'Islam: A Tradition of Mercy' with Shaykh Allie Khalfe (Exclusive Interview)

In this interview, I speak to the founder of the Islamic Text Institute, Shaykh Allie Khalfe, based in Cape Town, South Africa, on his latest book, to be launched on Sunday 4 August 2019 at the Islamia Auditorium, demonstrating the tradition of mercy in Islam through graphical representation, based on the exegesis of Imam Fakhruddin al-Razi (d. 1210 CE).

Biography of Shaykh Allie Khalfe:

Allie Khalfe spent a decade learning various traditional texts from Shaykh Seraj and Shaykh Ahmad Hendricks who are the current Shaykhs of the Azzawia Institute in Walmer Estate, Cape Town. They in turn graduated from the Umm ul- Qura University in Mecca specializing in Usūl al- Fiqh and spent about ten years at the feet of the ocean of knowledge, Al-Sayyid Muhammad bin ‘Alawī al-Mālikī, may Allah be pleased with him.

Allie received from them license (ijāza) to transmit various branches of knowledge including Islamic Jurisprudence (Al-Fiqh), Theology (Al- Tawhīd) as well as the Spiritual Sciences (Al-Tasawwuf). He also spent two years at the Grand Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, sitting at the feet of some of the foremost scholars alive today, including Shaykh Sa’īd Mamdūh, Shaykh ‘Alī Jumu’a, Shaykh Fat’hī ‘Abdurahmān Al-Hijāzī, Shaykh Hasan Al-Shāfi’ī and Shaykh Hishām Kāmil, may Allah be pleased with them, all of whom he heard traditional texts to and received from them ijāza to transmit these texts.

He is currently completing his Masters in Islamic Studies with a focus on Theology at UNISA and is the founder of The IslamicText Institute, in Surrey Estate, Cape Town. He is the author of the following works: Sūrah Al-Fātiha: A Fellowship of Faith, Mind, Body and Soul, The Honor and Status of the Human Being, The Legacy: A Spiritual Journey to God and the IslamicText family Trivia game.

He also lectured on Theology at both the International Peace College of South Africa (IPSA) and the Madina Institute SA, and has been sanctioned as an ambassador of Dār al-Iftā al-Misriyyah in Egypt.