Shaykh Abdallah Deeb

Shaykh Abdallah Deeb, an Imam and teacher of the religious sciences since 1982, graduated from Abu Nour Institute in Damascus, Syria, at a young age and currently holds one of the shortest sanads (chain of transmission from the Prophet ﷺ ) in the world for teaching Qur’an. Shaykh Abdallah memorized the Qur’an at the age of 16 and became a world renowned Qari’ at the age of 18. Upon memorizing the Qur’an, he received his ijaza from Shaykh Muhammad Sukkar, who held the highest ijaza in the world before he passed (rahimahullah). Shaykh Abdallah studied under some of the world’s most prestigious scholars for over two decades in Syria and has travelled all over the world to share his beautiful recitation and mastery of the Qur’an. He immigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1999, working as an Imam and Qur’an teacher in various major cities, including Orlando, Florida, Dallas, Texas and Cincinnati, Ohio. He is the senior scholar and co-founder of Itqaan Institute and currently resides in Toledo, Ohio with his family, where he devotes his time exclusively to teaching Qur’an.

Shaykh AbdulNasir Jangda

Shaykh AbdulNasir Jangda is the founder, director, and an instructor at Qalam Institute. He has completed an extensive study of the life of the Prophet ﷺ in the Seerah Podcast and annually teaches the Seerah Intensive. While teaching at the Qalam Seminary he travels around the country teaching classes, seminars, and giving lectures. Born and raised in Dallas, he currently resides there with his wife and three children. He memorized the Qur'an in Karachi at an early age. He graduated from the rigorous 'Alim program in 2001 at the top of his class. He also attained a B.A. and M.A. in Arabic from Karachi University while completing a Masters in Islamic Studies from the University of Sindh. After returning home, he taught Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Texas at Arlington, worked with various Islamic schools and served as the Imam at the Colleyville Masjid in the Dallas area.

Mufti Abdul Rahman Waheed

Mufti Abdul Rahman Waheed was born and raised in Lansing, MI. He finished memorizing the Quran at a young age and completed his 7 year Shariah program by the age of 18. Thereafter, Mufti Abdul Rahman traveled to Pakistan to continue his passion to seek knowledge where he completed his 2 year Iftaa program which specializes in Islamic Jurisprudence and Law. He is legally permitted to pass a Fatwa or verdict.He is known for his passion and dedication to learning and teaching the lost history of Islam and provides detailed insight on how Muslims lived throughout the different eras of history. Mufti Abdul Rahman is serving as a principal and is a full-time instructor at Michigan Islamic Institute, the brother organization of Miftaah Institute.

Mufti Abdul Wahab Waheed

Mufti Abdul Wahab Waheed was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He began Islamic studies at Jaamiah al-Uloom al-Islamiyyah in Canada where he became a Hafiz at the age of 11. Upon the completion of his Tahfeedhul Ul Quran, Mufti Abdul Wahab decided to continue his studies in Islamic sciences. He started his 7-year Shariah program in Toronto, Canada, and went even further to pursue higher education of Hadith in Karachi, Pakistan. Mufti Abdul Wahab completed his Hadith Intensive at the renowned Islamic University founded by Sheikh Yusuf Binori RA known as Jamia Binoritown, where he had the fortune of studying under teachers who had received their Ijaazat from Al- Azhar, Madina University, and Ummul Qura. Upon graduation, Mufti Abdul Wahab wanted to pursue his passion in understanding and education in the field of Islamic Jurisprudence and Law. He started his studies at Al Ihsan Institute located in Vancouver, B.C., specializing in Islamic Jurisprudence and Iftā’ under his professors while simultaneously teaching Fiqh and Hadith in the same school. During this time period, he was also serving as a Khateeb and lecturer in the province of British Colombia. He also traveled extensively across North America for Dawah purposes. Throughout his travels, Mufti Abdul Wahab addresses communities across the United States on a wide range of Islamic topics and Inshallah, continues to do so with the Tawfiq of Allah SWT. Mufti Abdul Wahab is a Co-founder at Miftaah Institute and also is a Co-Founder and Director at Michigan Islamic Institute.

Shaykh Abdullah Misra

Shaykh Abdullah Misra is an Islamic scholar and Imam in Mississauga, Canada. He converted to Islam in 2001 from a Hindu background and after university, studied Islam abroad in Jordan, Yemen and Trinidad over 16 years. He holds a BA in Islamic Studies and is also a religious counselor focusing on OCD and marital issues. He is interested in English nasheeds and is the author of the Seerah Song.

Shaykh Abdullah Waheed

Shaykh Abdullah Waheed was raised in Detroit. He commenced his studies at the age of ten in Toronto, Canada. He completed the memorization of the Holy Quran by thirteen and then went on to study in the seven-year extensive Shariah program in Toronto. Shaykh Abdullah then continued his studies in Pakistan, Kuwait, England and other countries. Shaykh Abdullah specialized in the Tafseer of the Quran. Shaykh Abdullah is a co-founder and instructor at Miftaah Institute and is also the Director of Islamic Affairs at Flint Islamic Center. Shaykh Abdullah travels across North America for khutbas, workshops, and seminars.

Shaykh Adeyinka Mendes 

Imam Adeyinka Mendes was blessed to embrace Islam at the age of 17 after a trip to Jerusalem 30 years ago. He is co-founder of the Bilal Spiritual  Center and the African-American Healing, Ancestry, and Development (AHAD) Collective. He has studied Arabic, Islamic Sciences,   meditation, and peacebuilding with Muslim scholars from around the world.

