We hope you are well and that your Ramadan has been productive. May Allah accept your fasting and worship during this blessed time.
The first ten days of Ramadan were days of mercy and we have now entered the second ten days which are days of Allah’s forgiveness.
Abdur Rahman ibn Awf reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Verily, Ramadan is a month in which Allah Almighty has obligated its fasting. I have instituted for Muslims the practice of prayer at night. Thus, whoever fasts it with faith and expecting reward will be rid of sins like the day he was born from his mother.”
During this blessed month, IHRC Bookshop & Gallery are offering 15% discount off all Islamic books. The discount code is RAMADAN2025.
Scroll down and see some of the books we have in stock.
Date and Time: Sunday 23rd March 2025 at 2:30pm Al Quds Day 2025
Location: Marble Arch, marching to BBC Portland Place Coach
Coach enquiries: naveed@ihrc.org.uk
Join us for this year’s event which looks set to take place amid an ongoing genocide in Gaza where Israeli forces have slaughtered 50,000 civilians in Gaza, most of them women and children.
At the same time armed colonial settlers and troops are running rampage in the occupied West Bank, invading, looting and attacking Palestinian towns and villages with the international community turning a blind eye or actively complicit in the slaughter.
The Al-Quds Day demo has taken place peacefully in London for over 40 years.
One of its attractions has been its family atmosphere with demonstrators coming from all walks of life. Christians, Jews, Muslims, people of other faiths and none all march in common cause side by side.
Enrolment Call: Granada Critical Muslim Studies Summer School 2025
Critical Muslim Studies is inspired by a need for opening up a space for intellectually rigorous and socially committed explorations between decolonial thinking and studies of Muslims, Islam and the Islamicate. Critical Muslim Studies does not take Islam as only a spiritual tradition, or a civilization, but also as a possibility of a decolonial epistemic perspective that suggests contributions and responses to the problems facing humankind today. It offers an opportunity to interpret and understand Muslim phenomena in ways that does not reproduce Eurocentrism, Islamophobia or takfiri exclusivism.
DATE: June 23-28, 2025
Application Deadline: February 1, 2025
WEBSITE: http://www.dialogoglobal.com/granada
Any questions: CIT@dialogoglobal.com
Online application form: http://www.dialogoglobal.com/granada/application.php
This program includes:
1) Intensive academic lectures
2) Guided tours to the Alhambra Palace, the Cordoba Mosque, Medina de Sahara, Andalusi House, Museum of Al-Andalus, Albaizin and surrounding areas related to Al-Andalus.
3) Islamic spirituality
Affiliated Faculty:
- Joseph Massad
- Ella Shohat
- Hatem Bazian
- Suhaib Will Webb
- Ramón Grosfoguel
- Chaimaa Boukharsa
- Houria Bouteldja
- Muhammad Asi
- Farid Esack
- Amina Teslima
- Ashraf Kunnummal
- Mohamed Mathee
- Santiago Slabodsky
- Nelson Maldonado-Torres
- Arzu Merali
- Asma Barlas
- Nadia Fadil
- Jasmin Zine
- Iskander Abbasi
Donate and Support the People of Lebanon
A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon on 27 November 2024 has brought an end to recent hostilities – though daily violations of the ceasefire agreement are reported – , but the scale of damage, of people returning or still displaced means that the humanitarian needs will continue to unfold in parallel to critical needs for recovery and reconstruction.
According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, between October 2023 and November 2024 the Israeli military attacked 67 hospitals, 56 primary health care centres, and 238 emergency medical teams, killing at least 222 medical and emergency relief workers
We need your support to help tens of thousands of people affected by the crisis with food parcels, hygiene kits, blankets and mattresses, and provide thousands of items of medical supplies for hospitals and primary healthcare clinics. Click below in order to donate.
Zaytoun Palestinian Medjoul Dates are back in stock for Ramadan. The dates are sourced from sun-drenched Palestinian farms around the ancient city of Jericho, an occupied area where vast tracts of land have been illegally confiscated by the Israeli government.
By purchasing these dates, you are supporting the livelihood of Palestinian farmers.
WATCH: Author Evening with Dr Seyfeddin Kara
Last month, IHRC hosted an author evening with Dr Seyfeddin Kara who discussed his latest publication, The Integrity of the Qur’an: Sunni and Shi’i Historical Narratives. The event was chaired by Dr Ramon Harvey. To watch the recording of the event, click below.
Dr Seyfeddin Kara is an Assistant Professor of Islamic Origins at the University of Groningen. He holds a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Durham. He specialises in the study of early Islam, the Qur’an, hadith, Sunni and Shiʿi Islam, as well as the study of Muslims in Europe. He is presently open to supervising PhD candidates.
