The Four Imams and Their Schools-Haddad (2025)

Musnad of Imam Ahmad--Review of Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation edition

This superbly produced, large format, 12+2 volume edition of the Musnad of Aḥmad b. Muḥammad Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal (164-241/780-855) raises to new heights the already exceptional bar of quality set by Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation’s previously published set of primary hadith texts.... read the review.

Book Review: The Four Imams Their Lives Works and their Schools of Thought

Journal of Qur'anic Studies, 2002

“Creed,” in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 3rd ed, (2007-), 2014-3: 67-73.

Jonathan A. C. Brown: Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World. (Foundations of Islam.) xii, 308 pp. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2009. £19.99. ISBN 978 1 85168 663 6

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 2010

The Qur’ān (Translations, Commentaries, Studies): A Select Bibliography

True History of Hadiths and Sunna – A must reading for all Muslims and Non-Muslims who are interested in Theology

Bahāʾīs [Supplement 2016] Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, 2016

Christopher Buck, “Bahāʾīs.” Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān: Supplement. Ed. Jane McAuliffe. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. (Published December 1, 2016.) Having arisen out of Islamic historical context and milieu, the Bahāʾī religion has certain Islamicate elements, yet the Bahāʾī Faith exhibits certain other features that phenomenologically are supra-Islamicate and socially and institutionally distinctive in character. For instance, Islamic doctrine adheres to a belief in successive revelations, beginning with Adam, and culminating with the Prophet Muḥammad as the “Seal of the Prophets.” In Bahāʾī teachings, the idea of successive revelations is invested with a teleology that transforms it into “progressive revelation” where the succession of Messengers throughout the history of religions is not only sequential but cumulative, coefficient with the social evolution of humanity. As humankind advances socially, so does the corresponding need for guidance and laws suited to the exigencies of the day and age. Here, “progressive” conveys the notion of a “fuller” and “more advanced” repository of divine guidance (by way of revelatory sacred texts), without making a claim of intrinsic superiority. A Bahāʾī theology of pluralism, with special reference to Islam, may be based on a statement by Shoghi Effendi, “Guardian” of the Bahāʾī Faith (1921–57): “Unequivocally and without the least reservation it proclaims all established religions to be divine in origin, identical in their aims, complementary in their functions, continuous in their purpose, indispensable in their value to mankind.” (S. Effendi, World Order, p. 58). This, of course, applies as much to Islam as to other religions. Islamic prophetology is anchored in the received interpretation of Q. 33:40, which is widely believed to establish Muḥammad as the final prophet (see prophets and prophethood). In what is perhaps his most significant exegetical maneuver, Bahā’u’llāh relativizes that claim in order to supersede it, refocusing the reader’s attention a mere four verses later (Q. 33:44) on the eschatological attainment to the presence of God (liqāʾ Allāh) on the last day (see eschatology): *** Even as the Lord of being hath in His unerring Book (Qurʾān), after (baʿd az) speaking of the “Seal” in His exalted utterance: “Muḥammad is the Apostle of God and the Seal of the Prophets” (Q. 33:40), hath revealed unto all people the promise (vaʾda) of “attainment unto the divine Presence (liqāʾyi khudā).” To this attainment to the presence of the immortal King testify the verses of the Book, some of which We have already mentioned (vide par. 148: Q. 29:23, 2:46, 2:249, 18:111, 13:2). The one true God is My witness! Nothing more exalted or more explicit than “attainment unto the divine Presence” hath been revealed in the Qurʾān. (va khudā-yi vāḥid shāhid-i maqāl ast kih hīch amrī a’ẓam az liqā’ va asraḥ-ī az ān dar furqān zikr nayāftih.) Well is it with him that hath attained thereunto, in the day wherein most of the people, even as ye witness, have turned away therefrom. *** *** And yet, through the mystery of the former (avval) verse, they have turned away from the grace promised by the latter (thānī), despite the fact that “attainment unto the divine Presence” in the “Day of Resurrection” (liqāʾ dar yawm-i qiyām) is explicitly stated in the Book (Qurʾān). (Bahā’u’llāh, the Kitāb-i-Īqān, trans. Shoghi Effendi, Pars. 181–182; parenthetical references added; id. Īqān, Pars. 181–182). *** In this pivotal passage, when Bahā’u’llāh relates back to “verses of the Book, some of which We have already mentioned,” a quick search of the Īqān shows that, in par. 148, Bahā’u’llāh cites Q. 29:23, 2:46, 2:249, 18:111, 13:2. Yet in this passage, Bahā’u’llāh also alludes to a Qurʾānic announcement of the “attainment unto the divine Presence” in the “Day of Resurrection” (liqāʾ dar yawm-i qiyām) that comes “after” (baʿd az) the “Seal” verse. Shoghi Effendi, in his dual role as authorized translator and interpreter of Bahāʾī scriptures, provides a word-for-word, literal translation in rendering the Persian so: “And yet, through the mystery of the former.” Then Shoghi Effendi inserts one word for amplification: “verse” (not in the original Persian). This subtle, yet highly significant, gloss disambiguates the text, narrowing the reading from an episodic sequence of prophetic/eschatological events (“Seal of the Prophets” followed by “Divine Presence”) to a textual, qurʾānic sequence, i.e. of a pair verses descriptive of this same sequence. This makes perfect sense since the preposition “after” (baʿd az) can also mean “next.” An attractive hypothesis (with strong evidence shy of conclusive proof) is that Bahā’u’llāh intended this pair of verses, Q. 33:40 and Q. 33:44, to be read together. Indeed, the very next verse after the “Seal” verse that refers to the eschatological encounter with God is Q. 33:44, which reads: “Their greeting the Day they meet Him will be, “Peace.” And He has prepared for them a noble reward” (Sahih International). A Shīʿī rendering is: “On the day when they will be brought into the presence of their Lord, their greeting to each other will be, ‘Peace be with you.’ God has prepared an honorable reward them” (Muḥammad Sarwar).

Review of The Blackwell Companion to the Qur’an

American Journal of Islam and Society

With The Blackwell Companion to the Qur’an,Andrew Rippin, an illustriousscholar in the field of Qur’anic studies, presents yet another impressivecontribution to previous collections of articles on the Qur’an that he hasedited: Approaches to the History of the Interpretation of the Qur’an (OxfordUniversity Press: 1988); The Qur’an: Formative Interpretations (Variorum: 1999); and, with Khaleel Mohammed, Coming to Terms with the Qur’an: AVolume in Honor of Issa Boullata (Islamic Publications International: 2008),just to name a few. Gathering the works of scholars from leading universitiesthroughout the world, Rippin has constructed a volume that is designednot only for the general reader “who may have little exposure to the Qur’anbeyond a curiosity evoked by the popular media” (p. x), but also to scholarsspecializing in the Qur’an. The overall aim of this large volume, which comprisesthirty-two articles, is to guide the reader to “a well-advanced state ofunderstanding the complexities ...

Hadith Studies in Bloomsbury Companion to Islamic Studies

The heart of the Qurʾan : an introduction to Islamic spirituality

2003