He works as an interpreter of sacred texts, teacher of Arabic and Islamic Sciences, and community Imam, as well as a rites of passage leadership consultant who continues to read with scholars and students. Imam Mendes is a recipient of the Center for Global Muslim Life "2020 Spiritual Impact Award" and his latest work, "The Spirits of Black Folk: Sages Through the Ages", a translation of Imam as-Suyuti's renowned text, "The Excellence of Black People" (Raf'u Sha'ni'l-Hubshan, was published in 2021 by CelebrateMercy.

Imam Ahmad Deeb

Imam Ahmad Deeb has been serving communities from an early age under the training and mentorship of his father, shaykh Abdallah Deeb. He had a degree in Psychology, completed formal seminary training in Cape Town, and holds an M.A. in Islamic Studies and Leadership at Bayan. Imam Deeb is a doctoral candidate and researcher in community psychology as wel. He is President of Itqaan Institute, a premier Qur'an learning institute led by his father. Currently, he is co-founder and teacher at Pillars Seminary—a part-time institute which provides formal, balanced and structured training in Islam to the general public, as well as the co-founder and Imam of Shifaa Community. In his free time, he continues his study of the Islamic tradition with scholars across the world and provides organizational consulting to communities across the country.

Ustadha Aisha Islambekova

Aisha Islambekova began memorizing Quran from a very young age with her mother. She then joined the full-time hifdh program at the Islamic Association of Collin County at the age of 9, and completed her memorization of the Qur’an at the age of 11 in 2018. She is currently working on perfecting her Quran and receiving expert licensure (ijazah) from the world renowned Qur’an expert, Shaykh Abdallah Deeb. She also teaches at Al Nour weekend school at the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo.

Shaykh Alauddin El-Bakri

Shaykh Alauddin El-Bakri began his traditional study of Islam at a young age in North Africa and continued his education in Islamic Sciences in Jordan and Pakistan.  

He has served the Muslim community in the United States in numerous capacities, serving as Khateeb and Imam in Indiana, Chicago and California. He is a founding member of several non-profit organizations that serve the Muslim community such as (IMAN) Inner-City Muslim Action Network, My Dean, Support Life Foundation and Tawasaw.org. Shaykh El-Bakri is currently the resident scholar and Khateeb at West Valley Muslim association.

Ustadh Ali Hussain

Ali Hussain has a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Michigan, Department of Middle Eastern Studies. His research focuses on the image of Jesus AS in the writings of Muslim polymath Muhyiddin Ibn Al-Arabi and later Muslim scholars. Alongside his academic work, he has also studied in Tarim for a short period under the auspices of Habib Umar bin Hafidh. He has also studied the Quranic sciences, including tajwid and tafsir. He has published a number of works, including “The Art of Ibn Arabi” and “Rumi and Gibran in Conversation.”

Ustadh Ali Keeler

Ali Keeler was born and educated in the UK. From a young age, he began to take an interest in the recitation of Qur’an. He spent a year studying Arabic and Islamic sciences in Damascus and then continued his studies in Tarim, Yemen for a year.  He moved back to Damascus with his wife where he learnt to sing within the traditional maqam system and focused on studying tajweed with many Shuyukh in Aleppo.

In 2012 he founded the Al Firdaus Ensemble, which has produced two CDs and performed all over the world, from Canada and the US to South-East Asia and Australia. Their music mainly comprises traditional nasheeds, sung and played in an eclectic style that includes elements of Andalusian, Middle Eastern and Celtic music. 

Sidi Ali has never lost his profound love of the recitation of Qur’an. He has started a project in which he aims to record the whole Qur’an, inshallah, and has a YouTube channel where you can access his recordings.

To hear more beautiful Quranic recitation and devotional music, visit Ali Keeler’s YouTube Channel: http://bit.ly/AliKeeler

Ustadh Amjad Tarsin

Ustadh Amjad Tarsin joined the faculty of Al-Maqasid in 2019 and previously served as the Executive Director and Head Chaplain of the Muslim Chaplaincy at the University of Toronto, becoming Canada’s first full-time Muslim Chaplain at a university. Born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ustadh Amjad obtained his Bachelor of Arts at the University of Michigan in English Literature and Islamic Studies. He then spent an intensive year studying at the prestigious Dar al-Mustafa for Islamic Sciences in Tarim, Yemen. There he studied under such luminaries as Habib Umar bin Hafiz. He later enrolled at Hartford Seminary’s Islamic Chaplaincy program where he completed his Master of Arts. Ustadh Amjad also teaches for SeekersGuidance Online Islamic Seminary, and is the creator and host of the SoulFood FM podcast.

Qari Amar Bellaha

Qari Amar Bellaha was born and raised in Morocco where he studied Quran and Tajweed from the age of 7.  He memorized the Quran at 17 from Madrasat Imam Nafia. He has ijaza for the Hafs and Warsh forms of Qur’anic recitation. In 1994 and 1995, he was awarded top prizes in the National Moroccan Tajweed competition. He is recognized for the beauty, clarity and excellence of his recitation and is one of the Bay area’s foremost Qur’an teachers. He currently teaches at Northstar School, Zaytuna College, MCC East Bay and privately. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife and three young children. 

Ustadh Ashir Kirk

Adrian "Ashir" Kirk is the founder and executive director of Measured Tones Institute of Quran, which is a religious and educational non-profit organization. From the age of 16 to 22, he went overseas to Syria and Morocco to study Arabic and various Islamic sciences with a heavy focus on tajweed (the science of Quran recitation). For 8 years, he taught Quran and Islamic studies at Islamic schools in Ohio and Tennessee, after which he decided to go full-time with his non-profit in 2021. He currently holds 2 ijaazahs in the recitation of the whole Quran with tajweed in the Hafs style of recitation by way of Shaatibiyyah and Tayyibatun-Nashr. His preferred style of recitation, however, is the Warsh style by way of Azraq. Ashir is also a business owner, mosque board member, and Director of Interfaith Relations of Midtown Mosque in Memphis, TN, and Outreach Coordinator for the Muslim Prisoner Project. He is currently looking to publish his very first children's book titled "The Amazing Believer." Ashir is happily married with children and thoroughly enjoys anything that involves nature and traveling. He humbly asks that anyone reading or hearing this takes a moment to pray for him and his family.

