Abu Shu`ayb Sa`d Peters al-`Attas, a South African with roots extending to Yemen. He is a grandson of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace).
He graduated from the Shari`a institute run by the Tahdhib wa Ta`lim endowment in Damascus, Syria. He was in the four year, accelerated program. His studies there included the following: Arabic, `Ulum al-quran, Usul al-tafsir, Hadith, Aqidah, Fiqh (Shafi`i and some comparitive), Usul al-Fiqh, Sira (fiqh al-sira, sirat of the Khulifa al-Rashidin), Mantiq, and Khitaba.
Some of the more important books read during that time include:
* Ibn Hisham's Shudhur al-Dhahab and one year from Mughni al-Labib
* Shadhr al-`Arf
* al-Balagha al-Wadhiha
* Zakiriya al-Ansari's commentary on the Jazariyya
* Half of the Jalalayn, al-Sabuni's tafsir in Ayat al-Ahkam
* Dr. Nur al-Din `Itr's `Ulum al-Qur'an
* al-Nawawi's Irshad Tulab al-Haqa'id
* `Umdat al-Ahkam with its commentary Ihkam al-Ahkam
* al-Sawi `ala al-Jauhara, Dr. al-Buti's book on contemporary paradigms
* `Umdat al-Salik, Kifayat al-Akhiyar
* al-Mahalli `Ala al-Waraqat, Dr. al-Zuhayli's al-Wajiz, half of al-Luma` and Muftah al-Usul
* Mukhtasar Minhaj al-Qasidin
* Nur al-Yaqin, Itmam al-Wafa, Fiqh al-Sira
* Dhawabit al-Ma`rifah
His graduation thesis involved an extensive commentary on the hadiths concerning al-amr bi-l-ma`ruf wa al-nahi `an al-munkar. He defended his thesis and passed his oral examinations in `aqidah and fiqh, conducted by Shaykh `Abd al-`Aziz al-Khatib, the imam of Jami` al-Darwishiya and director of the school.
Outside of this institute Sa`d concentrated on Shafi`i fiqh. He read with Shaykh Hussayn Darawish for three years. During that time he completed Zakariya al-Ansari's Tuhfat al-Tulab with most of al-Sharqawi's marginal notes. He also completed nearly the first third of the same author's Fath al-Wahhab with additional notes from al-Bujayrami's marginal notes. While doing this he also read al-Shirazi's al-Tanbih with al-Suyuti's commentary, Sharh al-Yaqut al-Nafis, portions of al-Suyuti's al-Ashbah wa al-Natha'ir, I`yanat al-Talibin, and others.
He moved to Keighley in Ramadan 2003 where he currently resides with his wife and three children and teaches at the Abu Zahra Foundation. |
