Shaykh Sa’ad al-’Attas

Profile

Shaykh Sa’ad al-’Attas, a South African Scholar with roots extending to Yemen is a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.

He graduated from the Shari'a Institute run by the Tahdib wa Ta'lim endowment in Damscus, Syria. He was in the four year accelerated program. His studies there included the following: Arabic, Ulum-ul-Quran, Usul al-Tafsir, Hadith, Aqidah, Fiqh (Shafi'i and some comparitive, Usul al-Fiqh, Sira (fiqh al-Sira, Sirat of the Khulafa al-Rashideen), Mantiqu 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
• Zakiriya al-Ansari's commentary on Jazariyya
• Half of the Jalalayn, al-Subunis Tafsir in Ayat al-Ahkam
• Dr. Nur al-Din Itr's Ulum al-Quran
• 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-Waraqaat, 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

Outside of this institute, Shaykh Sa'ad 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 authors'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-Sayuti's commentary, Sharh al-Yaqut al-Nafis, portions of al-Sayuti's al-Ashbah wa al-Natha'ir, I'yanat al-Talibin, and others.

He has founded Ark Academy in Bradford, an institute excelling in Arabic and Islamic Studies where he has been teaching for over 10 years.