God in Islam

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
October 14, 2012

God: the Ultimate Concern

At the heart of Islam stands the reality of God: Allah, the One, the Absolutely Perfect, Unique, Eternal, Beautiful, Loving, Infinitely Kind and Compassionate, All-Knowing, All-Hearing, All-Seeing, beyond what man can ever conceive, yet nearer to him than his jugular vein. [50:16] Islam does not demand blind faith in God. The Qur’an tells us a great Continue reading

consider Islam, theology

God in Islam, God in the Qur’an, God’s beautiful names, knowing God, reality of God, the Divine Names, the greatest knowledge

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.

God in Islam

Does Allah Love Everyone?

God: the Ultimate Concern