Topics

Browse every topic on the site — grouped by theme, or straight down the A–Z. Each links to that topic’s hub of articles, Q&A, and books.

Topic groups

Quran

Hadith

Theology

Islamic Law

Biographies and Obituaries

Women

Travel

Arabic Language

More Topics

All topics A–Z

  • Arabic and Language 56 articles

    Arabic is the language of the Qur’an and the key that unlocks the Islamic scholarly tradition. These articles gather Shaykh Akram Nadwi’s writing on learning Arabic, approaches to teaching it, and the deeper idea of language as a sign that carries meaning. They are aimed at students who want the language not as an end in itself but as a way into the sources.

  • Belief 109 articles

    This topic explores the foundations of Islamic belief: faith, disbelief, servitude to God, and how the tradition has understood the human relationship with the Divine. Drawing on Shaykh Akram Nadwi’s teaching and readings of scholars such as Ibn Taymiyyah, these articles treat questions of creed with care rather than slogans, and connect belief to how a person actually lives.

  • Biography 13 articles

    Biography brings together substantial life studies of scholars, teachers, and intellectual figures. These articles explore their formation, work, influence, and contributions to Islamic learning and community life.

  • Character and Ethics 192 articles

    Character sits at the heart of the Islamic tradition, and these articles ask what it means to live well among others. Shaykh Akram Nadwi writes here on sincerity, restraint, the dangers of excess, and the conduct that faith calls for in ordinary dealings. The emphasis is practical: knowledge is measured by how it shapes a person’s manners and heart.

  • Community and Society 62 articles

    How Muslims live together, and alongside others, is the concern of this topic. These articles by Shaykh Akram Nadwi consider social ties, custom and festival, movements and their leaders, and the responsibilities that bind a community. They approach society not through abstraction but through the questions and misunderstandings that arise in real communal life.

  • Contemporary Issues 66 articles

    This topic addresses the questions modern Muslims face, from living as a minority to the isolation of a connected age. Shaykh Akram Nadwi brings the resources of the tradition to bear on present-day concerns without reducing them to easy answers. The articles aim to think clearly about the times we live in while staying rooted in enduring sources.

  • Education 131 articles

    Education, in the Islamic tradition, is inseparable from the pursuit of knowledge and the manners that accompany it. These articles by Shaykh Akram Nadwi consider what it means to be a student of knowledge, how questions should be welcomed rather than feared, and how Arabic and the sacred sciences are best taught. They speak both to teachers and to lifelong learners.

  • Family 22 articles

    The family is where faith is first lived and passed on, and this topic gathers Shaykh Akram Nadwi’s writing on its duties and difficulties. The articles address marriage, upbringing, and the responsibilities that hold a household together, alongside harder questions that the tradition does not shy away from. Throughout, the aim is guidance grounded in the sources rather than sentiment.

  • Finance and Zakah 8 articles

    Wealth in Islam carries obligations, and this topic examines them with a scholar’s care. Shaykh Akram Nadwi writes here on zakah, debt, inheritance, and the financial questions that arise in modern life, including relief work and insurance. Though a smaller collection, these articles show how the tradition treats money as a matter of conscience and justice.

  • Fiqh 83 articles

    Fiqh is the discipline of understanding how faith translates into practice, and this topic collects Shaykh Akram Nadwi’s writing on Islamic legal reasoning. The articles weigh questions of evidence, consensus, and the authority of scholarly majorities, and work through concrete rulings on worship and conduct. They show fiqh as a living method of reasoning, not a fixed list of verdicts.

  • Hadith 53 articles

    Hadith scholarship is central to Shaykh Akram Nadwi’s work as a specialist in the sciences of Prophetic tradition. These articles examine the transmission and authentication of hadith, the chains that carry them, and the careful investigation of individual reports. They offer a window into how the tradition preserved and tested the sayings of the Prophet with remarkable rigour.

  • Hajj and Umrah 5 articles

    This topic follows the rites and journeys of the sacred pilgrimage. Drawing on Shaykh Akram Nadwi’s reflections and travels, the articles describe the experience of Umrah, the sanctity of Mecca, and questions that arise in performing the rites. They combine the practical and the devotional, treating pilgrimage as both an act of worship and a journey of the heart.

