As-Sunnah Foundation of America

As-Sunnah Foundation of America (ASFA)
Founder and president: Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani Founded 1994.
Publisher of Islamic texts and the sunnah.org website

The organization's intent, according to its website, is to assemble "a group of scholars and professors to teach, write, and translate from traditional sources of Islamic knowledge by authentic scholars of the various schools of fiqh (madhahib) and `aqida.

ASFA's intention is to emphasize the well-known Islamic principle that as long as a believer follows any School of Thought (fiqh), he or she remains within the boundaries of the community (Ummah) of the Prophet Muhammad , provided he or she accepts the way of the Sunnah and Shari'ah.

ASFA has published a number of traditionalist books, primarily authored by founder, Shaykh Kabbani, or translated from traditional sources by protege, Dr. Gabriel Fouad Haddad. Published titles include:
Kabbani, Shaykh Muhammad Hisham, Salafi Movement Unveiled, ASFA, 2000.
Kabbani, Shaykh Muhammad Hisham, Encyclopedia of Islamic Doctrine, ISBN: 1-871031-48-6, ASFA, 1996.
Jamal Effendi al-`Iraqi al-Zahawi, The Doctrine of Ahl as-Sunna Versus the "Salafi" Movement, translated with notes by Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, ASFA, 1996.
Imam al-Bayhaqi, Allah's Names and Attributes (Al-Asma' wa al-Sifat), translated by Dr. Gabriel Fouad Haddad, ASFA, 1998. al-Maliki, As-Sayyid Muhammad ibn Alawi, The Prophets in Barzakh; The Hadith of Isra' and Mi'raj, The Immense Merits of Al-Sham; The Vision of Allah, translated by Dr. Gabriel Fouad Haddad, ASFA, 1998.
Imam 'Izz ibn 'Abd al-Salam, Beliefs of the People of Islam (Aqa'id Ahl al-Islam), translated by Dr. Gabriel Fouad Haddad, ASFA, 1998.
Ibn Khafif, Correct Islamic Doctrine (Al-'Aqida al-Sahiha), Islamic Doctrine (Al-'Aqida Ahl al-Islam), translated by Dr. Gabriel Fouad Haddad, ASFA, 1998.
Kabbani, Shaykh Muhammad Hisham, Islamic Beliefs and Doctrine According to Ahl as-Sunna - A Repudiation of "Salafi" Innovations, ASFA, 1996.
Kabbani, Shaykh Muhammad Hisham, Innovation and True Belief: the Celebration of Mawlid According to the Qur'an and Sunna and the Scholars of Islam, ASFA, 1995.
al-Mani, Dr. Isa Humayri, MAWLID Its Permissibility, Its Necessity, Its Reality: Fatwa of Dubai Regarding Celebration of Mawlid an-Nabi, ASFA, 1997.
Al-`allama Al-Shaykh Abdul Rahman Al-Sufuri Al-Shafi`i, Nuzhat Al-Majalis Wa Muntakhab Al-Nafa'is - Talks about Sincerity, Doctrine, Remembrance of God, and on the Night of Power,translated by Dr. Gabriel Fouad Haddad, ASFA 1998.

Analyzing the website of As-Sunnah Foundation, Garbi Schmidt writes:
"Kabbani gives several examples of what he sees as the characterists of the opposition between radical Islam and traditional Islam. Traditional Islam is described as peace-loving, moderate, a basis for unity and based on a democratic idea of the umma. Radical Islam, on the other hand, is violent, dictatorial, a source of fragmentation and destructive for the umma. Traditional Islam is apolitical and tolerant as long as the faithful are alloweed to practise their religious duties, while radical Islam is engaged in politics solely to gain power and authority. Traditional Islam is characterised by knolwedge and linked to a lineage of Muslim scholars who have a profound knowledge about the religious message, while radical Islam is characterised by a lack of knowledge, dilettantism and wrongful guidance."¹

¹Sufism in Europe and North America, Sufism in Europe and North America Edited by DAVID WESTERLUND (London–New York: Routledge Curzon, 2004), p. 123.