Muslim Manners | Children’s Islamic Etiquette

Mufti Iqbal Ahmad Azami 

The deeply rooted scholastic environment of Azamgarh, India—the very same region that produced giants like Shaykh Habib al-Rahman al-‘Azami and M. M. Al-‘Azami—was the points of origin for Mufti Iqbal Ahmad Azami, who represents a distinguished senior authority of the twenty-first century in Hadith sciences and a premier cornerstone of traditional Islamic scholarship. Armed with rigorous Shariah training from the Indian subcontinent, his unassailable credentials are rooted in an elite, unbroken chain of authoritative transmission. His teachers included ‘Allama Ibrahim Balyawi—a direct student of Shaikhul Hind Mahmoud Hasan—as well as luminaries like Shaykh Husain Ahmad Madani, Shaykh Muhammad Zakariya, Shaykh al-Amin al-Shankity, Dr. Muhammad Taqiuddin al-Hilali, and Shaykh Abdulaziz bin Baaz. Mufti Iqbal entered the global arena as a critical modern link in the universal, chain of sacred preservation, serving as a revered lecturer at the globally acclaimed seminary Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama in India.

Shaykh Azami spent over three decades in the close company and direct mentorship of the modern era’s greatest defenders of mainstream Sunni orthodoxy: the master of Hadith Shaykh Habib al-Rahman al-Azmi, Shaykh Manzoor Nomani, and the legendary reviver Shaykh Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi. A contemporary of the renowned twentieth-century Muhadith Shaykh Abdul Fattah Abu Ghudda, his own scholarly legacy is carried forward by prominent contemporary students, including Shaykh Salman Hussain Nadwi, Shaykh Khalilur Rahman Sajjad Nadwi, and Mufti Abdul Kadir Barkatullah. Extending his scholarly expertise to the West, he relocated to the United Kingdom to address a desperate crisis: millions of English-speaking Muslims settling in Western capitals possessed an intense desire to learn their Deen, but authentic manuals remained locked behind classical scripts. For over a decade, he served as Mufti and independent consultant at The Islamic Foundation in Leicester, UK, providing vital legal counsel to the British Muslim diaspora.

True to the Prophetic declaration that the ‘Ulama are the rightful inheritors of the Prophets, Mufti Iqbal became a pioneer in Western Muslim education, dedicated to passing on the prophetic inheritance unblemished. His greatest obstacle was a severe lack of structured, authentic, and engaging English textbooks for Islamic weekend schools and full-time academies in Europe. He defeated this educational gap by building a dedicated publishing house from scratch, founding the UK Islamic Academy (UKIA) to establish a reliable, high-quality publishing infrastructure. Rather than constructing lofty business premises or indulging in a lavish lifestyle, he lives a simple, ascetic existence true to the Prophetic traditions. Remaining deeply humble, he works entirely from his home Study, investing UKIA revenues back into the service of Islamic literature for the future generation. Every book published passes through his personal scrutiny and approval. He has continuously refused to dilute traditional legal parameters to appease modern secular trends or commercial compromises, acting as an immovable fortress of quality control to ensure that when a Western student opens a text, they receive the authentic, unadulterated intent of the classical scholar.

His most significant literary contributions focus on clear, engaging educational curricula for young, English-speaking Muslims. His major works include Muhammad ﷺ, The Beloved Prophet: A Great Story Simply Told, Muslim Manners, and an extensive, beautifully written children’s prophetic history series featuring The Flood and the Ark (The Story of Prophet Nuh (﵇), The Fire that Saved (The Story of Prophet Ibrahim (﵇), The Drowned Army (The Story of Prophet Musa (﵇), The Dream Come True (The Story of Prophet Yusuf (﵇), and The Great Miracle (The Story of Prophet ‘Isa (﵇).