Three books I’m currently loving (in Arabic), and one book I’m anxiously waiting for (in English).

Tafsir: Umdat al-Tafsir by Ahmad Shakir

This is an abridgment of the great Qur’an commentary of Ibn Kathir. My shaykh, Saleh al-Jaafari, recommended two tafsirs to his students:

- Ibn Kathir

- Al-Jalalayn (with the Hashiya, or footnotes, of shaykh Al-Sawi)

The Azhari hadith expert, shaykh Ahmad Shakir, rahimahullah, wrote an abridgment of Ibn Kathir’s tafsir to make it more accessible to the normal reader. He removed all the isnads of the hadiths, only saying where they come from and how sound their isnad is, and removing the isra’iliyyat, or the questionable Jewish legends that entered Qur’an commentaries through Jewish converts to Islam.

The result is a great tafsir of great simplicity, explaining everything in an astonishingly clear way. I believe that the only complete print is the one by Dar al-Wafa and it is beautiful. It comes in three volumes and I absolutely love it. And by love it, I mean if I’m in my room and I pass by it, I look at it with a warm fuzzy feeling inside and I just wanna grab it and kiss it, that’s how much I love it.

Seera: Al-Anwar al-Muhammadiyya min al-Mawahib al-Ladunniyya by shaykh Yusef al-Nabahani

There is a great book known as Al-Mawahib al-Ladunniyya by the imam Al-Qastalani. It comes in two large volumes, and it is about Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. It is more than a biography because it doesn’t simply narrate the chain of events of his life -in fact that only makes the largest chapter of the book. The Israa and Mi’raj comes in another chapter, and then the rest of the chapters are devoted to the greatness of the Prophet, to the Quranic verses that speak about him, to his names and descriptions, how he is mentioned in the Torah and the Bible, the things that Allah made unique only for him or only for his umma, etc.

The only problem with the Mawahib, as its author admitted, is that he went off-topic very frequently and ended up discussing every science in the religion, making it a must-read for the advanced scholar but too deep and wide an ocean for the average reader. So the great lover of the Prophet - peace be upon him- shaykh Yusef al-Nabahani, wrote an abridgment of it, in which he removed all things off topic, keeping only the basic text dealing with Prophet Muhammad. He also explained all the difficult words that non-scholars would not know, and the end product turned out to be less than half the size of the original. It is thus one medium-sized volume. The print by the Lebanese Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya is beautiful. It is a must-read for every lover of the Master of Creation, salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam, and for everyone who wants to get a tiny glimpse of our Prophet’s great worth in the eyes of Allah (swt).

I cannot say alhamdulillah enough for allowing me to read portions of that book while sitting in the rawda of the Prophet’s Mosque and while sitting facing the door from which you greet the Messenger in his mosque. It was such a great blessing and a wonderful experience.

Madeeh: The Diwan of Shaykh Saleh al-Jaafari

Shaykh Saleh’s poems in praise of the Prophet are greatly loved in Egypt and many other places in the Islamic world. The newest print by Dar Jawami’ al-Kalim, Cairo, comes in 12 small volumes which can be bought separately. They are divided into three themes: Suluk and spiritual guidance (two volumes), Ilahiyyat: supplications to Allah, etc, (4 volumes), and Muhammadiyyat, or praise of Prophet Muhammad and his family and companions (6 volumes).

I ‘m currently reading the first of the Muhammadiyyat volumes and it is so deeply touching and beautiful. Reading it on the flights to Mecca and Medina, as well as on the return journey, was a great experience, especially since almost every single poem talks about longing to visit the Prophet- peace be upon him- in Medina.

Rumi’s Sun: The Teachings of Shams of Tabriz by Refik Algan and Camille Helminski

Camille Helminski wrote one of the most important books that I have ever read in my life, the book that corrected my intention in religion and made me start praying for the first time, and that book was Women of Sufism: A Hidden Treasure. It was also my first introduction to Sufism, after which Sufism became pretty much all I ever read about.

The next major turning point was in reading the teachings of Shams al-Tabrizi, as translated by William Chittick in Me & Rumi: The Autobiography of Shams-i Tabrizi. I had never read anything like it, and it introduced me to the concept of Muhammadan Sufism, and the importance of mutaba’a, which later led me to interest in the Tariqa Muhammadiyya movements. But that book is also a very advanced read and many things are very hard to understand, and in other cases you don’t know who is saying what in the dialogue.

So here is another translation, some of the same teachings, some of other portions untranslated by Chittick because he didn’t translate the whole work but only about 2/3rd of it, and it is done Camille Helminski, thus combining aspects from the two most life-changing books I read. I expect this to be a much simpler read, but I cannot stress enough that it cannot replace Me & Rumi, but only complement it. I’ve ordered it from Amazon and am waiting anxiously for its arrival; I’ve also ordered with it another copy of Women of Sufism because I had lent the first copy to someone who loved it too much to give it back to me!