“When I first listened to Shaykh Allie Khalfe speak of his writing on the life and times of Imam Shafi’i and then proceeded to read the first volume of seven, it was as if I fell in love Islam all over again.

What Shaykh Allie presents is a jurist and a body of work in jurisprudence [fiqh]. However, this is neither a legalistic nor an imitative presentation of fiqh, but rather an exposition of how courage to interpret, tolerance of difference, humility in learning, adaptation to context, and sacrifice for truth constitute the motive force for Islam to be eternal in time, universal in space, and adaptable to circumstance.

It is no surprise that the second volume of the work on Imam Shafi’i is in fact a focus on the work on Imam Abu Hanifa and his madhab, because all Islamic knowledge is iterative, even if centuries later loyal followers believe that all knowledge starts and ends only with their Imam.”