The Encompassing Epistle :
New,
'Al-Risalah al-Jami'ah wa al-Tadhkirah al-Nafi'ah'
*[A5] Paperback - 145 pages,
by Ahmad ibn Zayn al-Habashi [d.1145h],
Transl & Annotation by Musa Furber,
Published by Islamosaic.
Description :
The Encompassing Epistle : 'Al-Risalah al-Jami'ah wa al-Tadhkirah al-Nafi'ah.' This volume presents a practical introduction to the essential beliefs, practices, and moral rectifications mentioned in the Sacred Law.
The primary text is Ahmed ibn Zayn al-Habashi’s Al-Risalah al-Jami`ah which has been a popular introductory text during the last four centuries. The text is read by students in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and, recently, North America and Europe.
This edition includes the Arabic text, its translation, and notes drawn from the translator’s other works. Readers of this text will learn the essential creed, acts of worship, and moral behavior that are considered personal obligations for all Muslims. They will also learn why these particular things are important. The notes are designed to equip students for personal practice and to prepare them for more advanced studies.
About the Author :
Shaykh Ahmed ibn Zayn al-Habashi - The text was penned by one of the greatest sages of Hadramaut, Shaykh Ahmed ibn Zayn al Habashi (b.1069H/1659CE). A man of great character and learning, he spent forty years under the tutelage of the blessed Imam Abdullah bin Alawi al Haddad, may Allah be pleased with him, who described him as,‘The learned ascetic who was sent to me’, alluding to his mastery of the Islamic Sciences as well as Tasawwuf.
Dedicated to the pursuit and promotion of knowledge from an early age, he was known not only for his wisdom and scholarship, but also for the establishment of mosques across the ancient region of Hadramaut. To this day his works remain as a testament to the calibre of his scholarship and rank among the Awliyaa. He died on 19th Sha’bân 1145H, on a Friday.
Mufti Musa Furber was born in Massachusetts and raised in Portland, Oregon. He majored in linguistics at Portland State University, with an emphasis on computational linguistics and cognitive science, a major that required him to study a non-Indo-European language. As good fortune would have it, Arabic was the only class that fit in his schedule at the time, thus starting him off on what eventually would become a serious and personal study of the Qur’an and Islam.
Mufti Musa embraced Islam and shortly thereafter embarked on a path of study. While still a student in Portland, he studied Shafi’i Islamic ethics and law (fiqh) with a Muslim religious scholar who was in Portland at the time.
After graduation, he continued his studies with scholars in and around Damascus, who reviewed with him several important texts and qualified him to translate and teach them. Later he entered and completed a prestigious training program in the issuance of legal response (fatawa) at Dar al-Ifta’ al-Misriyya, under the direct supervision of Shaykh Dr. Ali Jumu`a, the Mufti of Egypt.
After successfully completing the program and acting as an official researcher and English translator for Dar al-Ifta’, he was recruited by Shaykh Habib Ali al-Jifri to serve as a lead researcher at the Taba Insitute in UAE, where he currently resides.
*Dimensions : 21.6 x 14.1cm.