scholar of legal methodology with a number of published works on the subject. I’m currently working on translating one of his short works. Here’s an excerpt from the beginning of the book that explains how the discipline of usul al-fiqh developed. Enjoy!
The discipline of legal […]

In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate
The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “None of you truly believes until I am more beloved by him than are his parents, his children, and all of mankind.” (Bukhari)
Imam Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani (Allah have mercy on him) explained that a test […]

In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate
The FAQ
In recent times, various Muslim circles have discussed whether we should follow the fiqh of one of the four Imams, such as the fiqh of Imam al-Shafi`i, the fiqh of Imam Abu Hanifa, etc., or whether we should follow the fiqh of the Sunna, or, better […]

In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate
This morning, in preparation for the Hadith or Fiqh course that begins this weekend, I was flipping through Shaykh Muhammad `Awwamah’s (Allah preserve him) priceless book, Athar al-Hadith al-Sharif Fi Ikhtilaf al-A’imma al-Fuqaha, and came across the following quote,
Ibn Wahb said, “Had Allah not rescued me through […]

In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate
My last post generated some interesting discussion on the meaning of the wise man’s words. A number of visitors did an excellent job explaining what the wise man was trying to say. I thought I’d wrap up the comments with a comment of my […]

It was mentioned to a certain wise man that so-and-so had gathered [a great deal of] wealth. He asked, “Did he also gather periods of time in which to spend it in?” When he received the response, “No,” he said, “He hasn’t gathered anything.” (Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, Dhamm al-Jah wal-Mal, Dar Ibn al-Jawzi, 1995)

In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate
Imam Ghazali’s diagnosis of the problem of heedlessness during prayer has an interesting consequence: anything that distracts us from Allah Most High during our prayer is, in reality, dunya, even if it outwardly appears to be religious. This is a powerful tool that we can use to […]

In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate
Last week, in my Essentials of Islam class, we covered the inner dimensions of prayer from Muhtar Holland’s excellent book, The Inner Dimensions of Islamic Worship. I prepared for my weekly live session with the students by reading what Imam Ghazali had to say about presence of […]

In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate
I recently finished reading Hadith Literature: Its Origin, Development and Special Features, by Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi, the Late Professor of Islamic Culture at Calcutta University (may Allah have mercy on him). I loved this book so much that my wife got bored of hearing me sing its […]