Mohammad Akram Nadwi

Mohammad Akram Nadwi (born c. 1964) is an Islamic scholar from the Indian city of Jaunpur. He is also the founder and dean of Cambridge Islamic College.

Nadwi studied Islamic sciences at Darul-uloom Nadwatul Ulama, an Islamic institution at Lucknow.

He has written over 25 books in Arabic in the fields of hadith, fiqh, Islamic biography, and Arabic grammar and syntax. Most recently he has completed a 53-volume biographical dictionary of the muhaddithat, the female scholars of hadith. Expecting to find a handful, after eight years he had discovered more than 8000, from as long ago as Umm al-Darda, the wife of one of the companions of the Prophet

Nadwi says he does not advocate unrestricted mixing between the sexes, but acknowledges that Muslim societies and families often limit the potential of their girls and women. He compares this limitation to the "live burial" (i.e. female infanticide) practised in pre-Islamic Arabia. He attributes to the "decline of every aspect of Islam" an insecurity and weakness which leads to these restrictions on girls' education and women's rights.

Shaykh ’Abū Al-Hasan ‘Alī Nadwī – His Life & Works (Nadwi Foundation, 2013) The book covers all the various aspects of the life and works of ’Abū al-Hasan ‘Alī Nadwī including the background of Muslims in India and the rest of the Muslim world from a political, intellectual and educational perspective.

Al-Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars in Islam (Oxford: Interface Publications, 2007) A translation of the muqaddimah (preface) of his magnum opus above.

Abu Hanifah: His Life, Legal Method and Legacy (Leicester: Kube, 2010)

Al-Fiqh Al-Islami: According to the Hanafi Madhab: Purification, Prayers and Funerals v. 1 (London: Angelwing, 2007) An original compilation of the fiqh of Imam Abu Hanifah and his school. For the first time in English, the detailed rulings of this school are presented together with the evidence on which they are based; every argument is fully and carefully referenced. Nadwi takes current circumstances into consideration, making this book the first authentic, reliable and relevant account of Hanafi practice in English.

Madrasah Life (London: Turath, 2007) The translation (from Urdu) of his memoir of a student’s day at Nadwat al-Ulama.

The Garden of the Hadith Scholars (London: Turath, 2007) by Imam Abd Al-Aziz Ad-Dihlawi. Translated from Persian into Arabic and annotated by Mohammad Akram Nadwi. Translated into English by Aisha Bewley.