  • Health and Wellbeing 9 articles

    This small collection addresses health and the body from within the Islamic tradition. Written largely in response to the pandemic, Shaykh Akram Nadwi’s articles here consider questions such as vaccination, worship under lockdown, and assisted dying. They show how scholarship responds to urgent, unfamiliar circumstances while holding to established principles.

  • Interfaith 8 articles

    Interfaith brings together reflections on how Muslims encounter other faiths and traditions. Shaykh Akram Nadwi writes here on the limits of religious debate, the place of history in claims about truth, and episodes where communities have met in conflict or dialogue. The articles aim for honest engagement rather than either polemic or easy accommodation.

  • Marriage 9 articles

    This topic gathers Shaykh Akram Nadwi’s writing on marriage and its place in a life of faith. The articles treat the bond itself, the questions and difficulties that surround it, and wider debates touching on gender and relations between the sexes. They approach a sensitive subject with the seriousness of a scholar working from the sources.

  • Obituaries 16 articles

    Obituaries and memorial reflections on scholars, teachers, and community figures whose lives were marked by learning, service, and character. These articles preserve their contributions and the lessons carried forward from them.

  • Prayer 16 articles

    Prayer is the daily discipline at the centre of a Muslim’s life, and this topic explores both its practice and its meaning. Shaykh Akram Nadwi writes here on the daily prayers and night vigil, on specific points of practice such as recitation behind the imam, and on the deeper foundations of Salah. The articles serve both to inform practice and to deepen it.

  • Quran 59 articles

    The Qur’an is the source to which all other knowledge returns, and this topic collects Shaykh Akram Nadwi’s writing on understanding it. The articles consider the Qur’an’s enduring legacy, fresh approaches to reading its verses, and the disciplines of interpretation and reflection. They invite the reader beyond surface reading towards genuine engagement with the text.

  • Ramadan and Fasting 14 articles

    This topic gathers reflections on the month of Ramadan and the discipline of fasting. Shaykh Akram Nadwi writes here on sighting the crescent, the rhythm of fasting and night prayer, and personal memories of the month, including his first Ramadans in Oxford. The articles combine practical reminders with the spirit that gives the month its meaning.

  • Scholarship and Method 158 articles

    This topic concerns the pursuit of knowledge itself: who counts as a student of knowledge, how the sacred sciences are taught, and the manners and methods that scholarship demands. These articles by Shaykh Akram Nadwi reflect his lifelong concern with sound method, careful questioning, and the transmission of learning from one generation to the next.

  • Seerah 11 articles

    Seerah gathers studies of the life of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, including its defining events, relationships, battles, family, Companions, and enduring lessons for Muslim life.

  • Spirituality 210 articles

    Spirituality, in this tradition, is the inward dimension of a faith lived outwardly. This large collection gathers Shaykh Akram Nadwi’s writing on the heart, sincerity, restraint, and the ordinary struggles of the soul. The articles keep the inner life tied to knowledge and conduct, treating spiritual growth as inseparable from how a person thinks and behaves.

  • Tafsir 55 articles

    Tafsir is the discipline of interpreting the Qur’an, and this topic collects Shaykh Akram Nadwi’s writing on how its verses are best understood. The articles distinguish interpretation, deeper meaning, and reflection, and offer fresh readings that stay anchored in the tradition. They are for readers who want to move past translation towards the science of understanding the text.

  • Travelogues 41 articles

    This topic gathers Shaykh Akram Nadwi’s travel writing, most notably his extended journeys through Bosnia and to Srebrenica. Part reportage and part reflection, these pieces observe places, peoples, and histories through the eyes of a scholar. They offer a more personal register than his other work, where landscape and memory become occasions for thought.

  • Women 30 articles

    This topic reflects a major strand of Shaykh Akram Nadwi’s scholarship: the recovery of women’s role in Islamic learning. Drawing on his research into the muhaddithat, the women scholars of hadith, these articles examine women’s education, their religious authority, and the historical record too often overlooked. They restore a tradition of female scholarship to view.

  • Worship 8 articles

    Worship, understood broadly, is the orientation of a whole life towards God, and this topic explores what that means. Shaykh Akram Nadwi writes here on servitude and devotion, on the festivals and their significance, and on the wider vision of worship found in scholars such as Ibn Taymiyyah. The articles treat worship not as ritual alone but as the purpose of human existence.