The Beginnings of Arabic Grammar

Photo Mohammad Ehsai, “Mohabbat (Compassion)” – 2011 By Masood Ranginwala إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ قُرْآنًا عَرَبِيًّا لَّعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ “Indeed, We have sent it, an Arabic Qur’an so that you all may understand.” (12:2) قُرْآنًا عَرَبِيًّا غَيْرَ ذِي عِوَجٍ لَّعَلَّهُمْ يَتَّقُونَ “It is a Qur’an in Arabic, without any crookedness, in order that they may have Taqwa.” (39:28) […]

The Absence of Revivalists Outside Islam

    By Shaykh Abu ‘l-Hasan ‘Ali al-Nadwi We find extremely few persons who have revived and renovated other religions. The absence of such teachers for hundreds or rather thousands of years in other religions is striking enough. There has hardly been any renovator who could pull down the innovations and deviations which had found […]

Physical Descriptions of the Four Imams – Collected from Imam Dhahabi’s Siyar A’lam an-Nubala

    Abu Hanifah an-Nu’man bin Thabit: Abu Yusuf said: “Abu Hanifah was well-formed, was from the best of people in appearance, the most eloquent of them in speech, the sweetest in tone, and the clearest of them in expressing what he felt.” Hamad bin Abi Hanifah said: “My father was very handsome, dark, had […]

Clarification on Early Hadith Compilation

By Mawlana Muhammad ibn Haroon Abasoomer Imam Ibn Shihab Zuhri rahimahullah (d. 125 AH) features quite prominently in the discussion of Hadith compilation. It is commonly stated that he was the first to compile the Noble Traditions of Rasulullah sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam. However, this is not entirely correct as it pushes the date of […]

Timbuktu: A Paradise in Shambles

  By Shehu Abdulqadr Colonialism is one fettered wound that time has failed to heal. And what can heal a wound which has defied the soothing balm of time except the sustained efforts of the truly committed whose only goal in life is the pleasure of their Lord and Creator, Allahu Subhanahu wa ta’ala. Pitiable […]

Shaykh al-Islām Mawlānā Sayyid Ḥusayn Aḥmad Madanī

By Abu ʿĀṣim Badrul Islām Born in Bāngar, Mao, the Indian district of Annow on 19 Shawwāl 1296 AH (5 October 1879 CE), Shaykh al-IslāmMawlānā Sayyid Ḥusayn Aḥmad Madanī began his primary Islāmic education in Faizābād. At the age of twelve he travelled to the Dār al-ʿUlūm at Deoband where he studied the intermediate and higher […]

Women Scholars of Hadith

  By Dr. Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi   History records few scholarly enterprises, at least before modern times, in which women have played an important and active role side by side with men. The science of hadith forms an outstanding exception in this respect.   Islam, as a religion which (unlike Christianity) refused to attribute gender […]

Regarding the Celebration of Lailat-ul-Mi’raj on the 27th of Rajab

By Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani (db) Rajab is the seventh month in the Islamic lunar calendar. This month was regarded as one of the sacred months (Al-Ashhur-al-hurum) in which battles were prohibited in the days of the Holy Prophet صلي الله عليه وسلم  . It is also deemed to be a prelude to the month […]

Subjugation of Scholars in Colonial India

 The Campaign of 1857 and English Terror Two fronts were opened against the British in 1857 – one to the north of Amritsar commanded by Hadrat Jafar Than-Siri (ra), and the second just to the south commanded by Haji ImdadUllah Muhajir Makki (ra). Together with Hadrat ImdadUllah (ra) stood noted scholars and warriors of the […]

Subjugation of Scholars in Colonial India

 The Campaign of 1857 and English Terror Two fronts were opened against the British in 1857 – one to the north of Amritsar commanded by Hadrat Jafar Than-Siri (ra), and the second just to the south commanded by Haji ImdadUllah Muhajir Makki (ra). Together with Hadrat ImdadUllah (ra) stood noted scholars and warriors of the […]