Shaykh Afifi al-Akiti
Shaykh Afifi al-Akiti is a Research Fellow in Islamic Philosophy and Theology at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. He has completed his doctoral thesis at Oxford University, on a newly discovered Arabic manuscript of a previously unknown theological work by Imam al-Ghazali. He was born in Malaysia and educated in various madrasas with a long tradition in Shafii fiqh in East Java.
Among his most well known teachers are:
Shaykh Muhammad Yasin al-Fadani,
Shaykh Ibn Mahfuz al-Hajini,
Shaykh Ibn Ashmuni al-Jaruni
and Habib 'Aydarus al-Habshi.
He has translated various works in Malay as well as English; mostly textbooks that make up the curriculum of a Classical Islamic education, including Imam al-Bajuri's commentary on the Jawhara, Imam Nawawi al-Bantani on the Jami'a and his commentary on the Bidaya of Imam al-Ghazali. He has travelled widely, and notwithstanding the specific ijazas from his training, has also received general ijazas (for tabarrukan) from teachers beyond his homeland.