Al-Maqasid

Abstract

Nuh Ha Mim Keller’s translation of Al-Maqasid: Al-Nawawi’s Manual of Islam, is, as advertised, a manual. In fact, it functions much like a manual for electronic machinery: One learns how to use the technology without understanding why the technology works. In fairness, this is the purpose of Al-Maqasid, which was written by a thirteenth-century Hadith specialist, jurisprudent, and an intellectual heir to Imam Shafi`i. Al-Maqasid is a matn, a short basic text of fiqh designed to be memorized by students so that they can give reliable religious answers to commonly asked questions in their community. In this translation, Keller, by adding his notes, enhances Al-Maqasid’s function: “[t]he goal in rendering the present work has been to provide an English translation that combines the reliability of a famous fiqh matn with an explanative style that does not require a specialist to understand.” Keller’s audience appears to be novices approaching Islam for the first time, or recent converts attempting to navigate their way through Islamic orthopraxy: Islam’s basic tenets (chapter 1), the states of and processes for ritual purification (chapter 2), prayer (chapter 3), zakat (chapter 4), fasting (chapter 5), hajj (chapter 6), and Sufism’s role in Islam from a non-perennial perspective (chapter 7). The eighth and final chapter consists of Keller’s notes. This translation will serve a recent convert, especially if he or she follows the Shafi`i madhhab (legal school), as it details much of the orthopraxy. However, if novices first approach Islam through this book, they ...