FAMOUS FIQH BOOKS like al-Maqasid have stood the test of time because of their sheer usefulness. Compact enough to be memorized by students becoming scholars, al-Maqasid contains hundreds of rulings of personal Islamic law distilled from the most commonly asked and answered questions in schools and mosques from the time of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) down to Imam Nawawi.

Widely considered the best medium-size handbook available in English for teaching the basics of Islam from a traditional perspective, this new edition has been revised and updated with a full complement of notes on a number of contemporary Muslim issues, and three major essays have been appended on why Muslims follow madhhabs, hadiths the mujtahid Imams lacked, and the place of Sufism in Islam.

NUH HA MIM KELLER has studied Islamic jurisprudence, hadith, and other traditional sciences with sheikhs in Syria and Jordan since 1981. He lives and teaches in Amman.

Cover: At the far Western end of Muslim lands, facing across the Atlantic, this maqam at Safi is a metaphor, in its way, of Sacred Knowledge as the redoubt of the believer between the land of this world and the sea of eternity.