Muhammad  A Portrait

of Perfection
The Prophet Muhammad 
is both the moral exemplar for
mankind—sent by Allah as
a mercy to the worlds (Qur’an
21:107)—and the ultimate
possessor of physical beauty.
His Companion [Ali ibn Abi
Talib  said—as did many
others—that ‘Never have I
seen the like of him; not before
or since’. Naturally, Muslims,
beginning first and foremost
with his contemporaries
(i.e. the Companions), have
meticulously conveyed the
fine details of his beauty and
character, including his physical
form, seal of prophethood, clothing, and his manner of
walking, reclining, eating, drinking, speaking and laughter,
sleeping and devotion and so forth. The earliest and most
famous work of this genre was the Shama’il of the great
Hadith master Imam al-Tirmidhi. This latter work was later
abridged and annotated by Shaykh al-Sharnubi, of which
this is the English translation.

Shaykh [Abd al-Majid al-Sharnubi (d. 1348/1929) was an

Egyptian scholar educated at the al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo.
He authored numerous commentaries on Arabic grammar,
sacred law, Hadith and spirituality.

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 Muhammad  The Best of Creation
This two-part treatise is a trans-
lation of Shaykh Muhammad
ibn [Alawi al-Maliki’s Ta’rikh
al-hawadith wa al-ahwal al-na-
bawiyyah [The history of the
Prophetic events and states],
a comprehensive summary of
some of the most authoritative
and voluminous works written
on the Prophetic biography. The
first part deals with various
aspects of the Prophet’s life ,
such as his early years before
receiving revelation, members
of his family, his servants, mir-
acles, signs of his prophethood, the weapons he used in battle,
the beasts he rode, the clothes he wore and so forth. The sec-
ond part is a chronological summary of the most important
events to have taken place in his life.

Shaykh Muhammad ibn [Alawi al-Maliki, a direct de-

scendant of the Prophet , was born in Mecca in 1365/1944,
and a world-renowned scholar who spent his life teaching
and writing. He held many prestigious positions, including
religious instructor and imam at the Haram Mosque after his
father, professor at the Faculty of Sharia, King [Abd al-[Aziz
University, Mecca, 1390–1399 AH, and an active member of
the World Islamic League. He died in Mecca in 1425/2004.

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How to Perform Hajj and Umrah According
to the Four Sunni Schools of Law
The hajj, or Greater Pilgrimage,
to Mecca has been established as
a religious duty in the Glorious
Quran, and the Messenger of
Allah  has described it as one
of the ‘pillars’ of Islam and an
‘expiator of all of one’s past sins’.
In addition, Muslims are called
upon to make the umrah, or
Lesser Pilgrimage, to Mecca and
to visit the Prophetic Mosque
and the Messenger of Allah
 in Medina. In each of these
matters, one is to take the divine
instructions from the Glorious
Qur’an and Sunnah as the guides in setting out the correct legal
method and etiquette. In this regard, the scholars of the Four
Sunni Legal Schools: Hanafi Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali have
expounded these divine commands in meticulous detail.
This is a comprehensive hajj and umrah manual of
instruction on how to perform these pilgrimages, in terms of
both the letter and spirit of the law, according to these schools,
that shows us the great flexibility that is the characteristic of the
Sacred Law of Islam.
Shaykh Nur al-Din [Itr (born in 1934) is one of the leading
contemporary scholars from Aleppo, Syria in Qur’anic and
Hadith sciences. For many years he has served as the head of
the Faculty for Qur’anic and Hadith Sciences and as a professor
at the University of Damascus and other Islamic institutes both
in Syria and in other Arab countries, while also authoring and
editing numerous scholarly works and journals.

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 The Seekers’ Aid in Upholding the
Religious Duties
The Prophet  said,
‘Islam is built upon five
[pillars]: the testimony
that there is no god
except Allah and that
Muhammad is the
messenger of Allah,
establishing the prayer,
paying zakat, making
the hajj to the House,
and fasting in Ramadan’
(narrated by al-Bukhari
and Muslim).
This short treatise
succinctly presents each
of these five pillars with
the detail necessary for their correct understanding and
application.
The author, Shaykh [Abd al-Ghani al-Ghunaymi al-
Maydani (d. 1298/1880 or 1881), was born and raised in
Damascus. There he memorised the Qur’an and studied
under the foremost scholars of the time. As well as his
expertise in Islamic law, he was also renowned for his
exemplary piety. He is most famous for his popular
commentary on the Hanafi legal classic Mukhtasar al-
Qudari, known simply as al-Lubab.

