Empowering and Uniting with
Islamic Knowledge
The Messenger of Allah (SWT) said: “Whoever takes a path upon which to obtain knowledge,
Allah makes the path to Paradise easy for him.” – Tirmidhi
ABOUT US
The Muslim Academic Trust (MAT), is a UK-registered charity launched in 1997 to support Muslim education and training nationwide
Our mission is to advance and promote the study and understanding of Islam for Muslims and non-Muslims. We direct those who wish to understand Islam more deeply to find answers for themselves by reading and learning and promote intra-faith and inter-faith dialogue.Honouring the first revealed word of the Quran, Iqra, meaning ‘read’, we encourage reading and study. We publish Islamic books and booklets on various topics relevant to Muslims and to the convert community in particular. We also practise Dawah (welcoming people to the fold of Islam) and are particularly interested in supporting newcomers to the Islamic faith. We provide answers for those who wish to understand Islam more deeply to establish intra-faith and inter-faith dialogue.
Help us support new Muslims as they navigate their journey to Islam.
Our Core Projects
Travelling Light
Online Course: The Revival of the Religions Sciences (Ihya Ulum al-Din) is a great work of Muslim spirituality. For centuries, it’s been recognised as an important work for Muslims and Imam al-Ghazali, the author is one of the greatest thinkers and theologians of Islam. MAT is currently producing Travelling Light, an online 40-lesson tutorial course on this masterwork of Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali.
Mishkat Media
Refresh your Mind and Soul: Mishkat Media (MM) is an oasis of light and hope. Connect with spiritual sights and sounds as you turn inward and upward. As our video and audio product division, MM produces quality videos and recordings of music from around the world. May these offerings give you blessings, strength and courage on your spiritual voyage. For more information, see mishkatmedia.com
Cambridge Crescent
Cambridge Crescent (CC) is a network for new Muslims. CC provides support and resources for people turning to Islam. We host open meetings and welcome anyone considering this life change. CC in-person meetings are aimed at building our community while countering the loneliness and isolation new Muslims often feel. Find out about our monthly reading group, Imam-led discussions, annual retreats, lectures and workshops at cambridgecrescent.org
Research Papers
Abdal Hakim Murad, Understanding the Four Madhhabs: The Facts about Ijtihad and Taqlid. 978-1902350011. Price: £1.00.
Why are there four schools of Islamic practice? Is it necessary to follow them? This short work outlines the answers the great scholars have given to these questions. Thanks to God’s mercy, Muslims do not need to work out all the details of their practice from the Qur’an and Hadith; instead, they can follow experts who explain how the scriptures are best understood and implemented.
Nuh Ha Mim Keller, Evolution Theory and Islam. 978-1902350035. Price: £1.00
This essay outlines an Islamic understanding of the neo-Darwinian evolution theory.
Nuh Ha Mim Keller, The Concept of Bid’a in Islamic Shari’a. 978-1902350028. Price: £1.00
Bid’a signifies a reprehensible innovation, practice or belief which is incompatible with the message of the Qur’an and Sunna. In this text, the author explains what constitutes bid’a, according to mainstream Sunni scholarship.
Abdal Hakim Murad, Selections from the Fath al-Bari. 978-1902350042. £2.00.
This book is a translation of selected passages from Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani’s commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari, the most authoritative collection of Prophetic hadiths. In it, the greatest of all classical Muslim hadith experts reveals the glory and hidden depths of the Sunna.
Paul Hardy, Islam and the Race Question. 978-1-902350-05-9. Price: £1.00
Over past centuries, the racialised societies now prevalent in the UK would have been alien to societies which developed under Islam. Wherever Islam put down roots, Muslims believed that discrimination and exclusion based on race were fundamentally foreign to the spirit of their faith. This book explores why this is understandable, given that there is a natural connection between affirming the oneness of God and upholding the equality of human beings before Him.
T.J. Winter British Muslim Identity: Past, Problems, Prospects. 978-1902350066. Price: £1.50
Muslims are now the largest religious minority in the United Kingdom. The country is home to more practising Muslims than practising Anglicans. Many studies have investigated British Muslim communities and the strategies they’ve adopted to integrate into their host country and society. Yet, there has been little interest in identifying the cultural paths by which Islam in Britain might become a ‘British Islam’, given both the history of British religion and the longstanding British perception of Muslims. This experimental survey of the issues explores the possibility of grafting the Muslim religion onto the tree of the country's religious and cultural life. It is an alternative to the illiberal agendas of rejection or the liberal and postmodern affirmations of an external radical otherness. It is suggested that the Pelagian possibility recurrent within British religions offers a suitable point at which this hugely important grafting might take place.
Board Members
Abdal Hakim Murad
(Timothy John Winter)
An English academic, theologian and Islamic scholar and a proponent of Islamic neo-traditionalism. He has produced publications on Islamic theology, modernity, and Anglo-Muslim relations, and has translated several Islamic texts. Abdal Hakim was educated at Cambridge, Al-Azhar and London universities.
Sohail
Bhatti
Sohail Bhatti has over 40 years of experience serving the non-profit sector. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Certified Accountants and works in Small Owner Managed Enterprises and start-ups. He has been on the board of trustees for the Millfield Children Sector and an active member of the Islamic Association of North London. Currently, he is a trustee of the Muslim Academic Trust and the Cambridge Mosque Trust.
