Sayyid Amjad H. Shah Naqavi is a scholar and translator.^[1][2] Naqavi holds a PhD in Islamic Jurisprudence from the University of Edinburgh, which he completed in 1999, supervised by I. K. A. Howard and externally examined by Wilferd Madelung. In 1433/2012, he founded the Shīʿah Institute in Bloomsbury, London, in order to facilitate veritable scholarship on Twelver Shia Islam and promulgate the timeless and universal teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt.^[3] He has taught at the University of Bristol and the University of London and given guest lectures across the globe.^[1] From 2019 to 2021, (2019, 2020, 2021), Naqavi was listed in The Muslim 500: The World’s Most Influential Muslims.^[4]

For the last twenty years, Sayyid Amjad H. Shah Naqavi has been working on an Arabic critical edition and English literary translation of Nahj al-Balāghah by ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, in the renowned version compiled by great Shia scholar al-Sharīf al-Raḍī (d. 406/1016). Naqavi's edition and translation, entitled Nahj al-Balāghah: The Word of ʿAlī, is due to be published in 2025.^[5] Naqavi's Nahj al-Balāghah: The Word of ʿAlī will be followed by The Way of Eloquence and the Path of Wisdom: A Companion to Nahj al-Balāghah: The Word of ʿAlī (forthcoming).^[6]

As the Dean of The Shīʿah Institute,^[1] Dr Sayyid Amjad H. Shah Naqavi has organised three international conferences,^[7][8][9] launched the first module focussed on the study of Shia Islam at a British university at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS),^[10] established a fellowship of more than 70 academics at distinguished research institutions around the world,^[11][12] and led the publication of many books as general editor, editor, or translator.^[13] Dr Sayyid Amjad H. Shah Naqavi has also established two book series with Brill, the Classical Shīʿah Library^[14] and the Modern Shīʿah Library,^[15] as well as four book series published by the Shīʿah Institute Press: the Shīʿah Library, the Shīʿah Institute Symposia Series, the ʿĀshūrāʾ Literature Series, and the Shīʿah Heritage of South Asia Series.

Naqavi, Sayyid Amjad H. Shah, trans. The Exalted Qurʾān: A New English Translation (London: The Shīʿah Institute Press, 2024).^[16]

Naqavi, Sayyid Amjad H. Shah, ed. and trans. Nahj al-Balāghah: The Word of ʿAlī (forthcoming).^[5]

Naqavi, Sayyid Amjad H. Shah. The Way of Eloquence and the Path of Wisdom: A Companion to Nahj al-Balāghah: The Word of ʿAlī (forthcoming).^[6]

Naqavi, Sayyid Amjad H. Shah, ed. and trans. Theology Abstracted, an Arabic critical edition and English translation of Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī's Tajrid al-Iʿtiqād (London: The Shīʿah Institute Press, 2025).^[17][18]

Naqavi, Sayyid Amjad H. Shah, ed. and trans. The Grand Armour: A Commentary on the Divine Names, an explication and translation of Hādī Sabzavārī's, Sharḥ al-Asmāʾ wa Sharḥ Duʿāʾ al-Jawshan al-Kabīr (London: The Shīʿah Institute Press, 2024).^[19]

Naqavi, Sayyid Amjad H. Shah, ed. and trans. The Orison and the Observance: The Spiritual Instruction of the Prophet Muḥammad and his Noble Descendants, a parallel English–Arabic text (London: The Shīʿah Institute Press, 2024).^[20]

Naqavi, Sayyid Amjad H. Shah, ed. and trans. Sacred Illuminations: A Garland of Wisdom, an explication and translation of selected philosophical, mystical, and theological treatises and poems (London: The Shīʿah Institute Press, 2024).^[21]

Naqavi, Sayyid Amjad H. Shah, trans. The Light of the Way: Attributed to Imām Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, an explication and translation of Miṣbāḥ al-Sharīʿah wa Miftāḥ al-Ḥaqīqah (London: The Shīʿah Institute Press, forthcoming).^[22]

Naqavi, Sayyid Amjad H. Shah, The Supreme Sacrifice: The Events of the Eve and Day of ʿĀshūrāʾ , a translation of Mawsūʿat Kalimāt al-Imām al-Ḥusayn (London: The Shīʿah Institute Press, forthcoming).^[23]

Naqavi, Sayyid Amjad H. Shah, trans. Faith and Practice: On Matters of Truth, Guidance, and the Path of Salvation, an explication and translation of Muḥammad Bāqir al-Majlisī's al-ʿItiqād (London: The Shīʿah Institute Press, forthcoming).^[24]

Naqavi, Sayyid Amjad H. Shah, trans. Ontology and Theology, an explication and translation of Mullā Ṣadrā's Kitāb al-Mashāʿir (London: The Shīʿah Institute Press, forthcoming).^[25]

Naqavi, Sayyid Amjad H. Shah, trans. The Metaphysics of Sabzavārī On Theology: An Islamic Philosophical Inquiry and a Commentary on a Didactic Poem, an explication and translation Hādī Sabzavārī's Sharḥ Ghurar al-Farāʾid or Sharḥ al-Manẓūmah (London: The Shīʿah Institute Press, forthcoming).^[26]

Naqavi, Sayyid Amjad H. Shah, trans. The Pursuit of Philosophy: A Comprehensive Text on Metaphysics, Ontology, and Theology, an explication and translation of Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ṭabāṭabāʾī's Nihāyat al-Ḥikmah (London: The Shīʿah Institute Press, forthcoming).^[26]

Naqavi, Sayyid Amjad H. Shah, ed. and trans. Foundations of Jurisprudence: An Introduction to Imāmī Shīʿī Legal Theory, an Arabic critical edition and English translation (with a 50,000-word introduction) of al-ʿAllāmah al-Ḥillī's Mabādiʾ al-Wuṣūl ilā ʿIlm al-Uṣūl (Leiden: Brill, 2016).^[27][28][29]

Naqavi, Sayyid Amjad H. Shah, The Mystery of Prayer: The Ascension of the Wayfarers and the Prayer of the Gnostics, a critical edition and English translation of Ayatollah Khomeini's Sirr al-Ṣalāt (Leiden: Brill, 2016).^[30][31]

Naqavi, Sayyid Amjad H. Shah, The Call of the Free, an adaptation of Riḍā al-Khafājī's Ṣawt al-Ḥurr al-Riyāḥī (London: The Shīʿah Institute Press, 2016).^[32]