Shaykh Dr. Asim Yusuf

Shaykh Dr. Asim Yusuf is one of the most senior English speaking scholars in the UK, as well as a full time medical doctor, author, poet and singer. He specialises in Islamic metaphysics, psychology and spirituality. 

He has studied widely and received authorisation from senior traditional scholars from around the world. In particular, he is considered an authority on Islamic Psychology and its philosophy, and a specialist in Islamic bioethics, astronomy, and metaphysics.

His studies have included the majority of the branches of the Islamic sciences, including advanced study of theology, philosophy, Islamic law (primarily Hanafi, but also basic studies of the Shafii and Maliki schools), Quranic hermeneutics, the principles of hadith critique, juristic principles and the philosophy of Islamic law, the grammar and philosophy of the Arabic language, classical and modern logic, western and Islamic rhetoric, hadith commentary, shamail and tasawwuf. He has taught most of these subjects over the years. Since 2014, he has been engaged in a complete reading, commentary and analysis of the Ihya Ulum al-Din of Imam Ghazali, one of the greatest masterworks of the Islamic tradition, and has to date completed the first third of the forty books with his students.

He is the author of several books, most notably Shedding Light on the Dawn, as well as being a poet and traditional singer better known by his pseudonym Talib al-Habib, with three well-received nasheed albums to his name. 

In 2022, Shaykh Asim was awarded an OBE by her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in her Platinum Jubilee honours for theological leadership and services to the Muslim community during the COVID pandemic of 2020/1. He was selected to be the Sunni Muslim faith representative to meet King Charles III upon his accession to the throne.

Baraka Blue

Baraka Blue is a poet, musician, author, and lyricist from Seattle, Washington. In addition to releasing multiple studio albums, authoring books of poetry, and performing internationally, Baraka Blue is a prolific educator with a master’s degree in Islamic Studies from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. In 2018, Baraka Blue founded the Rumi Center for Spirituality and the Arts which provides online courses to seekers from anywhere in the world. He lives in Seattle where he is the director of Wasat, an organization that builds community through spirituality, arts and culture, and service.

Dr. Celene Ibrahim

Dr. Celene Ibrahim is the author of the popular new book: Women and Gender in the Quran. She is a faculty member in the Groton School’s Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy. She is also co-chair of the International Qur’anic Studies Association’s Unit on Qur’anic Studies Methodology and Hermeneutics. Dr. Ibrahim has authored numerous publications on women’s and gender studies, religion in America, and Islamic studies. She holds a PhD in Arabic and Islamic Civilizations from Brandeis University, a Masters Degree in Divinity from Harvard University, and a bachelor's degree from Princeton University.

Ustadha Dalia Mogahed

Ustadha Dalia Mogahed is the Director of Research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, where she leads the organization’s pioneering research and thought leadership programs on American Muslims. Mogahed is former Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, where she led the analysis of surveys of Muslim communities worldwide.She is a frequent expert commentator in global media outlets and international forums. She is also the CEO of Mogahed Consulting.

Imam Dawud Walid

Dawud Walid is currently the Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI), member of the Imams Council of Michigan, and Senior Fellow at Auburn Seminary based in New York.

He is the author of the books Blackness and Islam, and Towards Sacred Activism, co-author of the books Centering Black Narrative: Black Muslim Nobles Among the Early Pious Muslims and Centering Black Narrative: Ahl al-Bayt, Blackness & Africa and author of the foreword in the book The Spirits of Black Folk: Sages Through The Ages as well as essays in the 2012 book All-American: 45 American Men on Being Muslim as well as the 2014 book Qur’an in Conversation. His upcoming book to be released in March 2022 is entitled Futuwwah and Raising Males Into Sacred Manhood.

Ustadh Faisal Latif

Faisal Latif is an internationally renowned student of knowledge & entrepreneur who aims to inspire people to get closer to Allah, through means of his creativity and various art forms. Known for not only his recitation and dawah, he is also a singer, poet, designer and cinematographer.

He studied briefly in Madinah before taking his studies to Cairo, Egypt where he developed a love for the Prophet PBUH and the Arabic language.

Having amassed more than 100,000 followers on both YouTube and Instagram, Faisal's ability to captivate audiences through his art and lectures, his ability to tell a story through a lens and his philanthropic endeavors have taken him to various countries across the globe, maShaaAllah barakallah.

Dr. Haifaa Younis

Dr. Haifaa Younis is an American Board Certified Obstetrician and Gynecologist with roots from Iraq. Her pursuit of Islamic knowledge initiated when she began to study the Islamic sciences with various scholars across the United States. She then moved to Saudi Arabia where she graduated from the Mecca Institute of Islamic Studies and Al-Huda Qur’an Memorization School where she completed the memorization of the Qur’an. She is the founder and Chairman of Jannah Institute and currently teaches seminars on the thematic commentary of various chapters of the Holy Qur’an and their practical relevance in our day-to-day living. Dr. Haifaa is passionate about spreading the word of Allah and igniting the love of Islam and the Qur’an through her teachings.

