Timothy John Winter (born 15 May 1960), also known as Abdal Hakim Murad (), is an English Islamic scholar and theologian who is a proponent of Islamic neo-traditionalism. His work includes publications on Islamic theology, modernity, and Anglo-Muslim relations, and he has translated several Islamic texts.

He is the Founder and Dean of the Cambridge Muslim College, Aziz Foundation Professor of Islamic studies at both Cambridge Muslim College and Ebrahim College, Director of Studies (Theology and Religious Studies) at Wolfson College and the Shaykh Zayed Lecturer of Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Divinity at University of Cambridge.

In 2008 he started the Cambridge Mosque Project which raised money for the construction of a purpose-built mosque. The Cambridge Central Mosque opened on 24 April 2019 as the first purpose-built Mosque in Cambridge, and the first eco-mosque in Europe.

Background and education

Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad, born Timothy Winter, grew up in Highgate. His father was the famous architect John Winter and his mother was a painter. He was educated at Westminster School and graduated with a double-first in Arabic from Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1983. He then went on to study at Al Azhar University in Cairo After returning to England, he studied Turkish and Persian at the University of London. In 2015, he received a PhD at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, with his dissertation entitled "An assessment of Islamic-Christian dichotomies in the light of Scriptural Reasoning"; it is embargoed until 2050.

Conversion to Islam

Murad converted to Islam in 1979. Reflecting on his early religious thinking, Murad has said that as a teenager he began questioning materialist explanations of beauty, concluding that it was “not something that can be explained away just as an aspect of brain function”. In the same context, he contrasted Christian and Islamic views of sexuality, stating that while in Christianity it is often understood as a consequence of the Fall, in Islam it is seen as “an anticipation of paradise”. Murad also directs the Anglo-Muslim Fellowship for Eastern Europe, and the Sunna Project which has published the foremost scholarly Arabic editions of the major Sunni Hadith collections. Murad is also a contributor to BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day.

Cambridge Mosque Project

Murad is the founder and leader of the Cambridge Central Mosque project which has developed a new purpose built mosque in Cambridge to cater for up to 1,000 worshipers. The mosque is an "eco-mosque" with substantial reliance on green energy and an almost-zero carbon footprint. Nonetheless, he has decried the rising hostility to Islam in Europe, and suggested that it is fuelled by the loss of faith and tradition within Europe itself, which he says results in Europeans formulating their identity by contrasting themselves with a Muslim Other.

Views on extremism

Murad is a traditionalist and considers the views of extremists like al-Qaeda as religiously illegitimate and inauthentic. He decries the failure of extremists to adhere to the classical canons of Islamic law and theology and denounces their fatwas. He unequivocally rejects suicide bombing and considers the killing of noncombatants as always forbidden, noting that some sources consider it worse than murder. According to Murad, Osama bin Laden and his right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahiri were entirely un-Islamic, unqualified vigilantes who violate basic Islamic teachings. He is also equally critical of Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi ideology, which he believes gives extremists a theological pretext for their extremism and violence.

Personal life

Murad's younger brother is football writer Henry Winter. Most recently in the 2022 Edition of The 500 Most Influential Muslims, Murad was ranked the 45th most influential Muslim in the world.

Publications

Books written

  • Travelling Home: Essays on Islam in Europe (Cambridge: The Quilliam Press, 2020)
  • Gleams from the Rawdat al-Shuhada: (Garden of the Martyrs) of Husayn Vaiz Kashifi (Cambridge: Muslim Academic Trust, 2015)
  • Montmorency's Book of Rhymes Illustrated by Anne Yvonne Gilbert (California: Kinza Press, 2013)
  • Commentary on the Eleventh Contentions (Cambridge: Quilliam Press Ltd, 2012)
  • XXI Asrda Islom: Postmodern Dunyoda qiblani topish (Tashkent: Sharq nashriyoti, 2005)
  • Muslim Songs of the British Isles: Arranged for Schools (London: Quilliam Press Ltd, 2005)
  • Postmodern Dünya’da kibleyi bulmak (Istanbul: Gelenek, 2003)
  • Co-authored with John A. Williams, Understanding Islam and the Muslims (Louisville: Fons Vitae, 2002)
  • Understanding the Four Madhhabs: Facts About Ijtihad and Taqlid (Cambridge: Muslim Academic Trust, 1999)

