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 […]

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf: Creed Of Imam Al Tahawi
This is an excellent interview with Shaykh Hamza Yusuf his recent book, a translation of the Creed of Imam al-Tahawi:
Part 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=lJlZeb_td…elated&search=
Part 2: http://youtube.com/watch?v=6SE4_f7Fy…elated&search=
Part 3: http://youtube.com/watch?v=h8xm9ndF_…elated&search=
Part 4: http://youtube.com/watch?v=bWnV0XVoM…elated&search=
Part 5: http://youtube.com/watch?v=gBQhrxYeN…elated&search=
Part 6: http://youtube.com/watch?v=y3kyRCwYy…elated&search=

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And Allah alone gives success.
Faraz Rabbani

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)

The Need For Wisdom and Knowledge - Fath al-Mawsuli and Imam Ghazali
Fath al-Mawsuli (Allah have mercy on him) said:
Doesn’t a sick person who is deprived of food and drink die?… It is the same with the heart: if it is kept from wisdom and knowledge for three days, it dies….”
Imam Ghazali (Allah have mercy on […]

Last night, after Isha, a respected local scholar (Mufti Abdul Mannan) came over for a visit. We talked about different knowledge matters, and then the conversation drifted towards Ibn Abidin, a 19th Century scholar whose work Radd al-Muhtar is the main reference for fatwa and legal details in the Hanafi school.
Mufti Abdul Mannan made a […]

Forty Hadith Qudsi (from SunniPath Library - Hadith)
Forty Hadith QudsiTranslated by Ezzeddin Ibrahim & Denys Johnson-Davies
Among the many definitions given by the early scholars to Sacred Hadith is that of as-Sayyid ash-Sharif al-Jurjani (died in 816 A.H.) in his lexicon At-Tarifat where he says: “A Sacred Hadith is, as to the meaning, from Allah the […]

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 […]

Excellence in Friendship - What
are some keys to being a good friend?

Imam Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami (Allah have mercy on him),
one of the great sufi masters, wrote in his work The Proper Manners of
Companionship (Adab al-Suhba) that,

Proper companionship with one’s friends is through:
[1] Remaining constantly cheerful
[2] Doing the good
[3] Spreading mention of their virtues
[4] Concealing […]