Shaykh Sa'ad al-'Attas

Abu Shu’ayb Sa’ad Peters al-’Attas, a South African with roots extending to Yemen. He is a grandson of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace). He currently resides with his family in Keighley, where he is a resident scholar at the Abu Zahra Foundation.

He graduated from the Shari’a institute run by the Tahdhib wa Ta’lim endowment. He was in the four year, accelerated program. His studies there included the following:
Arabic (nahu, sarf, balagha, adab, insha), Quran (memorization, tajwid, tafsir, ayat al-ahkam, ’ulum al-quran, usul al-tafsir), Hadith (memorization, commentary, mustalah al-hadith, takhrij, rijal, ahadith al-ahkam), ’Aqidah, Fiqh (Shafi’i and some comparitive), Usul al-Fiqh, Tarbiyyah, Sira (fiqh al-sira, sirat of the Khulifa al-Rashidin), Mantiq 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
  • al-Balagha al-Wadhiha
  • Zakiriya al-Ansari’s commentary on the Jazariyya
  • Half of the Jalalayn, al-Sabuni’s tafsir in Ayat al-Ahkam
  • Dr. Nur al-Din ’Itr’s ’Ulum al-Qur’an
  • 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-Waraqat, 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

His graduation thesis involved an extensive commentary on the hadiths concerning al-amr bi-l-ma’ruf wa al-nahi ’an al-munkar. He defended his thesis and passed his oral examinations in ’aqidah and fiqh, conducted by Shaykh ’Abd al-’Aziz al-Khatib, the imam of Jami’ al-Darwishiya and director of the school.

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 complete nearly the first third of the same author’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-Suyuti’s commentary, Sharh al-Yaqut al-Nafis, portions of al-Suyuti’s al-Ashbah wa al-Natha’ir, I’yanat al-Talibin, and others.

His concentration on the Shafi’i madhhab allowed him to dive below the surface of simply learning rulings [ahkam] and descend into the depths of understanding the madhhab itself [fiqh]