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The meaning of ‘inshallah’, ‘mashallah’ and ‘bidhnillah’
Translated by Dr Imran NavedThey asked: What is the meaning of ‘inshallah’?I replied: Is there any Muslim who is unaware of the meaning of this word which is so frequently used in our lives?They said: Its usage is so varied among people that its meaning...
The Classical persistent western attitude to the natural world
1- The natural world is world as given. This world includes the human being before it is influenced by other human beings. In other words, the natural world includes the human being as an animal, not as an human. 2- This distinction between animal and human echoes...
The Qur’an should not be valued as merely a sacred object
1. The Qur’an as Self-Consistent and Coherent Guidance (1) Allah says in the Qur’an about the Qur’an, that it is a self-consistent, coherent message from the Creator to the most favoured among His creatures. He also says of it that it is the final revelation of His...
Muqaddimah of ibn al-Salah
Kitab Ma’rifat anwa’ Ilm al-Hadith, better known as the Muqaddimah of Ibn al-Salah, is a well-known intermediate level text on the science of Usul al-hadith. For students familiar with the Arabic language and have covered beginners texts in hadith methodology, this...
Modern science seeks power, not wisdom
Narrow Focus on Causes and Effects Modern science is dedicated to explaining events and processes in the natural world, most of the time by means of some degree of mastery of the chain of the causes and effects that lead to specific events and processes. The problem...
Balancing General Principles and Specific Rulings in Islamic Law
Over-Defining a Concept Through Inference Many scholars infer from instances of Qur’anic or Prophetic ruling what they think is the common or universal principle which governs these rulings. For example, the notion that ‘the state of woman is covering’ is derived from...
Reflections on How Muslims Disagree, Dispute, and Divide
Having a debate with someone you disagree with and having a conversation with them are not the same thing. People perhaps think that a debate is just the same as a conversation with the addition of a few rules and procedures. For example, whereas
Questions about the Dictionary of women scholars
The two questions put to me since the publication of the full Dictionary are:1- Among the entries in the book, how many women are narrators of hadith and how many are scholars of hadith, muhaddithat? Why are they not distinguished?2- What is the total number of women narrators and scholars of hadith?
Three questions related to the on-going pandemic
Being vaccinated while fasting. Women attending funeral prayers. Women visiting graves. The three questions I have just responded to do have something in common. Behind each of them is a worry that, because someone somewhere at some time may abuse a permission…
Al-Muhaddithat has been published!
Breaking News! Shaykh Akram’s magnum opus, Al-Muhaddithat, has been published! Over a decade has passed since the initial publication of Shaykh Akram Nadwi’s ‘Al-Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars in Islam’ (2007). Today, we are honoured and excited to announce that the...