Timothy Winter

Timothy Winter also known as Abdal Hakim Murad
Born	Timothy John Winter 1960 (age 52–53) London, England
Residence	Cambridge, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Other names	Abdal Hakim Murad
Alma mater	Pembroke College Cambridge SOAS University of London
Occupation	Islamic scholar, author, teacher
Religion	Sufi Islam

Timothy John Winter (born 1960), also known as Abdal Hakim Murad, is a British Sufi Muslim researcher, writer and academic.

Education

Born in 1960, the older brother of football writer Henry Winter, Timothy Winter was educated at Westminster School, and graduated with a double-first in Arabic from Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge in 1983.

Controversy

In May 2013, Winter provoked controversy when video footage came to public attention in which he stated that homosexuality was a sinful and "inherent aberration", with gays being "ignorant people who don't know what their bodies are for". A number of Cambridge students called for his resignation, but Winter asserted that the videos were over fifteen years old and reflected views that he no longer held. A Cambridge University spokesman said: "Mr Winter has apologised for these remarks, recorded nearly 20 years ago, and has emphasised that he no longer holds these views." In response to the suggestion that he be dismissed, Winter said "I think that the students concerned would be well advised to consult with me directly to determine what my views actually are, rather than complaining to others. That is the correct way of doing things in a university." Winter apologised on his website, saying: "When I looked at the clip I saw a young man ranting. It was probably the worst thing I have ever done, tricked out with dubious science and many errors, and presented in a very aggressive style which is alien to the manner I now use. My views, knowledge and style have mutated in 17 years. So I asked IslamOnDemand to take it off YouTube, and they did this. I believe – and Allah is my witness – that I was right, in Sharia, and considering the maslaha of the Muslims, to dissociate myself from the lecture and to apologise. How does it serve the interests of da’wa to offend? Those who say I should not have apologised should ask why we should gratuitously offend others, whoever they are. And the basic information in the lecture was unreliable or dubious, to say the least." Douglas Murray, blogging for The Spectator, called for Winter's sacking and cast doubt on his apology and the date of the video. In an undated article ("The Fall of the Family") on his website, Winter wrote: "To the religious believer, it is unarguable that homosexual acts are a metaphysical as well as a moral crime. Heterosexuality, with its association with conception, is the astonishing union which leads to new life, to children, grandchildren, and an endless progeny: it is a door to infinity. Sodomy, by absolute contrast, leads nowhere. As always, the most extreme vice comes about when a virtue is inverted."

Books

• XXI Asirda Islom: Postmodern Dunyeda qibleyi topush (Tashkent: Sharq neshriyet, 2005)

• Postmodern Dünya’da kibleyi bulmak (Istanbul: Gelenek, 2003)

• Muslim Songs of the British Isles: Arranged for Schools (London: Quilliam Press Ltd, 2005)

• Understanding the Four Madhhabs: Facts About Ijtihad and Taqlid (Cambridge: Muslim Academic Trust, 1999)

• Co-authored with John A. Williams, Understanding Islam and the Muslims (Louisville: Fons Vitae, 2002)

Edited Volumes

• The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) ISBN 978-0-521-78058-2

• Islam, Religion of Life by Abdul Wadod Shalabi (USA: Starlatch Press, 2006) ISBN 1-929694-08-3

• 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)

• Imam al-Bayhaqi, Seventy-Seven Branches of Faith (London: Quilliam Press, 1990)

• Roger Du Pasquier, Unveiling Islam (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1992)

• Al-Asqalani Ibn Hajar, ''Selections from Fath Al-Bari (Cambridge: Muslim Academic Trust, 2000)

• Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1989)

• Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Disciplining the Soul and Breaking the Two Desires (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1995)

Select Articles

• "America as a Jihad State: Middle Eastern Perceptions of Modern American Theopolitics." Muslim World 101 (2011): 394-411.

• "Jesus and Muhammad: New Convergences." Muslim World 99/1 (2009): 21-38.

• "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)

• "Ibn Kemal (d. 940/1534) on Ibn 'Arabi's Hagiology." In Sufism and Theology, edited by Ayman Shihadeh (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007)

• "The Saint with Seven Tombs." In The Inner Journey: Views from the Islamic Tradition, edited by William Chittick (Ashgate: White Cloud Press, 2007)

• "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)

• "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)

• "The Chador of God on Earth: the Metaphysics of the Muslim Veil." New Blackfriars 85 (2004): 144-57

• "Bombing Without Moonlight: the Origins of Suicidal Terrorism." Encounters 10:1-2 (2004): 93-126

• "The Poverty of Fanaticism." In Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition, edited by Joseph Lumbard (Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2004)

• "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

• "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)

• "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)

• "'Pulchra ut luna: some Reflections on the Marian Theme in Muslim-Catholic Dialogue." Journal of Ecumenical Studies 36/3 (1999): 439-469

• "The Last Trump Card: Islam and the Supersession of Other Faiths." Studies in Interreligious Dialogue 9/2 (1999): 133-155
• "Opinion: Bin Laden's sea burial was 'sad miscalculation" CNN.com (9 May 2011)

External links

• Murad's articles (including Contentions). on masud.co.uk
• British Muslim Song; a project initiated by Abdal Hakim Murad to recover, revive and write Muslim songs by indigenous Britons.
• Abdal Hakim Murad audio and video lectures
• Lectures by Abdal Hakim Murad on DVD and CD.
• Sunna Project.
• A blog with regularly updated podcasts of Murad's Friday Khutbas
• BBC Radio 4 Thought For The Day, delivered by Winter.
• Travelling Light lecture series on Imam al-Ghazali's Ihya Ulum al-Din directed by Abdal Hakim Murad.