View source for Nuh Ha Mim Keller

{{Short description|American Islamic scholar}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2015}}
{{Infobox religious biography
| image            =
| era              = [[modern history|Modern era]]
| caption          = Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller
| title            = [[Shaykh]]
| name             = Nuh Ha Mim Keller
| birth_date       = {{Birth year and age|1954}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ebooks.i360.pk/2015/10/25/becoming-muslim-nuh-ha-mim-keller/|title=Becoming Muslim, Nuh Ha Mim Keller|first=Ameen|last=Akbar|date=October 25, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151028002951/http://ebooks.i360.pk/2015/10/25/becoming-muslim-nuh-ha-mim-keller/|archive-date=October 28, 2015|df=mdy-all}}</ref>
| birth_place      = [[United States]]
| region           = [[Jordan]]
| religion = [[Islam]]
| denomination     = [[Sunni]]
| Maddhab          = [[Shafi'i]]
| creed            = [[Ash'ari]]
| Sufi_order       = [[Shadhili]]
| main_interests   = [[Sharia]], [[Hadith]], [[Tafsir]], [[Sufism]]
| disciples = [[Asaduddin Owaisi]]<ref>{{cite news|url=https://caravanmagazine.in/reportage/the-seeker-asaduddin-owaisi-india-muslim-electorate|work=[[The Caravan]]|author=Farooquee, Neyaz|title=The Seeker: Asaduddin Owaisi's ambition to unite India's fractured Muslim electorate|date=September 1, 2016}}</ref>
| module = {{Infobox Arabic name|embed=yes
| ism = Nūḥ Ḥā Mīm<br>نور حـم | nasab = Keller<br>كيلر | nisba = Al-Almānī<br>الأَلْمَانِيّ<br/>Al-Wāshinṭunī<br>الْوَاشِنْطُنِيّ}}
}}
'''Nuh Ha Mim Keller''' (born 1954) is an American Islamic scholar, teacher and author who lives in [[Amman]]. He is a translator of a number of [[Islam]]ic books.<ref>{{cite book |title=Understanding Islam&nbsp;– The First Ten Steps |author=Hewer, C. T. R. |page=209 |year=2006 |publisher=[[SCM Press]] |isbn=978-0-334-04032-3}}</ref>

== Life and scholarship ==

Keller was born in 1954 to a third-generation [[German American]] family in the [[State of Washington]]. In addition to his German roots, he possessed some [[Scottish people|Scottish]] and [[Irish people|Irish]] ancestry on his mother's side as well. Keller studied [[philosophy]] and [[Arabic language|Arabic]] at the [[University of Chicago]] and the [[University of California, Los Angeles]]. He converted to [[Islam]] from [[Roman Catholicism]] in 1977.<ref name="auto">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V5EuDAAAQBAJ|title=Sufis, Salafis and Islamists: The Contested Ground of British Islamic Activism|last=Hamid|first=Sadek|date=2015-12-30|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-78453-231-4|pages=81–82|language=en}}</ref> He has cited Islamic philosopher [[Seyyed Hossein Nasr]]'s writings as one of the reasons for his conversion to Islam.<ref name=Kasper>{{Cite journal|last=Mathiesen|first=Kasper|date=2013|title=Anglo-American 'Traditional Islam' and Its Discourse of Orthodoxy|url=https://journals.uio.no/JAIS/article/view/4633|journal=Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies|language=en|volume=13|pages=191–219|doi=10.5617/jais.4633|issn=0806-198X|doi-access=free}}</ref>{{Rp|198}}

Keller worked as a [[commercial fisherman|commercial]] [[fisherman]] in the [[North Pacific]]. He then began a prolonged study of the Islamic sciences with prominent scholars in [[Syria]] and [[Jordan]] and was authorized as a [[shaykh]] in 1996.<ref name="auto" />
[[Category:American fishermen]]
He joined the [[Shadhili]] [[Sufism|Sufi]] [[Tariqa|order]], becoming a disciple of the Sufi poet [[Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri|Sheikh ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri]] of [[Damascus]] (from whom he received his authorization) from 1982 until his death in 2004.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thesilainitiative.org/author/sheikh-nuh-ha-mim-keller/|title=Sheikh Nuh Ha Mim Keller &#124; The Sila Initiative|website=thesilainitiative.org}}</ref>

His English translation of ''Umdat al-Salik'', ''[[Reliance of the Traveller]]'', (Sunna Books, 1991) is a [[Shafi'i]] manual of [[Shariah]].<ref name= "reliance1">{{cite web|url=http://www.catheyallison.com/Reliance_of_the_Traveller.pdf  |title=Reliance of the Traveller |author=[[Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri]], Nuh Ha Mim Keller |date =1368|work=Amana Publications |access-date=14 May 2020}}</ref><ref name = "reliance2">{{cite web|url=http://dailyrollcall.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/the-reliance-of-the-traveller.pdf  |title=A Classic Manual of Islamic Scared Law |author= [[Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri]], Nuh Ha Mim Keller |date=1368|work=Shafiifiqh.com|access-date=14 May 2020}}</ref> It is the first Islamic legal work in a European language to receive the certification of [[Al-Azhar University]].<ref name="auto" /><ref>{{cite book |title=Crimes of the Community: Honour-Based Violence in the UK |author1=Brandon, James |author2=Hafez, Salam |page=67 |year=2008 |publisher=[[Centre for Social Cohesion]] |isbn=978-1-903386-64-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iInaAAAAMAAJ}}</ref> 