Imam Hamzah Abdul-Malik

Imam Hamzah Abdul-Malik is a graduate of Al-Azhar University in Egypt; he has studied and taught Islam for over 15 years. He memorized the Holy Quran, and served as a teacher for Islamic schools and mosques in Georgia, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, and in the Middle East. He also obtained a Master’s degree in Islamic Studies and Leadership from Bayan Claremont. He co-founded Midtown Mosque in 2015 as an effort to revitalize blighted areas in Memphis, Tennessee. In 2017, he founded Miraaj Academy to teach Qur’an and leadership skills to Muslim American youth. He conveys knowledge and religious teaching through experiential learning with focus on internalization of concepts learned. He also recited Quran at Muhammad Ali’s funeralin 2016, whic is the picture that you see on the slide now.

Shaykh Hamza Karamali

Hamza Karamali is the founder and creator of "Why Islam is True". He works with Muslim students and schools to develop courses and curricula to protect Muslims from losing their deen or developing damaging doubts.  He has trained hundreds of teachers across 10 countries world wide to show their students Why Islam is True. He guides parents and their children in the rational arguments of Islam to shield them from damaging doubts and empower them to be confident Muslims who can prove their faith to anyone they meet. You can subscribe to his free video series on the 5 reasons why our children are leaving Islam and what you can do about it by visiting: https://whyislamistrue.com/5-reasons

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf is the President and Cofounder of Zaytuna College, the first accredited Muslim liberal arts college in the United States. He was ranked by The Muslim 500 among the top 25 most-influential Muslims worldwide and was referred to in The Guardian as "arguably the West's most influential Islamic scholar." A leading proponent of classical learning, the traditional liberal arts, and great books education in both the Western and Muslim traditions, he has translated, authored, and coauthored numerous publications. He holds traditional advanced degrees (ijazaat) in Islamic law and theology, as well as a BA in Religious Studies (San Jose State University) and a PhD from UC Berkeley (Graduate Theological Union).

Shaykh Hasib Noor

Hasib Noor is the Founder, President, and teaches with The Legacy Institute, an education & research institution for Islamic studies. He is among the founders of Faith Global, a global Muslim platform for creating community spaces that provides welcoming spaces for connecting with relevant Islam & practical spirituality. Faith community spaces have been founded in London, Austin, Ottawa, New York City, & San Diego.

He hails from Afghan heritage, grew up in the US and studied at the College of Islamic Law in the University of Madinah.

He pursued his studies in the City of the Prophet (peace be upon him) for over a decade under the tutelage of over 50 scholars specializing in Fiqh, Fatwa, Hadith, Tafsir, History, Sirah and the Islamic Sciences.

He has affiliation with the Center for Historical Studies of Madinah, and is part of Taybah Research, The Society of Archaeology and Historical Sites of Madinah and serves as an Educational Consultant & Resident Scholar.

Ustadh Hassan Faye

Ustadh Hassan Faye was born in The Gambia and moved to the United States at the age of 10. He became a Hafidh at the age of 13 at Dar Al Uloom in Atlanta, Georgia. At the age of 21,  he enrolled in the year long intensive Arabic program at Bayyinah Institute where he gained deeper knowledge of the meaning of Quranic verses. After the completion of the program, he returned to Atlanta and is now a Hifdh Teacher and youth leader, offering youth counseling throughout local masjids in Atlanta. Currently, he is pursuing his Masters in Counseling and Psychology. 

Shaykh Hassan Lachheb

Shaykh Hassan has extensively studied several disciplines including Principles of Jurisprudence (Usul al-Fiqh), Arabic Grammar, Philology, and Literature. He has also received many ijazaat (licenses to teach) from prominent scholars in Hadith, Comparative Jurisprudence (fiqh), and the Sciences of Quran. He has studied under several of the foremost Islamic scholars in Morocco. Shaykh Hassan is the spearheading faculty member of the Tayseer Seminary. He currently resides in Knoxville with his wife and three children.

Shaykh Dr. Hisham

Shaykh Dr. Hisham is an internationally renowned author and scholar, educated to doctoral levels at the universities of Sheffield and Warwick in law and the social sciences, and trained in the Islamic intellectual tradition in the Arab world, Europe, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere. Previously appointed as the first professorial fellow in Islamic Studies at Cambridge Muslim College of Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad, and fellow of the Centre for Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge, Shaykh Hisham’s teachers in the Islamic tradition include the late Shaykh Seraj Hendricks, the senior representative of the Makkan sage Sayyid Muhammad b. Alawi al-Maliki, who designated him as the first and only senior scholar of the renowned Azzawia Institute in South Africa. Born to an English father and to an Egyptian mother of Sudanese & Moroccan heritage, Dr Hisham has been included in the scholarly section of the ‘Muslim500’ for the last 6 years, with a career in noted institutions including Harvard University and the American University in Cairo.

Shaykh Hisham Mahmoud

Shaykh Hisham Mahmoud has studied theology, hadith, legal theory, jurisprudence, ethics, Qur'an recitation, and Arabic with scholars in Morocco, Mauritania, and Egypt. He has taught for more than a decade at Yale, Princeton, and Harvard, then left the Academy to institute Lanturna, an educational initiative that intends to establish learning collectives to carry forward the legacies of our greatest luminaries. He continues to read with scholars and students in the United States and abroad.

