Al-Maqasid

Nuh Ha Mim Keller’s translation of Al-Maqasid: Al-Nawawi’s Manual ofIslam, is, as advertised, a manual. In fact, it functions much like a manualfor electronic machinery: One learns how to use the technology withoutunderstanding why the technology works.In fairness, this is the purpose of Al-Maqasid, which was written by athirteenth-century Hadith specialist, jurisprudent, and an intellectual heir toImam Shafi`i. Al-Maqasid is a matn, a short basic text of fiqh designed tobe memorized by students so that they can give reliable religious answersto commonly asked questions in their community. In this translation,Keller, by adding his notes, enhances Al-Maqasid’s function: “[t]he goal inrendering the present work has been to provide an English translation thatcombines the reliability of a famous fiqh matn with an explanative style thatdoes not require a specialist to understand.”Keller’s audience appears to be novices approaching Islam for the firsttime, or recent converts attempting to navigate their way through Islamicorthopraxy: Islam’s basic tenets (chapter 1), the states of and processesfor ritual purification (chapter 2), prayer (chapter 3), zakat (chapter 4),fasting (chapter 5), hajj (chapter 6), and Sufism’s role in Islam from anon-perennial perspective (chapter 7). The eighth and final chapter consistsof Keller’s notes.This translation will serve a recent convert, especially if he or she followsthe Shafi`i madhhab (legal school), as it details much of the orthopraxy.However, if novices first approach Islam through this book, they ...