Keller released a translation of the Quran titled ''The Quran Beheld'' in 2022 which strives to provide readers with a unique sense of the high eloquence and beauty of the Quran while also maintaining the linguistic and rhetorical accuracy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Quran Beheld |url=https://www.quranbeheld.com/ |access-date=2022-06-30 |website=www.quranbeheld.com}}</ref>{{primary inline|date=June 2022}} In the translator's own words, "Seven key areas of meaning" were "neglected by previous translations. Such gaps result in crucial elements of the Quran’s themes, logic, arguments, message, and meanings being lost. ''The Quran Beheld'' thus uncovers matters of Arabic meaning in the Quran for the first time in English."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Discover the Quran in English |url=https://www.quranbeheld.com/explore |access-date=2022-06-30 |website=www.quranbeheld.com}}</ref>{{primary inline|date=June 2022}}

Keller has also written numerous articles and was a regular contributor to ''[[Islamica Magazine]]'' and the website masud.co.uk.<ref>{{cite news |author=Brown, Derek |date=November 1, 2001 |title=A Different Perspective: Muslim Websites in Britain&nbsp;– Britain's Muslim Community Is Well Served by Websites Offering News, Opinion, and Religious Interpretation of the West's Response to the Terrorist Attacks on the US, as Derek Brown Explains |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/nov/01/september11.uk |access-date=September 18, 2011}}</ref> 

Currently, Keller lives in [[Amman]], [[Jordan]],<ref>{{cite book |title=Educating the Muslims of America |author1=[[Yvonne Haddad|Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck]] |author2=Senzai, Farid |author3=Smith, Jane I. |page=[https://archive.org/details/educatingmuslims0000unse/page/144 144] |year=2009 |publisher=[[New York City]]: [[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-537520-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/educatingmuslims0000unse/page/144 }}</ref> where he established a ''[[Zawiya (institution)|zawiya]]'' (seminary) in the early 2000s. At its height, the community attending the institution is believed to have amounted to around 60 families living permanently in Jordan, and hundreds of students of knowledge and families who visited the community for short visits seeking Keller's spiritual insights as well as formal Islamic studies with scholars in the area.{{citation needed|date=July 2025}}

He is married to Besa Krasniqi, a scholar who is the daughter of [[Mazhar Krasniqi]].<ref name="Dru14">{{cite journal|last=Drury|first=Abdullah|title=Mazharbeg: An Albanian in Exile|url=https://www.waikato.ac.nz/fass/UWISG/review/Waikato-Islamic-Studies-Review-Vol-6-No-1.pdf#page=4|journal=Waikato Islamic Studies Review|volume=6|issue=1|year=2020|page=14|doi=}}</ref>

== Works ==
===Author===
*[[Darwinism|''Evolution Theory'']] ''and Islam: Letter to Suleman Ali'', 1999.
*''The Concept of [[Bidʻah|Bidʻa]] in the Islamic Shariʻa'', 1999.
*''The [[Shadhili|Shadhili Tariqa]]: Notes from the Hashimi-[[Darqawiyya|Darqawi]] Order of the Tariqa of [[Al-Shadhili|Imam Abul Hasan al-Shadhili]]'', 1999.
*''Port in a Storm: A [[Fiqh]] Solution to the [[Qibla]] of North America'', 2001.
*''Becoming Muslim'', 2001.
*''Sufism and Islam'', 2002.
*''Sea Without Shore: A Manual of the Sufi Path'', 2011.

===Translator===
*[[Al-Nawawi|Yaḥyā Ibn-Šaraf an-Nawawī]], ''Al-Nawawi's Manual of Islam (Maqāṣid)'', 1996 (latest edition in 2009).
*Aḥmad Ibn-an-Naqīb al-Miṣrī, ''[[Reliance of the Traveller]] : A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law (ʻUmdat al-salik)'', 1994 (latest edition in 2015).
*[https://www.quranbeheld.com/ ''The Quran Beheld'': ''An English Translation from the Arabic''], 2022.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Sufi}}
{{Shafi'i scholars}}
{{Ash'ari}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keller, Nuh Ha Mim}}
[[Category:Place of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:1954 births]]
[[Category:20th-century scholars]]
[[Category:21st-century scholars]]
[[Category:Asharis]]
[[Category:Sunni Sufis]]
[[Category:American Sufis]]
[[Category:Shafi'i fiqh scholars]]
[[Category:American former Christians]]
[[Category:Converts to Sunni Islam from Catholicism]]
[[Category:American expatriates in Jordan]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Shadhili order]]
[[Category:People from Amman]]
[[Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni]]
[[Category:University of Chicago alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century American translators]]
[[Category:21st-century American translators]]
[[Category:Supporters of Ibn Arabi]]
[[Category:German Sunni Muslims]]
[[Category:American people of German descent]]