Ja'far al-SADIQ (83–148 H / 702–776655) was a prominent spokesman in Madinah of the Banu Hashim – descendents of the Ahl al-Bayt or Family of God’s Messenger Muhammad(s) – during the eighth century CE / first-half of the second century Hijrah. During his lifetime the Umayyad dynasty was vanquished by the 'Abbasid revolution in 132 / 750. Ja'far received his honorific title “Sadiq truthsayer” because of his veracity in narrating traditions, or perhaps due to his predictions reportedly verified by later events. He boasted of double maternal descent from the first Caliph Abu Bakr al-siddiq(r.d.) through his mother Umm Farwah bint al-Qasim b. Muhammad b. Abi Bakr, and through her mother Asma bint ‘Abd al-Rahman b. Abi Bakr, affirming “Abu Bakr bore me twice.” Ja'far reportedly declared: “I am not hoping for anything through the intercession of 'Ali (on Judgement Day) save that I hope the same through the intercession of Abu Bakr.” Sadiq was esteemed among majority Sunni Muslims as a paragon of exemplary wisdom, particularly among the sufis who revered his reputation for spiritual initiation and for esoteric elucidation (tawil) of the Qur'an............. [click here to download the full article in pdf]

Few Muslims of the twentieth century have made as great an impact on their countrymen and upon Islamic renewal than the Ottoman intellectual and spiritual activist 'Mulla Said‘ known as Beddiüzzaaman 'Wonder of the Age‘ for his penetrating intelligence. The preservation of contemporary Turkish Muslim identity owes its validity largely to Nursi‘s untiring labors and model non-violent activity. His collected letters Risale-i Nur /Epistle of Light seek to demonstrate through clearly reasoned arguments and easily understood stories and comparisons, that Islamic revelation offers a rational explanation of existence and how the universe functions, while the truth of religion corroborates and reinforces modern scientific discoveries. Some Muslims view him as the saintly 'Renewer‘ for the 14^th /20^th century........ [click here to download the full article in pdf]

Born in the Central Asian city of Bukhārā (now in Uzbekistan), Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl b. Ibrāhīm al-Juʿfī studied Ḥadīth in Khurāsān in his early years. Bukhārī’s father was also a scholar who had studied under leading faqīh–traditionists in Iraq and Ḥijāz including Mālik b. Anas, Ḥammād b. Zayd, and ʿAbdallāh b. al-Mubārak. Bukhārī first visited Mecca with his mother in 210 H at the age of sixteen years. He then travelled widely in Iraq in search of knowledge studying under eminent Ḥadīth experts such as ʿAlī b. al-Madīnī and Isḥāq b. Rāhawayh....... [click here to download the full article in pdf ]

For centuries Hanbali jurisprudence, or the fiqh attributed to Ahmad ibn Hanbal, has been viewed as the fourth school of Sunni jurisprudence. The important movement of Traditionists or ashab al-hadith collected and purified the Hadith of the Prophet, and compiled the vast mass of narrated reports transmitted over generations on the authority of the ‘Successors’ from the Companions, on the Prophet. Hadith formed the basis of the Prophetic Sunnah, religious Law, and basic creedal Doctrine on the fundamentals of faith (Usul al-din). Traditionists praised him as an expert in Islamic law and the founder of............ [click here to download the full article in pdf]

THE declaration of a so-called Islamic State (IS) in Syraq (Syria+Iraq) on June 27 by Sunni renegades led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi claimed a universal authority throughout the Muslim ummah in the manner of caliphs of old. Baghdadi has degrees in Islamic studies from the Islamic University of Baghdad. He was then a preacher in Diyala province where, after the 2003 United States invasion, he led his own armed insurgency group. The veteran observer Patrick Cockburn objectively describes IS to be “the most powerful and effective extreme jihadi group in the world... violent and sectarian”................Download the full article in pdf attachment (below)