Abdalla Elfakki Elbashir has become the most important chronicler of the life and work of Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, the late founder of Sudan’s Republican Brotherhood and early champion of decolonization in Sudan. This latest volume of Dr.

Abdalla’s dogged efforts to uncover and collect every single bit of evidence of Ustadh Mahmoud’s contributions to Sudan’s intellectual history is marked by Abdalla’s usual hallmarks of approaching the problem in unexpected ways. In this book, he describes the long term effort of extremist Islamist organizations both in Sudan and the region, to condemn Ustadh Mahmoud for his teachings which were viewed as heretical by these mainstream Islamist institutions.

And Abdalla Bashir’s method sets this book apart from his previous work: he boldly interrogates responsible parties in these institutions- through detailed letters sent to each- about their shaky justifications for supporting the effort to excommunicate Mahmoud Mohamed Taha. The letters carefully investigate the details of the intimidating – and in some cases, absurd- accusations against Taha.

So it is hardly surprising that none of the letters receive a reply; the case against Ustadh Mahmoud was always more about reigning in a vulnerable group and removing its populist leader who threatened Islamic orthodoxy in Sudan, than about actually proving a case of “excommunication. ” God’s wisdom and mercy, of course, was about making that capital offense of apostasy, extraordinarily hard to prove.

Abdalla Bashir is becoming a sort-of “Michael Moore” of Islam through his mountainous evidence and penetrating questions. Bashir is asserting the place of Ustadh Mahmoud in Islamic thinking, further discrediting Orientalist assertions that Sudan and its Muslim traditions is on the “Islamic fringe.

” While the followers of Ustadh Mahmoud have understood for some time that their teacher has offered a contemporary guide for Islam’s most modern path, Abdalla Bashir’s work has very much provided an historical guide to the significance of Mahmoud Mohamed Taha as an important theologian, while widening the audience for Ustadh Mahmoud’s work. This book is an invitation to the important Islamic institutions that are the subject of this inquiry, to finally produce answers to Abdalla Bashir’s questions.

Professor Steve HowardThe Translation Editor. .