Did Caliph ‘Umar burn the Great Library of Alexandria?
In the late 19th century, ‘Allamah Shibli Nomani (1857-1914) wrote a short paper on the destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria. Originally published in Urdu in 1898 and subsequently translated into English in 1900, Nomani’s work, entitled An Enquiry into the Destruction of the Ancient Alexandrian Library, sheds important
Where were Indian Muslim scholars interned in Malta?
During the First World War, a group of Indian scholars and freedom fighters led by the head lecturer at Dar al-‘Ulum Deoband, Shaykh al-Hind Mawlana Mahmud Hasan was interned by the Allies on the island of Malta in the Mediterranean for anti-colonial activities. Their story is one of dedication, struggle
The Hadith of Sihr (Sorcery): Responding to Dr Akram Nadwi
By Mufti Zameelur Rahman According to an established and widely-known ḥadīth, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was affected by siḥr (sorcery) causing him to fall ill and imagine having done things that he did not do. The ḥadīth is found in the Ṣaḥīḥs of al-Bukhārī and Muslim,
Sectarianism and Its Roots in the Indian Subcontinent
By Mufti Zameelur Rahman Introduction Asrar Rashid of Birmingham, UK, is a preacher who claims to be non-partisan, non-sectarian, and an objective, unbiased “Sunnī Muslim”. However, the subjectivity, and often baselessness, of his claims on the nature and roots of one of the most pronounced intra-Sunnī divides in the Indian