Ustadha Hosai Mojaddidi

Hosai Mojaddidi has been serving the Muslim community for over 25 years as a teacher, public speaker, author/writer, spiritual counselor, and mental health advocate. She began her Islamic studies over twenty years ago at the renowned Zaytuna Institute (now Zaytuna College) in the San Francisco Bay Area, California where for several years she served as the lead female organizer and studied aqeeda, seerah, Hanafi fiqh, tazkiyyah an-nafs, tajwīd, hadith, Arabic, and other sacred subjects with several resident and visiting scholars. She offers talks throughout the year locally and internationally on a range of topics including spirituality, self-development, seerah, women's issues, family/marriage, youth issues, social media literacy/safety, and mental health advocacy. She teaches weekly and monthly spiritual development classes (tazkiyyah) for adults and youth for multiple local and international organizations and via social media. She also currently teaches Islamic studies, seerah, Qur'an (tajwīd), and logic/debate/speech in her local area. She uses her social media platforms to promote emotional and spiritual well-being and offers workshops on social-emotional learning from an Islamic perspective for students & educators throughout the year. She’s a wife and mother of two and resides in California with her family.

Mufti Hussain Kamani

Mufti Hussain Kamani is an instructor at Qalam Institute and serves as a resident scholar for the Islamic Association of Carrollton (Masjid Al-Rahman). At the age of 9, he completed the memorization of the Holy Quran and later traveled to the United Kingdom to pursue several ijazahs (certifications). For 7 years, Mufti Kamani studied a rigorous curriculum covering many topics within Islamic studies such as Arabic, Fiqh, Tafseer, Hadith, and Aqidah. He then completed a post-graduate level course in Islamic Law and Legal Verdicts in two years, and earned a  graduate degree in Business Management from the University of Coventry in the UK. He currently resides in Dallas, Texas with his wife and four children.

Shaykha Ieasha Prime 

Shaykha Ieasha Prime converted to Islam more than 20 years ago. She studied at the Fajr Institute in Egypt, and later moved to Yemen and enrolled in an Islamic university for women. She is most passionate about combining Islamic studies, cultural art, activism and service for the purpose of training leaders. She has served as the Director of Women's Affairs at Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Virginia and is co-founder and Executive Director of Barakah INC, an organization committed to training Muslim women in traditional Islamic sciences. Sh Ieasha is a proud wife and mother of three children.

Dr. Ingrid Mattson

Dr. Ingrid Mattson is the London and Windsor Community Chair in Islamic Studies at Huron University College at Western University in London, Canada. Previously Dr. Mattson founded and directed the Islamic Chaplaincy Program at Hartford Seminary and she is past president of ISNA. Dr. Mattson's research focuses on Qur'anic Studies, theological ethics and interfaith engagement; some of her work can be found on ingridmattson.org. Dr. Mattson founded and directs The Hurma Project, a major research project committed to upholding the sacred inviolability (hurma) of each person who is present in Muslim spaces by elucidating the special responsibilities of those holding power and authority and by educating those who are vulnerable about their God-given dignity and rights.

Shaykh Ismael Essa

Ismael Essa is the Founder & Director of Tarteel Academy at MCGP: the Muslim Center of Greater Princeton. He is an Al-Azhar graduate with specialization in Qur’anic Sciences and the Ten recitations. He holds many Ijazaat (cerifications) for both reciting and teaching the Qur'an in all its 10 modes. 

Shaykh Ismael Essa has taught Tajweed, Qira’at and Qur’anic Sciences in multiple countries and has won many Qur’an competitions, locally and internationally. He started leading Taraweeh at the age of 13.

Imam Khalid Latif

Imam Khalid Latif is a University Chaplain for NYU, and Executive Director of the Islamic Center at NYU. Under his leadership, ICNYU became the first ever established Muslim student center at an institution of higher education in the United States. Imam Latif's exceptional dedication and ability to cross interfaith and cultural lines on a daily basis brought him recognition throughout the city, and in 2007 Mayor Michael Bloomberg nominated Imam Latif to become the youngest chaplain in history of the New York City Police Department at the age of 24. Imam Latif was selected as one of 60 NYC leaders to serve on May Bill Deblasio's Transition Team, helping to select individuals for key roles in the current NYC administration and also appointed to a "Task Force to Combat Hate" to deal with the rise in Islamophobic, anti-semitic and anti-sikh sentiment in NYC.

Ustadha Lobna Mulla

Ustadha Lobna Youssef Mulla is a motivational speaker and community educator. She is best known for her optimistic, positive and engaging style with audiences.  Ustadha Lobna is the former National Tarbiya Director of the Muslim American Society, where she is still an active member. She has been working as a youth mentor for the past two decades in multiple capacities. Ustadha Lobna has organized youth camps, led study circles, taught classes in her community, and lectured extensively, nationally and internationally.  Additionally, Ustadha Lobna serves as an IOK Muslim Chaplain at UCLA. In addition to being a mentor and orator, Ustadha Lobna has written for myvirtualmosque.com and the MAS Blog. She is a recent graduate of Chapman University with a Masters of Fine Arts in Screenwriting.  She is the creator of the YouTube channel, Double Shot Mocha Productions, where she strives to promote social awareness through humor. Ustadha Lobna was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She graduated from California State University, Northridge in Business Administration with a focus in Accounting. She worked as an accountant for ten years until she began her career as a mother. Ustadha Lobna moved to Egypt for three years with her husband, Shaikh Suhail Mulla, and her children and studied Arabic, Qur’anic Recitation and Islamic Sciences under Azhari scholars.  Ustadha Lobna currently resides in Los Angeles, CA with her husband and four children.

Ustadh Mahdy Amine

Mahdy is a Zaytuna College alumnus and practicing attorney. He also teaches Islamic Studies at ILM Tree and serves as Convert Care Coordinator for Ta'leef

Shaykha Maryam Amir

Maryam Amir received her master’s in Education from UCLA. She holds a second bachelor’s degree in Islamic Studies through Al-Azhar University. Maryam has studied in Egypt, memorized the Qur’an and has researched a variety of religious sciences, ranging from Quranic exegesis, Islamic jurisprudence, Prophetic narrations and commentary, women’s rights within Islamic law and more for the past 15 years.