Books edited

  • The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008)
  • Islam, Religion of Life by Abdul Wadod Shalabi (USA: Starlatch Press, 2006)
  • Co-edited with Richard Harries and Norman Solomon, Abraham’s Children: Jews, Christians and Muslims in Conversation (Edinburgh: T&T Clark/Continuum, 2006)

Translations

  • Imam al-Busiri, The Mantle Adorned (London: Quilliam Press, 2009)
  • Al-Asqalani Ibn Hajar, Selections from Fath Al-Bari (Cambridge: Muslim Academic Trust, 2000)
  • Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Disciplining the Soul and Breaking the Two Desires (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1995)
  • Roger Du Pasquier, Unveiling Islam (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1992)
  • Imam al-Bayhaqi, Seventy-Seven Branches of Faith (London: Quilliam Press, 1990)
  • Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1989)

Articles

  • “The Last Trump Card: Islam and the Supersession of Other Faiths.” Studies in Interreligious Dialogue 9/2 (1999): 133–155.
  • “Pulchra ut luna: some Reflections on the Marian Theme in Muslim-Catholic Dialogue.” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 36/3 (1999): 439–469.
  • "Muslim Loyalty and Belonging: Some Reflections on the Psychosocial Background." In British Muslims: Loyalty and Belonging, edited by Mohammad Siddique Seddon, Dilwar Hussain, and Nadeem Malik (Leicester: Islamic Foundation; London: Citizens Organising Foundation, 2003).
  • “Tradition or Extradition? The threat to Muslim-Americans.” In The Empire and the Crescent: Global Implications for a New American Century, edited by Aftab Ahmad Malik (Bristol: Amal Press, 2003).
  • “Readings of the ‘Reading’.” In Scriptures in Dialogue: Christians and Muslims Studying the Bible and the Qur'an Together, edited by Michael Ipgrace (London: Church House Publishing, 2004), 50–55.
  • "The Poverty of Fanaticism." In Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition, edited by Joseph Lumbard (Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2004).
  • “Bombing Without Moonlight: the Origins of Suicidal Terrorism.” Encounters 10:1–2 (2004): 93–126.
  • “The Chador of God on Earth: the Metaphysics of the Muslim Veil.” New Blackfriars 85 (2004): 144–157.
  • "Qur'anic Reasoning as an Academic Practice." Modern Theology 22/3 (2006): 449–463; reprinted in The Promise of Scriptural Reasoning, edited by David Ford and C. C. Pecknold (Malden: Blackwell, 2006).
  • "Ishmael and the Enlightenment's Crise de Coeur." In Scripture, Reason, and the Contemporary Islam-West Encounter, edited by Basit Bilal Koshul and Steven Kepnes (New York: Palgrave, 2007).
  • "The Saint with Seven Tombs." In The Inner Journey: Views from the Islamic Tradition, edited by William Chittick (Ashgate: White Cloud Press, 2007).
  • "Ibn Kemal (d. 940/1534) on Ibn 'Arabi's Hagiology." In Sufism and Theology, edited by Ayman Shihadeh (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007).
  • “Poverty and the Charism of Ishmael.” In Building a Better Bridge: Muslims, Christians, and the Common Good, edited by Michael Ipgrave (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2009).
  • “Jesus and Muhammad: New Convergences.” Muslim World 99/1 (2009): 21–38.
  • “America as a Jihad State: Middle Eastern Perceptions of Modern American Theopolitics.” Muslim World 101 (2011): 394–411.
  • "Opinion: Bin Laden's sea burial was 'sad miscalculation" CNN.com (9 May 2011).
  • “Scorning the Prophet goes beyond free speech – it’s an act of violence” Daily Telegraph (17 Jan 2015).

References

  • Lectures by Abdal Hakim Murad
  • Abdal Hakim Murad audio and video lectures
  • Sunna Project.
  • A blog of podcasts of Murad's Friday sermons