A monumental eight-year project to translate Imam Yahya Bin Sharaf Al-Nawawi’s comprehensive 13th-century commentary on the full Hadith collection of Sahih Muslim (Al-Minhaj) has officially reached its completion, as announced in Melbourne on Sunday 25 May 2025.
This pioneering undertaking, marking the first full English translation of such a detailed commentary, is already significantly impacting Australian Muslims.
The Islamic Community Milli Görüş (ICMG) Australia, a key driver of this initiative, is an organisation dedicated to teaching, practicing and preserving Islam for future generations.
Rooted in the Quran and Sunnah, ICMG portrays Islam as a religion of peace, with members deeply integrated into Australian society while maintaining ties to their country of origin, Türkiye.
ICMG Mosque at Meadow Heights in Melbourne’s north is one of Australia’s most beautiful masjids.
Adem Temel, a prominent figure with the ICMG Meadow Heights Mosque in Melbourne for many years, has provided dedicated project management for this ambitious translation over its entire eight-year duration.
“Alhamdulillah, the long journey of the Imam Nawawi project is now completed and all volumes can be purchased in bookstores and ebook form, including from Amazon,” Mr Temel told AMUST.
The immediate local benefit is clear, with Mr Temel revealing, “A lot of brothers and sisters benefited and enjoyed reading from it during Ramadan 2025.”
This collaborative effort, involving esteemed London-based translator Muhammed Adil Salahi (renowned for his translation of Sayyid Qutb’s Qur’an Tafsir), addresses a critical need.
As Mr Temel outlined in this newspaper last September, “Prior to this project, there were translations of Hadiths, but not the accompanying commentaries written by classical scholars.”
Adem Temel (left) project managed the Imam Nawawi initiative from the outset.
“Imam Al-Nawawi’s meticulous commentary on each Hadith provides essential context, depth and scholarly insight previously inaccessible to English-speaking audiences.”
ICMG Australia initiated and coordinated this vital translation to address the lack of comprehensive Islamic literature in English.
Their aim from the outset was to help Australian Muslims, and the global English-speaking Muslim community, gain a deeper, more accurate understanding of prophetic traditions – and the completed project has certainly done so.
“This project has been a great team effort from day one and it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the efforts of Kube Publishing for their amazing efforts in making all volumes accessible to all Muslims and non-Muslims, globally,” Mr Temel pointed out.
“The ICMG Australia Youth team, particularly in the early days of the project were a wonderful help and without their support and teamwork, there’s no way this project would have been delivered.”
“But the most credit out of everyone without doubt goes to Ustadh Adil Salahi, our translator, who worked day and night in spite of his busy schedule with other ongoing projects in his life.”
“It should be pointed out that Adil Salahi also donated volumes from his own translation work and gifted these amazing documents to the Ummah of Rasulullah (s).”
(Ustadh Adil Salahi is on the left in the feature image with Adem Temel, during a visit to Melbourne in the early years of the project.)
“And of course, all in all, we praise Allah first for allowing all of us to be part of this beautiful innovative.”
This truly ground-breaking initiative stands as a testament to ICMG’s commitment to enriching the spiritual and intellectual lives of the Muslim community.
As previously referenced, the entire fourteen-volume set is now complete and widely available, a wonderful tribute to years of dedicated scholarship and project management, and an amazing resource for all!
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