Few Days in al-Andalus: Muslim Spain

About the author

Muhammad Taqi Usmani: Born in 1943 CE in Deoband, India, Muhammad Taqi Usmani is widely regarded as among the most influential traditional scholars alive, often described as the intellectual head of the Deobandi school. He is the son of Mufti Muhammad Shafi, the former Grand Mufti of Pakistan and founder of Darul Uloom Karachi, where the younger Usmani completed his studies and specialized in Hanafi jurisprudence and ifta, earning the title of Mufti. He received hadith authority from Shaykh al-Hadith Muhammad Zakariyya al-Kandhlawi and pursued the spiritual path under Dr. Abd al-Hayy Arifi, a successor of Ashraf Ali Thanvi. Alongside the religious sciences he held a law degree, and from 1982 to 2002 served as a judge on the Shariʿa Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Usmani is best known internationally as a pioneering authority in Islamic finance, long chairing the Shariʿa council of AAOIFI in Bahrain and advising banks and institutions worldwide; his An Introduction to Islamic Finance is a standard reference. A prolific writer across Arabic, Urdu, and English, his works include a multi-volume Arabic commentary completing the Fath al-Mulhim gloss on Sahih Muslim, and the English translation of his father's Qurʾan commentary, Maʿariful Qurʾan. He has consistently ranked at the very top of lists of the world's most influential Muslims.