Reliance of the Traveller


Umdat as-Salik wa 'Uddat an-Nasik is a classical manual of fiqh for the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence. The author of the main text is 14th-century scholar Shihabuddin Abu al-'Abbas Ahmad ibn an-Naqib al-Misri.
Al-Misri based his work on the previous Shafi'i works of Imam Nawawi and Imam Abu Ishaq as-Shirazi, following the order of Shirazi's al-Muhadhdhab and the conclusions of Nawawi's Minhaj at-Talibin.
As recently as 1991, Reliance of the Traveller became the first standard Islamic legal reference to be translated into English, to be certified by Al-Azhar University in Egypt.

Keller translation

Umdat as-Salik was translated into English by the American Muslim scholar Nuh Ha Mim Keller in 1991 and became the first translation of a standard Islamic legal reference in a European language to be certified by Al-Azhar University. The translation comprises 26 sections titled according to the letters of the English alphabet, Book A, Book B, Book C, etc.
Books A through C contain introductory material forming a guide to fiqh compiled by Keller. Books D through O correspond to the original work of al-Misri, commencing with an "Author's Introduction". Following are translations of eight shorter works - Books P through V - which address topics such as personal ethics, character, and traditional Islamic Sufism, and include famous classical texts such as Al-Ghazzali's Ihya’ ʿulum al-din and Nawawi's Riyadh as-Saaliheen. Book W consists of extensive notes and appendices, Book X offers thumbnail biographies of hundreds of figures mentioned throughout the work, and Books Y and Z conclude it with a bibliography and indexes.
Certain sections of the book were left untranslated, as Keller considered them irrelevant to modern societies. These parts include a section on slavery, describing the rights and duties of slaves and their masters, as well as some smaller sections such as, for example, a discussion on fixing utensils using gold.

Main sections of the Keller translation

  • A. Sacred Knowledge
  • B. The Validity of Following Qualified Scholarship
  • C. The Nature of Legal Rulings
  • D. Author's Introduction to 'Umdat al-Salik
  • E. Purification
  • F. The Prayer
  • G. The Funeral Prayer
  • H. Zakat
  • I. Fasting
  • J. The Pilgrimage
  • K. Trade
  • L. Inheritance
  • M. Marriage
  • N. Divorce
  • O. Justice
  • P. Enormities
  • Q. Commanding the Right and Forbidding the Wrong
  • R. Holding One's Tongue
  • S. Delusions
  • T. A Pure Heart
  • U. The Gabriel Hadith
  • V. Belief in Allah and His Messenger
  • W. Notes and Appendices
  • X. Biographical Notes
  • Y. Works Cited
  • Z. Indexes