We are honoured and pleased to put online articles and fiqh answers of Shaykh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti, as a service to the Muslims who love and can benefit from classical and traditional scholarship.

His articles are mostly on Shafii fiqh and very detailed, useful and practical as a learning method, and he is one of those scholars of Islam, who can combine the sciences of Fiqh and Tasawwuf, just as Imam al-Malik (may Allah be well pleased with him!) said:

“man taSawwafa wa lam yatafaqqah fa-qad tazandaqa
wa man tafaqqaha wa lam yataSawwaf fa-qad tafassaqa
wa man jama'a bayna-humA fa-qad taHaqqaqa.”

[Whoever studies Tasawwuf and does not study Fiqh will be a heretic. Whoever studies Fiqh and does not study Tasawwuf will be corrupted. Whoever combines the two will have the truth.]

Shaykh Afifi al-Akiti is a Research Fellow in Islamic Philosophy and Theology at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. He is presently completing his doctoral thesis at Oxford University, on a newly discovered Arabic manuscript of a previously unknown theological work by Imam al-Ghazali. He was born in Malaysia and educated in various madrasas with a long tradition in Shafii fiqh in East Java.

Among his most well known teachers are:
Shaykh Muhammad Yasin al-Fadani,
Shaykh Ibn Mahfuz al-Hajini,
Shaykh Ibn Ashmuni al-Jaruni
and Habib 'Aydarus al-Habshi.

He has translated various works in Malay as well as English; mostly textbooks that make up the curriculum of a Classical Islamic education, including Imam al-Bajuri's commentary on the Jawhara, Imam Nawawi al-Bantani on the Jami'a and his commentary on the Bidaya of Imam al-Ghazali. He has travelled widely, and notwithstanding the specific ijazas from his training, has also received general ijazas (for tabarrukan) from teachers beyond his homeland.

•  Zakat al-Fitr I: General Notes for a UK Malay Society
•  Zakat al-Fitr II: Potato?
•  The Meaning of Universal Brotherhood by al-Nawawi     also in < pdf >
•  Hisab & Ru'ya or Matla' al-Budur (moonsighting)
•  FATWA: Defending the Transgressed (Mudafi' al-Mazlum)
    by Censuring the Reckless against the Killing of Civilians    also in < pdf >
•  The Ghusl of a Shahada Death belonging to the B-Type
•  On the Tafsil of Taqlid(s) Barring the Dalils
•  The Prayer of the Muwaswas who is also an 'Ajiz
•  Man Eating Man-Eating Sharks?
•  Fatwa And Legal Opinion On The Issue Of Women Leading Prayers (pdf)
•  On the Risala and the Appendices of al-Umm
•  Our Unsung Ustadhat and their teaching a 'mixed' class
•  al-Maqal al-Ma'thur fi al-Qawl al-Mashhur
•  Kissing the Thumbs, etc. during Adhan?
•  The 'Amal of the Living for the Dead
•  Contaminated Animal Feed
•  'Discounted' Debt Transfer (Hawala al-Dayn)
•  Furu' of Abortion: Down Syndrome abortion at the last minute?
•  'Inan al-Bayan fi Nisf Sha'ban
•  Lobsters and "Sea" Crabs
•  Mas'alatan Muhimmatan 'Burnt Out'-an: Socks and Beards
•  Placenta and Umbilical Cord Tahiratun
•  The Meaning of Nafs
•  The Oldest Reference to the Qur'an from Non-Muslim Sources
•  Taghyir al-Niyya from Fasting
•  Tuhfat al-Hidaya fi Takmil al-Tahara
•  Tajaddud Nikah on account of Wali Hakim?
•  Tahqiq Qira'at al-Fatiha min Tabyin Aqwal al-Qadima
•  Tartib al-Nawafil wa-l-Rawatib
•  Tashil al-Izala 'an Ishkal al-Mughallaza
•  Tatimma to Tashil al-Izala 'an Ishkal al-Mughallaza
•  Post-Delivery Bleeding [Nifas] caused by Miscarriages

to be updated, in sha-Allah.

 

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NB.
There are also two important texts elucidating
and commenting on the above fatwa (Defending the Transgressed):

• Islamic Reformation Or Islamic Renaissance? by Dr. Hisham al-Zoubeir
• Wanton violence in Muslimdom:
     Religious imperative, or spiritual deviation? by H.A. Hellyer