The Sunnah still provides the stable moral framework - the grammar - that enables Muslims, by formal rules and inward sense, to know right from wrong. However, separation from the mainstream of life puts the Sunnah in danger of becoming rigid - an archaism. Addressing that danger, this book explains how the Sunnah can function as the grammar of a living, adaptive language, capable of guiding (and not shying from) the mainstream. The first chapter sets out the qualities that characterize authentic application of the Sunnah: universality, coherence (so that different spheres of human responsibility are not split), compassionate realism, moderation, and humility. The second explains standards and procedures for determining the Sunnah in the fields of jurisprudence and moral instruction. The third chapter illustrates through detailed examples common errors in understanding the Sunnah - reading hadiths singly without sufficient context, confusing legal and moral injunctions, means and ends, figurative and literal meanings...-and it proposes remedies for these errors.

The Qur’an and Sunnah are the two primary sources of Muslim faith, life, law and morality. The Qur’an is for Muslims the foundation of their faith and the Sunnah is the framework of their morality. Together they constitute the two sources of the law (Shari’ah) of God, a guide to prosperity and happiness in this life and to the bliss of the hereafter. Although the Qur’an and Sunnah are materially and formally two independent sources, they are inextricably bound in a dynamic relationship. The rulings and precepts (ahkam) of the Qur’an constitute the law (shar’) of God. They are supplemented by the precepts of the authentic Sunnah, which possess authority second only to the precepts of the Qur’an. The Qur’an commands Muslims, “Whatever the Messenger gives you, that you must take, and whatever he forbids you, you must desist therefrom....” (59:7).

With the end of the early Islamic period, Muslim scholars came to sense that a rift had begun to emerge between the teachings and principles of Islam and Muslims’ daily reality and practices. The most important means by which scholars sought to restore the intimate contact between Muslims and the Qur’an was to study the objectives of Islam, the causes behind Islamic legal rulings and the intentions and goals underlying the Shari'ah, or Islamic Law. They made it clear that every legal ruling in Islam has a function which it performs, an aim which it realizes, a cause, be it explicit or implicit, and an intention which it seeks to fulfill, and all of this in order to realize benefit to human beings or to ward off harm or corruption. They showed how these intentions, and higher objectives might at times be contained explicitly in the texts of the Qur’an and the Sunnah, while at other times, scholars might bring them to light by means of independent reasoning based on their understanding of the Qur’an and the Sunnah within a framework of time and space. This book represents a pioneering contribution presenting a comprehensive theory of the objectives of Islamic law in its various aspects, as well as a painstaking study of objectives-based thought as pioneered by the father of objectives-based jurisprudence, Imam Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi; in addition, the author presents us with an important study of al-Shatibi himself which offers a wealth of new, beneficial information about the life, thought and method of this venerable man.

The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam is a long-awaited translation of Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi's well-known Arabic work, Al-Halal Al-Haram Fil-Islam. Over the years since ite first publication in 1960, this volume has enjoyed a huge readership in the Arabic speaking world and is now in its 20th edition. It came to dispel the ambiguities surrounding the honorable Shari'ah, and to fulfill the essential needs of the Muslims in this age. It clarifies the Halal (Lawful) and why it is Halal, and the Haram (Prohibited) and why it is Haram, referring to the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace be on him). It answers all the questions which may face the Muslims today, and refutes the ambiguities and lies about Islam. In a very simple way, Al-Halal Al-Haram Fil-Islam delves into the authentic references in Islamic jurisprudence and fiqh. It therefrom extracts judgments of interest to contemporary Muslims in the areas of worship, business dealings, marriage and divorce, food and drink, dress and ornaments, patterns of behavior, individual and group relations, family and social ethics, habits and social customs. Referring to authentic texts, it clarifies that "Permission is the rule in everything, unless it is otherwise specified in matters that adversely affect individuals or groups." It also clarifies that "Allah is the only authority who has the right to legislate for the lawful and the prohibited."

Salafis explicitly base their legitimacy on continuity with the Quran and the Sunna, and their distinctive practices—praying in shoes, wearing long beards and short pants, and observing gender segregation—are understood to have a similarly ancient pedigree. In this book, however, Aaron Rock-Singer draws from a range of media forms as well as traditional religious texts to demonstrate that Salafism is a creation of the twentieth century and that its signature practices emerged primarily out of Salafis’ competition with other social movements amid the intellectual and social upheavals of modernity. In the Shade of the Sunna thus takes readers beyond the surface claims of Salafism’s own proponents—and the academics who often repeat them—into the larger sociocultural and intellectual forces that have shaped Islam’s fastest growing revivalist movement.

Like everything, the present universe will also come to an end, and it is a part of our faith to believe in the Last Day. The signs of the Day of Judgment have been foretold by our Prophet (S). Ibn Kathir has collected all the prophesies of the Prophet (S) in his book Al-Bidaayah wan-Nihaayah. In this volume, we have presented from them the signs of the Hour and the events that are yet to take place, although mentioning very few examples of those prophesies that have already been realized.