Virtues of Baytul Muqaddas

About the translators

Sulayman al-Kindi: Mawlana Sulayman al-Kindi is a South African Islamic scholar, author, and translator associated with Darul Uloom Zakariyya, the Islamic learning institution located on the outskirts of Lenasia, south of Johannesburg. He is best known for producing the first complete English rendering of the ninth-century Arabic historical chronicle Futuh al-Sham by the great historian Imam al-Waqidi (d. 207 AH), published as The Islamic Conquest of Syria by Ta-Ha Publishers (London). This landmark translation made one of the earliest accounts of the Muslim conquest of the Levant accessible to English-speaking readers for the first time. Al-Kindi subsequently translated the related two-volume Conquests of the Sahabah, extending his documentation of this pivotal era in Islamic history. Beyond translation, he has authored original works including 29 Night Tafseer, a concise Qur'anic commentary, and has translated Virtues of Baytul Muqaddas. His output reflects both scholarly training in the classical Islamic sciences and a commitment to making Arabic source texts available in English.

Afzal Hoosen Elias: Afzal Hoosen Elias (1955–2018 CE) was a South African mufti, translator, and remarkably prolific compiler working within the Hanafi school and the Deobandi tradition. He was born in Muharram 1375 AH (September 1955 CE) in Estcourt, KwaZulu-Natal, and first qualified as a draftsman, graduating from the ML Sultan College in Durban, before turning to formal religious study at Darul Uloom Deoband in India. There he completed his Aalim certificate in 1983 and his Mufti certificate in 1984, studying hadith under Mufti Saeed Ahmad Palanpuri and Qurʾanic commentary under the mufassir Ghulamullah Khan of Rawalpindi. His life's work was the translation, compilation, and publication of Islamic knowledge in clear, accessible English, a legacy of more than 600 titles spanning Qurʾan, tafsir, hadith, history, and devotional life. He is best known for "Quran Made Easy," a plain-language rendering of the Qurʾan widely used by general readers, and for his English translation of Aashiq Ilahi's ten-volume tafsir, "Illuminating Discourses of the Noble Quran." His compilations include the popular "Hundred Stories" biographical series on the Companions and early figures, and "The Wisdom of Luqman." For over a decade he served as mufti for Radio Islam in Johannesburg, and for several years for Radio Al Ansaar in Durban. He passed away on 25 April 2018 (8 Shaʿban 1439 AH).