Sheikh Ali Gomaa issued a new encyclopedia mapping Islamic sciences for non Muslims

In an attempt to correct misconceptions about Islam and Muslims in the West, a new encyclopedia on Islamic religious sciences has been launched in Egypt, meeting the needs of a large number of non-Arabic speaking Muslims around the world.

"The encyclopedia, which holds the title "Introduction to study Islamic religious sciences" is presented in the English language in a very simple way,” Dr. Ibrahim Negm, a senior advisor to Egypt's Grand Mufti, told Egypt State Information Service on Saturday, February 16.

"It includes thirty disciplines of Islamic sciences as Qur'an, Islamic jurisprudence, theology, comparative religion and Islamic ethics studies, research methods in Islamic sciences and many other fields."
Negm said the new encyclopedia would also tackle a number of modern controversial issues such as Jihad, women in Islam and renewal of Islamic thought.

The launch crowns two years of extensive work under outgoing Mufti Ali Gomaa who established connections with biggest European and American universities.

A copy of this encyclopedia would be uploaded on Dar al-Ifta media center page on the Facebook.

Egyptian scholars hope the encyclopedia would help correct misconceptions about Islam and Muslims in the West.

“The encyclopedia will help the non-Arabic speaking Muslims to get acquainted with the Islamic sciences and serve as the defense line for the mediated Islamic thought,” Negm said.

“This encyclopedia will stand against the fierce attacks on Islam that are based on misinterpretations and misunderstanding of Islamic Shari`ah."

In Islam, Shari`ah govern issues in Muslims’ lives from daily prayers to fasting and from to inheritance and marital cases to financial disputes.

The Islamic rulings, however, do not apply on non-Muslims, even if in a dispute with non-Muslims.

Earlier in 2011, another educational encyclopedia was launched in Saudi Arabia, compounding scholarly work on Islam, human rights and inter-religious affairs in modern ages.

Titled "An Educational Encyclopedia of Islam”, the two-volume encyclopedia includes scholarly work on Islamic cultures, religion, history and politics, the entries of the encyclopedia are arranged alphabetically.
The encyclopedia places particular emphasis on nineteenth and twentieth centuries, containing over a thousand articles in two volumes on Islam, Muslims and the Islamic culture in the Arab mainland, South and Southeast Asia and Europe.