correctives & clarifications

June 20, 2013

Fussing Over the 15th of Sha‘ban

Question: Is marking out the 15th night of Sha‘ban (laylat al-nisf min sha‘ban) for extra prayers and devotion sanctioned by Islam, or is doing so judged to be a reprehensible innovation (bid‘ah)? Answer: Each year a fair amount of fussing and fighting takes place over the issue. Yet the truth of the matter is that scholars have long… Continue reading

correctives & clarifications, fiqh & usul al-fiqh, salafism reconsidered

15th night of Sha’ban, fasting the 15th of Sha’ban, fifteenth of Sha’ban, Ibn Taymiyyah and Sha’ban, Prayer of One Thousand Quls, salat al-alfiyyah, Shab-e-Barat, virtues of Sha’ban, what a muqallid can and cannot do
June 10, 2013

Convert or Revert? The Muslim War of Words

‘Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding the third,’ goes one saying. The Qur’an honours those Who listen to the word and follow what is best in it. Those are such whom God has guided, such are men of understanding. [39:18] Sound cognition and understanding is seen as a divine gift, in… Continue reading

correctives & clarifications

are you a convert or revert?, fitrah, Islam, reinterpretations of Islam, squabbling over converts and reverts, talking at cross-purposes, the natural religion, what is correct: convert or revert?
May 23, 2013

Terrorism is to Jihad as Adultery is to Marriage

For the past four days I had been working on the following article, which I intended to post yesterday evening. However, I then heard about the vile and sadistic act of violence carried out by two men with knives and a meat cleaver in Woolwich. So I thought it best to review the blog post in… Continue reading

activism, contemporary concerns, correctives & clarifications, politics & society, theology

extremism, Islam and the sanctity of human life, Islamism, jihad, political Islam, rules of engagement in jihad, terroris, types of jihad, warfare in Islam, Woolwich murder
April 3, 2013

Takfir: Its Dangers & Rules

Takfir – accusing a fellow Muslim of apostasy; of having left the fold of Islam and being a disbeliever (kafir) – is indeed a grave affair in Islam. It is a fitnah, or “sedition,” whose flames were historically put out by the defeat of the Kharijites (khawarij), only to be set alight again in our times, on a global scale,… Continue reading

contemporary concerns, correctives & clarifications, orthodoxy & ahl al-sunnah, politics & society, theology

dangers of takfir, declaring a Muslim an apostate, khawarij, Muslim extremists, takfiris
February 12, 2013

The Seventy-Three Sects: Is Most of this Ummah Deviant?

The Qur’an goes to great lengths to stress the need and obligation of Muslim unity. For instance, it states in a celebrated verse: Hold fast, altogether, to the rope of God and be not divided. [3:102] It also says: Be not like the idolaters; who split up their religion and become sects, each party rejoicing… Continue reading

correctives & clarifications, orthodoxy & ahl al-sunnah, salafism reconsidered, theology

ahl al-bid’ah, ahl al-sunnah wa’l-jama’ah, firqat al-najiyah, following the salaf, innovators, Islamic orthodoxy, saved-sect
January 6, 2013

Does Allah Love Everyone?

People can mean quite different things when they speak of love. For some, love means desire, passion or lust: it is often used as a byword for self-gratification. To some, love is compassion, mercy, tenderness. To others, it is soppy, sugary, gooey sentimentality. For others still, it is devotion, longing and yearning. Then there is passionate love… Continue reading

consider Islam, correctives & clarifications, theology

divine love, divine mercy, God in Islam, God’s love, Is God love?, Islam and the love of God
November 28, 2012

“We Only Follow the Qur’an & Sunnah.” Really?

In an earlier post (it can be read here), I discussed how the words of the Four Imams (Abu Hanifah, Malik, al-Shafi‘i and Ahmad bin Hanbal) concerning taqlid (incorrectly translated as “blind following”) continue to be misunderstood and misused by many groups and individuals today. In this post, I wish to tie-up some loose ends on the subject of… Continue reading

correctives & clarifications, fiqh & usul al-fiqh, knowledge & learning, salafism reconsidered

blind-following, ijtihad, madhhabs, taqlid
November 9, 2012

Reading Qur’an for the Deceased

Question: Is it permitted to donate the reward of one’s recitation of the Qur’an to a deceased person, and will they benefit by such recitation? Or is this an innovation (bid‘ah) that opposes orthodox Islam, as claimed by certain people? Answer: Unfortunately, this issue has become a cause of great controversy and fiery disputes between Muslims in… Continue reading

correctives & clarifications, fiqh & usul al-fiqh, qur’an, tafsir, tadabbur, salafism reconsidered

can the Qur’an be read for the dead?, is reading Qur’an for the dead a bid’ah?, isal al-thawab, Islamic ruling of Qur’an khatam, passing on the rewards to the deceased
October 9, 2012

The Four Imams: Did They Forbid the Layman from Taqlid?

Let me clarify two issues before I explain the point of this post. The first issue that needs clarifying is: what is taqlid? The second one is: who are the Four Imams? [1] As an Arabic word, taqlid stems from qallada, meaning: ‘To place a collar (qiladah) around the neck.’1 It is called this because the person who does taqlid, the muqallid, entrusts his affair… Continue reading

correctives & clarifications, fiqh & usul al-fiqh, knowledge & learning, salafism reconsidered

Abu Hanifah, Ahmad bin Hanbal, al-Shafi’i, blind-following, Four Imams, Hanafi, Hanbali, Imam Malik, madhhabs, Maliki, medieval Muslim law colleges, Muslim schools of law, Shafi’i, taqlid
October 1, 2012

Legitimate Islamic Learning: Being People of Isnad

One cannot worship God with loving submission, save with sound sacred knowledge or ‘ilm. The Golden Rule in this regard was stated by Imam al-Bukhari in these terms: al-‘ilmu qabla’l-qawli wa’l-‘aml – ‘Knowledge comes before speech and action.’1 If we don’t possess sound knowledge, we could make something a part of the religion which can never be… Continue reading

correctives & clarifications, fiqh & usul al-fiqh, knowledge & learning, salafism reconsidered

fiqh, ijazah, madhhabs, unbroken chain, way of the salaf

About Me

My name is Surkheel Sharif (aka Abu Aaliyah). Born and raised in London, England, I began my more formal, but gradual studies of the Islamic sciences around the late 1980s (just a few years after having quit my degree in Astrophysics). I also gained an MA in Islamic Studies from Birkbeck College, University of London, in 2009.

I’ve translated a few Islamic works from Arabic into English; one of them, a short text on Muslim spirituality, called The Exquisite Pearl (2000). I have also authored a few books, including: More Fish Please & the Earth’s Complaint (2011); Fussing Over the 15th of Sha’ban & the Golden Rule of Differing (2011); A Muslim’s Guide to Modernity (2025); and Salafism Reconsidered (forthcoming)

I am the founder and current Director of the Jawziyyah Institute (est. 1999): a non-profit organisation dedicated to cultivating an Islam true to its time-honoured tradition, relevant to its current context, and of benefit to wider society.