She has been interviewed for her work by major news outlets including BBC, NPR and CBS. 

She is the creator of “Qariah: The Women Quran Reciters App” which is available on google play and Apple stores for free or on www.Qariah.app

Shaykh Mikaeel Ahmed Smith

Shaykh Mikaeel Smith is a faculty member at the Qalam Seminary where he teaches Tafsir, Seerah, Aqeedah, and Hadith. He grew up in a deeply spiritual Christian home in Buffalo, NY. At the age of 18, he embraced Islam after reading the Qur'an and the Autobiography of Malcolm X, and then completed his memorization of the Qur'an. He continued his studies in Jami’a Abu Noor in Damascus, Syria.

In 2012, he earned his Bachelor's Degree in Islamic Studies at the Dar ul-Uloom Canada in Chatham, Ontario. He is the author of With the Heart in Mind, a book exploring the moral and emotional intelligence of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. He currently resides in Dallas, TX with his wife and three children.

Dr. Mona Hassan

Dr. Mona Hassan is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies & History at Duke University in the departments of History and Religious Studies and the program of International Comparative Studies.  She obtained her Ph.D. from Princeton University and specializes in global Islamic history.  Dr. Hassan’s research and publications analyze the intersections of religion, culture, gender, and politics.  Her first book Longing for the Lost Caliphate: A Transregional History (Princeton University Press, 2017) received the American Academy of Religion's 2017 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the category of Historical Studies.  It examines Muslim engagement with the notion of an Islamic caliphate following its loss in the thirteenth and twentieth centuries and explores how poignant memories of the lost caliphate have percolated through Muslim culture, law, and politics across Afro-Eurasia.  She has also researched and published on the shifting contours of women’s Islamic legal scholarship from the emergence of the Muslim community in the seventh century to the secular interventions of modern nation-states in the present. Some of her articles in this vein reinterpret how the history of Turkish secularism continues to affect the spatial mapping and contestation of gendered religious domains in the modern Republic of Turkey

Sidi Mouaz Al-Nass

Mouaz Nass is of Syrian descent and was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He holds a degree in

Management Information System and studied Inshad and Maqamat (the various styles of religious

poetry & songs) under foremost singers in Syria. An expert singer and drummer, he has been involved in

many renowned musical performances in the USA, and the UK. He currently resides in Houston, Texas, and works for the University of Texas Health science center as an IT specialist.

Shaykha Muslema Purmul

Shaykha Muslema Purmul graduated from U.C. San Diego with a double major in Religious Studies and Middle Eastern Studies. After graduating she studied in Egypt, where she completed the Bachelors program in Sharia from al-Azhar University in Cairo and almost two years of graduate level Islamic Studies at the American University in Cairo. Upon returning to America, she served the Southern California community through religious programs, chaplaincy, and working with local masjids and organizations. Currently she serves as Assistant Religious Director at The Majlis, a community organization she and her husband co-founded. They seek to nurture safe community spaces where people can learn and live Islam, using traditional sources while acknowledging the challenges of the American context. She is a mother of two and resides with her family in Southern California.

Imam Mustafa Briggs

Mustafa Briggs is a graduate of Arabic and International Relations from the University of Westminster whose dissertation focused on Arabic Literature and Literacy in West Africa. Mustafa started an MA in Translation at SOAS, University of London with a specialization in Arabic and Islamic Texts, before going onto al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt to complete another degree in Islamic Studies and Arabic Language. Mustafa has also frequently traveled to Mauritania, Senegal and The Gambia to benefit from the traditional Islamic scholarship there in addition to his formal studies. He been featured on international media such as AlJazeera and Islam Channel to discuss themes such as Islamic History and Blackness and Islam and is currently working on forthcoming translations of Traditional West African Islamic Texts, as well as having now published his first book; Beyond Bilal: Black History in Islam.

Nader Khan

Nader Khan is a Canadian singer/songwriter and arts educator, with a specific focus on traditional and contemporary Islamic devotional / Sufi music. Over the last 25 years, he toured and performed across Canada, United States, South Africa, United Kingdom, Norway, the West Indies, Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore in solo performances, and on tours with other internationally renowned artists. Nader has also spearheaded various social justice initiatives that promote local and international relief efforts through Islamic devotional music, arts, youth engagement, and inspiration.

As an arts educator, Nader delivers drumming workshops for students of all ages. Nader also delivers a special series of workshops on The Fundamental Principles of Islamic Devotional Music.

Imam Nihal Khan

Imam Nihal Khan is trained as an Imam, chaplain, educator, and academic. He is the founder of Maktab Academy, which serves as a platform to invite Muslim professionals to engage and learn about their faith, and where he will be teaching a Cover-to-Cover tafsir of the Qur'an in English after Ramadan. He is also the host of the Faith in Fine Print podcast, and an Arabic teacher at Fawakih Institute. Previously, he received a BA in Psychology from Montclair State University and then in Lucknow, India, Imam Nihal received an ‘ālimiyya degree in the Islamic sciences from Nadwatul ‘Ulamā. After that, Imam Nihal graduated with an MA in Religious Studies from Hartford Seminary, during which time he also completed coursework at Harvard Divinity School. Since 2021, Imam Nihal has been living in Istanbul with his wife. There, between conducting private classes, he studied the Islamic rational sciences at Darul Funün Institute and Ibn Haldun University.