Nabila
Winter
Nabila Winter has been a welfare officer at Cambridge Muslim College for fourteen years and the founder and facilitator of Cambridge Crescent since 2012. She holds a BA in Arabic from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Nabila consults for Cambridge Islamic Art, encouraging the hundreds of global artists in their network to support the Cambridge Central Mosque, by gifting artworks for the cause.
Our Publications
Marmaduke Pickthall, The Early Hours. 978-1902350103. Price: £8.95.
This historical novel, set in the last days of the Ottoman Empire, depicts a world trapped between Islam and the modern age. Camruddin is a simple Macedonian soldier whose romance with a girl from a Pasha’s harem presents him with a difficult decision at a timewhen the old and new are colliding.
Sarah Baker, From Utah to Eternity: A Mormon-Muslim Journey. 978-0953805648. Price: £19.95. 978-0953805655 Price £9.95.
This novel follows the intriguing struggle and journey of a young Mormon, Jake. Brought up in a strict Mormon family and community, Jake embarks on a journey to spread the word and teachings of Joseph Smith. Jake’s trip to Japan is meant to be the “icing on the cake” in his transition to a qualified Mormon ready to follow the programmed regime and way of life. As time passes, however, he questions why Mormonism targets only certain individuals, as well as the authenticity of and contradictions in his faith. He befriends a Muslim, named Suleyman, and the questions increase. Thirsty for divine inspiration and with consistency and morals as priorities, he sets out to learn more about the misunderstood faith of Islam.
Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood, The Mysteries of Jesus: A Muslim Study of the Origins and Doctrines of the Christian Church. 978-0953805662 £24.95. 978-0953805679. Price: £12.95.
Approximately eighty past generations of Christians were confident that Jesus was the son of God. Currently, about twenty-five percent of the world’s population, still do. Many express great familiarity and certainty about the events of his life, as though they witnessed them personally, proposing descriptive theories of his history. They aspire to the highest of all possible callings, i.e. the love of Jesus and service to him. They believe that the self- sacrifice of God in the form of Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. This fascinating book delves into Christian and Islamic viewpoints on the Prophet Jesus. The author provides a coherent and logical argument explaining why many of the early “Christian” teachings, as taught by Jesus, were lost soon after he left the world. This book is recommended for anyone interested in who Jesus really was; and the conflicts among the teachings of Jewish Christians (including James, the brother of Jesus), the Trinitarian Christianity of Paul, and the Unitarian Christianity which has survived to this day.
Abdal Hakim Murad (arranged and translated), Turkish Sacred Songs. 978- 1902350127. Price: £6.95.
This unique anthology presents English translations of thirty-two of the best-loved sacred songs (ilahis) of Turkey, together with full musical notation. Spanning seven centuries, the line-up includes classics by Yunus Emre, Niyazi, Aski, and many more. The original metres have been retained, allowing the words to be sung to the original Turkish tunes. These songs are ideal for choirs and individual vocalists, looking to widen their repertoire by exploring the charms of one of the world’s great musical traditions.
Paul Abdulwadud Sutherland, Poems on the Life of the Prophet Muhammad. 978- 1902350080. Price: £9.95.
Every day during the month of Ramadan 2012, and for ten days thereafter, British-Canadian poet, Paul Abdul Wadud Sutherland composed a poem reflecting on some aspect of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). This collection represents the distillation of Sutherland’s meditations during that intense and luminous period.
Lejla Demiri, A Common Word: Text and Reflections. A Resource for Parishes and Mosques. 978-1902350073. Price: £4.95.
Since its launch, A Common Word between Us and You, the open letter from the leading thinkers of Islam to the Christian churches, has become the major initiative in interfaith dialogue between Christians and Muslims. This book supplies the full text of the Common Word, followed by two essays written in its wake, by Professor David Burrell (Christian) and Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad (Muslim). It offers an ideal resource for the many church and mosque groups that use the Common Word to enhance understanding and build bridges of love and respect with their religious neighbours.
Lejla Demiri, Un Cuvânt Comun: Text Si Reflectii. 978-1902350202. Price: £9.95.
Romanian Translation, A Common Word between Us and You, the open letter from the leading thinkers of Islam to the Christian churches, has become the major initiative in interfaith dialogue between Christians and Muslims. This book supplies the full text of the Common Word, followed by two essays written in its wake, by Professor David Burrell (Christian) and Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad (Muslim). It offers an ideal resource for the many church and mosque groups that use the Common Word to enhance understanding and build bridges of love and respect with their religious neighbours.
Abdal Hakim Murad, Gleams from the Rawdat al-Shuhada of Husayn Vaiz Kashifi. 978-1902350110. Price: £4.95.
This is a collection of litanies and songs from the great Muharram commemoration of Husayn Vaiz Kashifi, the poet of Herat (Afghanistan). They are given new life with soulful Celtic melodies and unique English, Arabic and Farsi words. Learn of the sorrows of the Prophetic House, and the greatness of their allies and true followers.
Enquiries
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email us and we will reply as soon as possible