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 The Essential Islamic Creed
The essence of Islam is
its creed, which validates
the performance of one’s
worship; thus making it
eligible for acceptance. The
obligation to have sound
doctrine has led Muslim
theologians to develop an
elaborate discipline of creed
based primarily on the
Qur’an and Sunnah, whilst
also incorporating sound
rational argumentation.
This work by Shaykh
Ahmad ibn Zayni Dahlan
is a summary of the core
tenets of faith in the manner of the Late-Sunni Tradition,
enumerating what a Muslim should believe regarding
Allah; the prophets; the Divine Scriptures; the angels; the
Resurrection Day, with its prelude and finale; the Prophet’s
Companions [may Allah bless him and give him peace]
and miracles of Allah’s friends.
Shaykh Ahmad ibn Zayni Dahlan (1817–1886) was the
leading Shafi[i mufti and scholar of Mecca in his time,
and an authority on Islamic history. He authored, and
personally published, numerous works on the Islamic
sciences and history.

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 The Pure Ancestry of the Prophet 
The Messenger of Allah 
said, ‘I was sent from the
best of generations of Adam’s
progeny, generation after
generation, until I reached
my generation’ (Sahih al-
Bukhari). Unsurprisingly, in
light of this narration and
numerous other evidences,
the classical scholarly
position has established
the eternal salvation of the
Prophet’s parents  and his
direct ancestors. These two
treatises provide a concise,
yet in-depth analysis of the methods used to prove this
position.
Imam Jalil al-Din al-Suyuti (849–911 AH) was one of the
most prolific and significant scholars of Islamic history,
having authored around 600 works, many of which
have retained a lofty position in the traditional syllabi of
Islamic centres of learning.
Shaykh Ishaq [Aziz al-Makki (1330–1415 AH) was a
prominent Meccan scholar, who was involved in the
administration of Islamic education for several decades
in the Hijaz. Not only did he study with a number of
leading scholars of his time, but he also wrote on a broad
range of topics.

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 The Essence of Sufism

Sufism, or tasawwuf, has

been the classical name
given to the Islamic
discipline of purifying
the heart of its spiritual
maladies. The Qur’an
has warned: A Day [of
Judgement] in which neither
wealth nor children shall be
of any benefit [to anyone],
except one who comes to
Allah with a sound heart
(26:88–9). The masters
of Sufism speak of there
being two thousand
definitions of Sufism;
however, the most inclusive of them was provided by their
supreme authority, al-Junayd: ‘Sufism is to adopt every lofty
character trait and renounce every base character trait.’
This short treatise was penned by Shaykh Abu Bakr
al-Mulla (d. 1270 AH), a traditional scholar from a
learned family from al-Ahsa’i, in modern-day Saudi
Arabia, wherein he elaborates on the foundations of this
discipline. These principles are contextualised through
Qur’anic verses, hadiths and axial aphorisms from leading
Sufi masters of the past. Although brief, the manual is
full of profound and moving wisdom that every Muslim
should be characterised by.

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 Guardian of the Cloak
Loving and praising the
Prophet Muhammad  is
an essential cornerstone of
every believer’s faith. This
core facet of the faith has
manifested itself in the form
of beautiful poetic eulogy
from his own time until
today. For centuries, the Qa-
sidah al-burdah [The ode of
the cloak] of al-Busiri (d. ca.
696 AH) has been arguably
the most popular eulogising
ode of this kind. As such,
it has been passed down
ever since by successive and
countless Muslim commu-
nities, by both layperson and scholar alike. Recent history,
however, has witnessed grave accusations emerge against
the poem, with claims that some its lines contain polytheism
(shirk) and disbelief (kufr). This treatise, Guardian of the Cloak,
is a thorough and scholarly response to such charges.
The author of this work was Shaykh Dawud ibn Sulayman
al-Baghdadi al-Naqshabandi al-Khalidi al-Shafi[i (1815-1882).
He was originally from Baghdad, but travelled extensively
throughout the Muslim world, including Hejaz, Syro-Palestine
and Egypt. He authored numerous works, in addition to
this treatise, including a defence of the four Sunni schools of
Islamic law, and a refutation of the Wahhabis.

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