love is more than a mere claim

April 11, 2013

Loving Allah & Islam is Far More Than a Bumper Sticker

Faith (iman) isn’t just an empty verbal affirmation or assertion of the shahadah. One must also surrender wholeheartedly: Do people imagine that they will be left alone because they say: ‘We believe,’ and that they won’t be tried? [Q.29:1] By the same token, it isn’t enough merely to say ‘I believe in Allah and His Prophet.’ Continue reading

sufism, suluk & spirituality

compliance is a condition for true love, divine love, hallmark of loving God, how to nurture love of God, Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, love is more than a mere claim, loves begets conformity, signs of love for Allah

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.

love is more than a mere claim

Loving Allah & Islam is Far More Than a Bumper Sticker