Imam Omar Suleiman

Imam Omar Suleiman is the Founder and President of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, and an Adjunct Professor of Islamic Studies in the Graduate Liberal Studies Program at SMU (Southern Methodist University). He is also the Resident Scholar at Valley Ranch Islamic Center and Co-Chair Emeritus of Faith Forward Dallas at Thanks-Giving Square. He holds a Bachelors in Accounting, a Bachelors in Islamic Law, a Masters in Islamic Finance, a Masters in Political History, and a PhD in Islamic Thought and Civilization from the International Islamic University of Malaysia.

Ustadh Radi Hammoudeh

Radi Hammoudeh is a Palestinian-American student of Shaykh Abdallah Deeb and a Foundations teacher for Itqaan Institute. Besides a degree in mechanical engineering, he pursues traditional Islamic studies at Pillars Seminary.

Dr. Rania Awaad

Shaykha Dr. Rania Awaad M.D., is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Stanford University School of Medicine where she is the Director of the Stanford Muslim Mental Health & Islamic Psychology Lab as well as Stanford University's Affiliate Chaplain. In the community, she serves as the Executive Director of Maristan.org, a holistic mental health nonprofit serving Muslim communities and the Director of The Rahmah Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating Muslim women and girls. In addition, she is faculty of Islamic Psychology at Cambridge Muslim College and The Islamic Seminary of America. She is also a Senior Fellow for Yaqeen Institute and the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding. Prior to studying medicine, she pursued classical Islamic studies in Damascus, Syria and holds certifications (ijaza) in Qur’an, Islamic Law and other branches of the Islamic Sciences. Follow her @Dr.RaniaAwaad

Qari Senan Hafez

Senan Hafez  was born and raised in the UAE and has loved the Quran since he was 4 years old. He enjoys reciting the Quran and spreading the recitation, praying for  hearts to soften by the words of Allah. He has a Masters in Business Administration, and he is currently a senior project manager in the pharma/biotech industry

Dr. Shadee Elmasry

Dr. Shadee Elmasry was born and raised in New Jersey. He began studying at the age of eighteen, traveling to a number of countries including Egypt, KSA, Yemen and Morocco. In addition to traditional learning, Dr. Elmasry has received an M.A. from The George Washington University and a PhD from the University of London SOAS.

Dr. Elmasry went on to teach at several universities including Yale University, SOAS, Trinity College, Hartford Seminary and Manhattanville College. Currently, he serves as Scholar in Residence at the New Brunswick Islamic Center in New Jersey. He is also the founder and head of Safina Society, an institution dedicated to the cause of traditional Islamic education in the West.

Imam Sohaib Sultan

Imam Sohaib Sultan is the first full-time Muslim Life Coordinator and Chaplain at Princeton University. He is a graduate of the Hartford Theological Seminary, earning a Masters in Islamic Studies & Christian-Muslim Relations and a Graduate Certificate in Islamic Chaplaincy. His research and academic interests are in Islamic spirituality and psychology, as well as the development of practical skills in religious leadership. Imam Sohaib’s master's thesis was on Preaching with Purpose: Writing and Delivering Great Sermons.

Imam Suhaib Webb

Suhaib, William Webb has a degree in Education from the University of Central Oklahoma, and Islamic Law from al-Azhar in Cairo.  He was the resident scholar at the ICNYU and taught a course at NYU on Islamic Law and Ethics. He sits on the executive council of the North American Fiqh Council, is a member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars and sits on the advisory board of the Political Theology Network. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, and he has been on CNN, NBS, al-Jazeera, CBS and more. He runs an online school that focuses on functional religious literacy for English speaking Muslims, and currently serves as the Resident Scholar at Center DC in Washington DC.

Imam Tahir Anwar

Imam Tahir is a scholar of Hanafi Fiqh with an ijaza to teach Fiqh, Hadith, Tafsir, and Usul al-Fiqh. At Zaytuna College, Imam Tahir has taught Islamic Law I: Introduction to Hanafi Fiqh, Purification, Prayer, and Islamic Law II: Funerals, Fasting, Zakat, Hajj. Imam Tahir is a native Gujurat and Urdu speaker. He is also proficient in Arabic and Hindi. Imam Tahir joined the faculty of Zaytuna College in 2010.

Shaykha Tamara Gray

Dr. Tamara Gray is a founder of Rabata, an organization dedicated to promoting positive cultural change through creative educational experiences. As executive director, faculty, and chief spirituality officer, she focuses on uplifting Muslim women within community and without. She has a special interest in digital spaces in faith communities.

Tamara holds a doctorate in leadership from the University of St. Thomas, a master’s degree in Curriculum Theory and Instruction from Temple University and spent twenty years in traditional learning spaces studying Islamic sciences, Quran, and Arabic in Damascus, Syria.

Dr. Gray is also an author and translator. Her publications range from several culturally appropriate English language curriculum programs to translations of sacred texts. She has authored two books: Joy Jots: Exercises for a happy heart & Project Lina: Bringing our whole selves to Islam and co-translated the Mukhtasir al-Jami’ fi al-Sīra al-Nabawiyya by Samīra Zayid [Compendium of the Collection of Sources on al-Sīra al-Nabawiyya]. Her third book – about theology and creed – is due out in 2024.

In addition to her work at Rabata, Dr. Gray also serves as both faculty and an academic council member for The Islamic Seminary of America, is a Senior Fellow at the Yaqeen Institute and is a member of the Fiqh council of North America. She has recently taken on the position of Board Chair for the Minnesota Multifaith Network Council.

She is a mother of three, grandmother of two, an avid reader and a lover of cultures, coffee, and road trips.

Shaykh Ubaydullah Evans

Shaykh Ubaydullah Evans is the first Scholar-in-Residence at American Learning Institute for Muslims. He converted to Islam while in high school. Upon conversion, Shaykh Ubaydullah began studying some of the foundational books of Islam under the private tutelage of local scholars while simultaneously pursuing a degree in journalism from Columbia.

