A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   When Shaykh Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall ( r.a. ) first translated the Qur’an into English, he knew that the Muslim world would never accept it without the stamp of the ‘ulama .   This was the period after the abolishment of the Caliphate, so by default, Al-Azhar became the most prominent centre of Sunni scholarship.   Many of the ensconced ‘ulama of Al-Azhar considered it haram to translate the Qur’an into the language of the “ kuffar ”.   Ahmad Muhammad Shakir, a scholar of Al-Azhar, wrote in Al-Ahram that all who aided such a project would burn in Hell forever.   Shaykh Pickthall ( r.a. ) published, in Islamic Culture, a long account of his battle with this scholar, and the mentality which he represented.   He included this reflection, “Many Egyptian Muslims were as surprised as I was at the extraordinary ignorance of present world conditions of men who claimed to be the thinking heads of the Islamic world – ...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is taken from Marmaduke Pickthall: A Brief Biography .   Gerrard Winstanley said, “Action is the Life of all, and if thou dost not Act, thou dost nothing.”   Before we consider the life-story of the British Muslim and Qur’an translator, Shaykh Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall ( r.a. ), it is as well to recall that aspect of the practice of every believer without which there are only ashes: holiness of life.  In the case of Shaykh Pickthall ( r.a. ), this was a luminous, steadily progressing reality which impressed all who came into contact with him.  Even his unbelieving first biographer, Anne Fremantle, opined that “had he changed from evangelical or even from high church Anglicanism to the Roman faith, doubtless the machinery of sanctification would have by now been set to work.”  He was a man of discreet charity, the extent of whose generosity was only discovered after his death.  He turned down lucr...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is taken from “Tolerance in Islam” by Shaykh Muhammad Marmaduke William Pickthall ( r.a. ).   Shaykh Muhammad Pickthall ( r.a. ) was an Englishman, an Orientalist, and a Muslim who translated the meaning of the Qur’an.   His translation was first published in 1930 and he was supported in this effort by His Highness, the Nizham of Hyderabad, the ruler of Deccan, in South India.   Shaykh Pickthall ( r.a. ) traveled extensively to several Muslim countries, including Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Egypt, Arabia and India.   He spent several years in India and had interacted with the Muslims of India.   “One of the commonest charges brought against Islam historically, and as a religion, by Western writers is that it is intolerant.   This is turning the tables with a vengeance when one remembers various facts: One remembers that not a Muslim is left alive in Spain or Sicily or Apulia.   One remembers ...