government scholars

May 25, 2022

Crisis in the Trust of Muslim Scholars

LET ME START with this statistic: By 2050, it’s predicted Muslims will be as high as 18% of Britain’s total population, rather than the 4.5% that they currently are. With such numbers, this alone imposes on us the urgent task of evolving a socially and politically relevant, and theologically-authentic, set of leadership challenges that are Continue reading

activism, contemporary concerns, modernity & muslimness, politics & society

are Muslim scholars selling-out?, can Muslim social media influencers be Muslim community leaders?, Fitnah of the practicing Muslim, government scholars, how can we restore trust in our ulama, state-controlled Islam, state-written Friday sermons, trust in muslim scholars
September 25, 2012

Basic Rules for Religious Activism

Truth be told, I have never liked the term “activism” as applied to Islam or Muslims, not least because it is unclear and nebulous and cobbles together many disparate thoughts, activities and people under a single umbrella. Nevertheless, since the term “activism” tends to refer to the efforts to promote or to direct social, political, Continue reading

activism, contemporary concerns, politics & society

enjoining good and forbidding evil, government scholars, political activism, religious activism, rules for enjoining good, scholars of the state, seeking social change, the types of ulema, true scholars

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.

government scholars

Crisis in the Trust of Muslim Scholars

Basic Rules for Religious Activism