Dr. Jasser Auda
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Author: Editor

Ibn `Atta’: Perfect Your Beginning – Words of Wisdom

In his well-known book, Al-Hikam (Words of Wisdom), sheikh Ahmad Ibn `Ataa’illah As-Sakandari says: “A sign of success in the end is to refer to Allah in the beginning. If there is no sunrise in the beginning, there is no sunrise in the end.” A servant journeying to Allah, who is passing through difficult tests and heading to horizons of peace and tranquility, always thinks of new good deeds that advance him/her along his/her journey. This word of wisdom teaches us here another universal law: Perfecting the basis and the start of any new project, almost guarantees the desired outcomes...

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Scholars Seminar for a New Renaissance

An annual event in Kuala Lumpur: Nadwah Ulamak Nahdhah Jadidah (Scholars Seminar for a New Renaissance). February 5, 2017: I will launch there, insha Allah, a Malaysian translation of my latest book, Civil State: Towards Overcoming Tyrrany and Achieving the Objectives of the Shariah. I will speak about nation building as a way of Ummah building insha Allah. And as I always say in Malaysia: Islam is not only for one party or the other, Islamic or secular. Islam is for...

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Meeting with a group of students at The Fairfax Institute Winter School at the IIIT

Washington, DC: I had an interesting 6 hour session on: An Introduction to Maqasid al-Shariah, with a group of excellent undergraduate students from various American universities at The Fairfax Institute Winter School at the IIIT (International Institute Of Islamic Thought). Despite the sad developments that are happening in the US politically, this new generation brought me hope in an American future that is more inclusive and less divided along lines of race and cultural prejudices. Despite the fact that about half of the trainees were non-Muslim, they shared with their Muslim colleagues the same enthusiasm for an understanding and practicing of Islam in all fields and disciplines, in a way that is faithful to Islam’s higher intents, principles and values. This picture is from the students’ end of program...

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Understanding Objectives of Shariah and its Role in Reforming Islamic Jurisprudence

My main point from this lecture at MAS16 MAS-ICNA Convention was to emphasise a much needed multi-disciplinary approach in re-reading the Quran to develop Islamic thought in current times. But who is the “scholar” who is going to read the Quran to develop contemporary thought? We have to end the jurists’ (fuqahaa) monopoly over the reading of the Quran for dealing with the realities of life and disciplines that they do not understand, and develop multi-disciplinary researchers to read the Quran for their own disciplines. The best reader of the Quran is a person of knowledge in more than...

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