In the Presence of the Beloved: Two Treatises on The Merits and Etiquettes of Visiting The Prophet

About the authors

Ahmad ibn Muhammad Qastallani: Imam Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Qastallani rahimahullah (d. 923/1517) was one of the leading scholars of his era, recognized as a prominent Egyptian Shafi'i jurist, a master reciter of the Qur'an (qari), and a renowned transmitter of hadith. He traveled widely in his pursuit and dissemination of knowledge and was a prolific author across numerous Islamic disciplines. His works have continued to benefit the Muslim community across the centuries and remain part of the living scholarly tradition today.

Abdallah Sirajuddin: Abdallah Sirajuddin al-Husayni (1342-1422 AH / 1923-2002 CE) was one of the leading scholars of twentieth-century Aleppo, known for his learning in hadith, Qurʾanic exegesis, creed, and the spiritual life, and revered for his devotion to the Prophet. A descendant of the Prophet through the Husayni line, he was born in Aleppo to the scholar Shaykh Muhammad Najib Sirajuddin, who guided his early education. He memorized the Qurʾan as a boy and pursued the sacred sciences at the Khasrawiyya madrasa, studying hadith under teachers such as Shaykh Isa al-Bayanuni. Hanafi in law, he began teaching while still young and continued for the rest of his life in the mosques, schools, and study circles of Aleppo. In 1958 he founded a school of Islamic learning with a full curriculum, and he established Qurʾanic instruction supported by scholarships. He authored more than thirty works spanning creed, prophetic biography and character, remembrance and supplication, ethics, hadith, and Qurʾanic studies. His best-known book is his major study of the Prophet, the basis of the English translation Our Master Muhammad (peace be upon him): His Sublime Character and Exalted Attributes; other writings translated into English include works on the testimony of faith, fasting, and sending prayers upon the Prophet. Among his students were scholars who became prominent in their own right, including Shaykh Nur al-Din ʿItr, who was also his son-in-law and biographer.

About the translator

Amjad Mahmood: Amjad Mahmood is a contemporary translator and annotator of classical Islamic texts, working chiefly with Heritage Press in the United Kingdom. His renderings give English readers careful access to works of Sufism and Hanafi law, with attention to footnoting, source references, and the Qurʾan and Sunna citations embedded in the original texts. Among his best known works is The Refinement of Souls, a translation of Taj al-ʿArus al-Hawi li-Tahdhib al-Nufus by Ibn ʿAtaʾ Allah al-Iskandari, the Shadhili master. The book gathers spiritual instructions, aphorisms, and intimate discourses with the Divine, treating themes such as repentance, the effects of sin, the struggle against the lower self, envy, and reliance on divine planning. Mahmood has also translated devotional and juristic primers, notably the "A Believer's Guide" series on prayer, fasting, and zakat, which render treatises by scholars including Muhammad Hisham Burhani and Ahmad ibn Zayni Dahlan, and he has worked on creedal material associated with the Hanafi and Maturidi tradition. Working from within the traditional Sunni scholarly current, his translations are valued for plain, faithful English and useful annotation rather than paraphrase. Detailed biographical information about him is not widely published; he is known primarily through his body of translation work.