Muhammad, Prophet and Statesman (P/B)

The Epistle on Legal Theory is the oldest surviving Arabic work on Islamic legal theory and the foundational document of Islamic jurisprudence. Its author, Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi’i (d. 204/820), was the eponym of the Shafi’i school of legal thought, one of the four rites in Sunni Islam. This fascinating work offers the first systematic treatment in Arabic of key issues in Islamic legal thought. These include a survey of the importance of Arabic as the language of revelation, principles of textual interpretation to be applied to the Qur’an and prophetic Traditions, techniques for harmonizing apparently contradictory precedents, legal epistemology, rules of inference, and discussions of when legal interpretation is required. The author illustrates his theoretical claims with numerous examples drawn from nearly all areas of Islamic law, including ritual law, commercial law, tort law, and criminal law. The text thus provides an important window into both Islamic law and legal thought in particular and early Islamic intellectual history in general .

This new translation by a leading scholar of al-Shafi’i and his thought makes available in lucid, modern English one of the earliest complete works on Islamic law—one that is centrally important for the formation of Islamic legal thought and the Islamic legal tradition.

Worship is an act of submission and glorification of God. In His wisdom and mercy, God designed worship to be a dynamic force in human life. We discover in the rituals of worship—purification, prayer, zakah, fasting and Hajj—elements that empower our holistic development and reform our communities. Through worship, we are transformed. Transformed by Worship lays out the textual evidence and scholarship around Islam’s essential acts of worship, extracting the impact on our individual and collective lives. This study explores worship through four lenses in turn: the soul, character, mind and body. Readers will learn how to restore vibrancy to their worship while developing a deeper appreciation for the routines and rulings of Islam. This work is translated from the original Arabic volume Al-Athar Al-Tarbawiyah lil-Ibadat fil-Islam.