Nuh Ha Mim Keller

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Nuh Ha Mim Keller bigraphy, stories - scholar and translator

Nuh Ha Mim Keller : biography

1954 –

Nuh Ha Mim Keller (born 1954) is an American Muslim convert to Islam. He is a translator of Islamic books and a specialist in Islamic law, as well as being authorised by Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri as a sheikh in sufism in the Shadhili Order. Norwegian daily Aftenposten has referred to Keller as one of the foremost Muslim theologians and experts on Sufism in the West.

Books

His English translation of Umdat al-Salik, Reliance of the Traveller, (Sunna Books, 1991) is a Shafi’i manual of Shariah. It is the first Islamic legal work in a European language to receive the certification of Al-Azhar University. This translation has led to this work becoming influential among Western Muslims.

Nuh Ha Mim Keller possesses ijazas, or "certificates of authorisation", in Islamic jurisprudence from sheikhs in Syria and Jordan.

His other works include:

  • Sea Without Shore: A Manual of the Sufi Path, an extensive treatment of the science of tasawwuf. It is an expansion of an earlier work entitled Tariqa Notes (of which it has replaced), which comprises the second part of the book. In addition, this work includes biographies of five accomplished Sufis that the author met, along with a series of articles in question/answer format providing answers to contemporary philosophical problems.
  • Al-Maqasid: Imam Nawawi’s Manual of Islam, a translation of a concise manual of Shafi’i fiqh.
  • Evolutionary Theory in Islam.
  • A Port in the Storm: A Fiqh Solution to the Qibla of North America, a detailed study of the most sound position on which direction North American Muslims should face to pray.
  • The Sunni Path: A Handbook of Islamic Belief.

In addition to the above, he has produced the following books in Arabic:

  • Awrad al-Tariqa al-Shadhiliyya, which is primarily a collection of the most frequently recited litanies in the Shadhili Sufi order, done in a hand-written calligraphic script of which two editions have been published. It also has been produced into a bi-lingual translation entitled "Invocations of the Shadhili Order", which Nuh Keller has himself translated.
  • Dala’il al-Khayrat, a classic collection of prayers upon the Prophet Muhammad (known as commonly as durood) originally compiled by Muhammad al-Jazuli, which through the comparison of ninety-five different manuscripts, is the most authenticated copy that has been produced in the modern world. It has also been done in a hand-written calligraphy.

He has also written numerous articles and is a regular contributor to Islamica Magazine and the website masud.co.uk.

Personal life

Keller was born in 1954 in the Northwestern United States.

He studied philosophy and Arabic at the University of Chicago, located in Chicago, Illinois, and the University of California, Los Angeles, located in Los Angeles, California. Keller converted to Islam from Christianity in 1977. Currently, Keller lives in Amman, Jordan. Keller is a Sufi. February 2, 2010