He is the author of ‘In search of Ali Ibn Abi Talib’s Codex: History and Traditions of the Earliest Copy of the Qur’an‘ and co-author of ‘Understanding Surah Al-Baqarah: A Modern Interpretation of the Qur’an in the Light of the Qur’an.’
Dr Ramon Harvey is a Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies at Cambridge Muslim College. He teaches Islamic theology on the BA programme and leads the John Templeton Foundation-funded research project Beyond Foundationalism: New Horizons in Muslim Analytic Theology. He is the author of ‘The Quran and the Just Society’ and ‘Transcendent God, Rational World: A Maturidi Theology.’
Below are books currently available at IHRC Bookshop:
Holy Qur’an – Translation & Commentary by T.B. Irving
North American Muslim Scholar Dr. T.B. Irving’s well-regarded English translation, distinguished for its use of American English. Available in black cover. The red cover is out of stock.
An accomplished scholar of linguistics and a writer, Irving was responsible for the first American English translation of the Qur’an.
Tafsir of Sura Qaf – Shaykh Abdullah Sirajuddin al-Husayni (Author), Rashad Jameer (Translator)
The Tafsir of Sura Qaf was written for seekers who wish to learn the meanings of the Book of Allah and deepen their connection to the Messenger of Allah s.w.t by the Syrian gnostic (‘arifbillah) and lover of the Prophet ﷺ, Shaykh ‘Abdullah Sirajuddin al-Husayni r.a. The blessings of the Quran are infused into the wisdom of its meanings.
Sura Qaf comprises timeless messages focusing the reader on the hereafter, transporting him to the time of his own death (sakrat al-mawt), removing the veil from the Recording Angels (raqibun ‘arid) on his shoulders, and placing him squarely in the middle of the Day of Judgement. Yet, despite this sura’s heavy focus on the akhira, it is Shaykh ‘Abdullah Sirajuddin’s love of the Prophet s.a.w that surfaces throughout this work.
Shaykh ‘Abdullah Sirajuddin al-Husayni r.a. was a descendant of Imam Husayn b. ‘Ali b. Abu Talib a.s. from his father’s side. Shaykh ‘Abdullah was born into an honourable and pious family just prior to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1923. During his childhood, the Shaykh was surrounded by the love and care of his father, Shaykh Muhammad Najib Sirajuddin, who was also a leading scholar of tafsir, fiqh, hadith and tasawwuf. Shaykh ‘Abdullah Sirajuddin was known to see the Prophet ﷺ frequently in his dreams and whilst awake. In one such vision, the Prophet s.a.w told him: “you are our dedicated servant” after which the Shaykh would say: “The Prophet is pleased to have me as his servant.” He passed in 2002 in Syria.
The Divine For Critical Minds: Inquiry into God’s Existence – Rehan Zaidi
This work skeptically tackles a wide array of subjects relating to the existence of God through a stringent methodology that requires readers to question their foundational assumptions and keep an open mind – all hallmarks of a rigorous, scientific approach.
My Prophet Muhammad (S) encapsulates the timeless story of the life of the best and final Messenger of Allah, Muhammad (S). Designed for early childhood, this rendering of the Seerah serves as an ideal first acquaintance with the miraculous story of Allah’s finest creation. With its vivid illustrations and appropriately rendered authorship, this book is designed to increase your child’s knowledge, appreciation and love for the Prophet Muhammad (S).
The Psalms of Islam – Al-Sahifat al-Sajjadiyya
Al-Sahifat al-Sajjadiyya is the oldest manual of supplications in Islamic sources, and one of the most seminal works of Islamic spirituality. It was composed in the 8th century AD by the Prophet’s great grandson, Ali b. al-Husayn, known as Zayn al-Abidin, who was revered in his own time as an exemplar of piety and as a foremost authority on prophetic traditions and law.
He is counted by the Shi’a as the fourth of their Imams, and among them the Sahifa ranks behind the Qur’an and Ali b. Abi Talib’s Nahj al-Balagha. The present translation is thoroughly annotated and is accompanied by a translation of another work attributed to Zayn al-Abidin, The Treatise on Rights.
Together, these texts will contribute significantly to our understanding of Islamic spirituality and of the Muslim’s standing in relation to God and the community, not only in the early period, but, given the widespread use of the Sahifa as a devotional guide, up to the present day. Readership: scholars and students of religion and theology, within the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds; and students of the Middle East and the history of ideas.