Nuh Ha Mim Keller

b. 1954 · United States and Jordan · Shadhili Sufi shaykh, translator and author

Nuh Ha Mim Keller was born in 1954 in Washington State to a German-American family and raised as a Roman Catholic. He studied philosophy and Arabic at the University of Chicago and the University of California, Los Angeles, and embraced Islam in 1977; he has named the writings of Seyyed Hossein Nasr among the influences on that decision. After a period working as a fisherman in the North Pacific he began a long course of study with scholars in Syria and Jordan.

He joined the Shadhili Sufi order under the poet and shaykh Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri of Damascus, from whom he received authorisation as a shaykh in 1996. He later settled in Amman, where he founded a zawiya and teaching community. He is best known for his English translation of the Shafi’i manual of law Umdat al-Salik (Reliance of the Traveller) and for his later translation of the Qur’an, The Quran Beheld (2022).

His own books are short and focused: papers on the concept of bid’a (reprehensible innovation) and on evolution, a study of the direction of prayer in North America, a personal account of becoming Muslim, essays on Sufism, and the larger Sea Without Shore, a manual of the Sufi path. They are written for English-speaking Muslims and draw on classical Islamic sources.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Biography sources: en.wikipedia.org · masud.co.uk

Works

Books 6

PAMPHLET 1999 · English

Evolution Theory and Islam: Letter to Suleman Ali

A letter answering a question about the theory of evolution from the standpoint of Islamic belief.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: openlibrary.org

Cite

Keller, Nuh Ha Mim. Evolution Theory and Islam: Letter to Suleman Ali. 1999. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/nuh-ha-mim-keller/#nuh-ha-mim-keller-evolution-theory-and-islam-letter-to-suleman-ali

No free copy online

PAMPHLET 1999 · English

The Concept of Bid'a in the Islamic Shari'a

An essay on what counts as reprehensible innovation (bid'a) in Islamic law and how it relates to the sunna.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: openlibrary.org

Cite

Keller, Nuh Ha Mim. The Concept of Bid'a in the Islamic Shari'a. 1999. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/nuh-ha-mim-keller/#nuh-ha-mim-keller-the-concept-of-bida-in-the-islamic-sharia

No free copy online

MEMOIR 2001 · English

Becoming Muslim

A first-person account of the author's path from a Catholic upbringing in the American Northwest to Islam.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: openlibrary.org

Cite

Keller, Nuh Ha Mim. Becoming Muslim. 2001. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/nuh-ha-mim-keller/#nuh-ha-mim-keller-becoming-muslim

No free copy online

PAMPHLET 2001 · English

Port in a Storm: A Fiqh Solution to the Qibla of North America

A fiqh study of how Muslims in North America should determine the direction of prayer.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: openlibrary.org

Cite

Keller, Nuh Ha Mim. Port in a Storm: A Fiqh Solution to the Qibla of North America. 2001. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/nuh-ha-mim-keller/#nuh-ha-mim-keller-port-in-a-storm-a-fiqh-solution-to-the-qibla-of-north

No free copy online

PAMPHLET 2002 · English

Sufism and Islam

A short work on the relationship between Sufism and mainstream Islam.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: openlibrary.org

Cite

Keller, Nuh Ha Mim. Sufism and Islam. 2002. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/nuh-ha-mim-keller/#nuh-ha-mim-keller-sufism-and-islam

No free copy online

BOOK 2011 · English

Sea Without Shore: A Manual of the Sufi Path

A manual of the Sufi path by a Shadhili teacher, setting out its method and outlook.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: Internet Archive (borrowable)

Cite

Keller, Nuh Ha Mim. Sea Without Shore: A Manual of the Sufi Path. 2011. Internet Archive (borrowable), https://archive.org/details/seawithoutshorem0000nuhh. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/nuh-ha-mim-keller/#nuh-ha-mim-keller-sea-without-shore-a-manual-of-the-sufi-path

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