Since then he has studied at Chicagoland’s Institute of Islamic Education (IIE), in Tarim,Yemen, and at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, where he became the first African American to graduate from its Shari’a program.

Shaykh Ubaydullah also teaches with the Ta’leef Collective and the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN).

Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah

Dr. Umar Abd-Allah (Wymann-Landgraf) is an American Muslim who embraced Islam in 1970. He studied Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Chicago and received his doctorate there in 1978. He taught at the Universities of Windsor (Ontario), Temple, Michigan, and King Abdul-Aziz (Jeddah). During several years abroad, he was able to study with a number of traditional Islamic scholars. He returned to the United States in 2000 to work with the Nawawi Foundation (Chicago), where he remained for more than a decade. He currently works under the auspices of The Oasis Initiative (Chicago). He is engaged in independent research, writing, lecturing, and teaching across the United States, Canada, Europe, West Africa, and elsewhere with a focus on Islamic theology, spirituality, law and legal theory, and history. Among his written works are A Muslim in Victorian America: The Life of Alexander Russell Webb (Oxford University Press, 2006) and Malik and Medina: Islamic Legal Reasoning in the Formative Period (Brill, 2013). He has also authored a number of articles, among them Islam and the Cultural Imperative, Living Islam with Purpose, One God, Many Names, and Mercy, the Stamp of Creation.

Shaykh Yahya Rhodus

Shaykh Yahya Rhodus is the Founding Director of Al-Maqasid, an Islamic seminary whose vision is to facilitate the realization of Islam, Iman and Ihsan through immersion in the Prophetic Inheritance. The concept of Al-Maqasid emerged from his own journey which began at the traditional school of Murabit al-Hajj in the desert of Mauritania shortly after his conversion. His path of learning then led him to the acclaimed school Dar al-Mustafa in Tarim, where he received instruction from the renowned scholar Habib Umar Bin Hafiz. After graduating from Dar al-Mustafa and returning to the United States, he studied in a number of academic institutions, culminating in a PhD in Theology and Religious Studies from the University of Cambridge, England.

Shaykh Yasir Fahmy 

Shaykh Yasir Fahmy graduated from Rutgers Business School. After working for a number of years in finance, he then moved to Egypt where he studied for eight years at Al-Azhar University. In his time at Al-Azhar, he attained numerous ‘ijazas (independent certifications) and studied under many notable teachers including Shaykh Ahmad Taha Rayyan (may Allah have mercy on him). In 2013, Shaykh Yasir Fahmy became the first American Azhari to teach in the renowned Al-Azhar Mosque.

Currently, Shaykh Yasir is the founder of Prophetic Living.

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi

Yasir Qadhi is the Resident Scholar of the East Plano Islamic Center. He is also the Dean of The Islamic Seminary of America. He is one of the few people who has combined a traditional Eastern Islamic seminary education with a Western academic training of the study of Islam. Yasir graduated with a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Houston, after which he was accepted as a student at the Islamic University of Madinah. After completing a diploma in Arabic, he graduated with a B.A. from the College of Hadith and Islamic Sciences, and then completed a M.A. in Islamic Theology from the College of Dawah. He then returned to America, and completed a PhD in Religious Studies from Yale University. He has authored several books, published academic articles, and appeared on numerous satellite and TV stations around the globe. His online videos are of the most popular and highly-watched Islamic videos in English.

Ustadh Zachary King

Zachary A King is a product of the Garden State. He grew up in northern NJ and converted to Islam in 1996. He majored in Nutrition at RU and was greatly influenced by his company in the New Brunswick area during his college years and 20’s. Since graduation, he has become a teacher, gone back for his social work masters degree and currently works in the Newark area school system.  Additionally he is an in-home intensive community counselor for young men. He is wholeheartedly dedicated to urban education and uplift. He is currently spending a year in The Gambia, as an administrator for HORAYA Academy an International Islamic School founded by Ustadha Ieasha Prime. Islamically, he is moderately proficient in recitation of Quran and singing. ‘The dream is to employ, everything about me, what I was once ashamed of, loved, struggled to place and covet, to transform the soul and liberate humanity’.

Imam Zaid Shakir

Imam Zaid Shakir is a co-founder and senior Faculty Member of Zaytuna College located in Berkeley, California. He is amongst the most respected and influential Islamic scholars in the West. He obtained a BA with honors in International Relations at American University in Washington D.C. and later earned his MA in Political Science at Rutgers University. For seven years in Syria, and briefly in Morocco, he immersed himself in an intense study of Arabic, Islamic law, Quranic studies, and spirituality with some of the top Muslim scholars of our age. In 2001, he graduated from Syria’s prestigious Abu Noor University with a BA in Islamic Sciences. He has recently been appointed as the new chair of MANA, the Muslim Alliance in North America.

Ustadha Zaynab Ansari

Ustadha Zaynab has served as a member of the core faculty of Tayseer Seminary and its first women’s scholar-in-residence for the past ten years. Originally from Atlanta, Ustadha Zaynab relocated to Knoxville, TN to take on this pioneering role under the visionary leadership of Tayseer Seminary co-founders, Ustadh Nadeem

Siddiqi and seminary president, Dr. Hassan Lachheb. As a full-time instructor at Tayseer Seminary, Ustadha Zaynab teaches courses on Islamic law, Qur’anic sciences, Qur’anic exegesis, Prophetic biography, American Muslim history, women in Islam, and the Sira of Ibn Hisham in Arabic throughout the academic year.

Ustadha Zaynab also serves on the boards of Tayseer Seminary and the Muslim Community of Knoxville where she is humbled to see the ethic of Prophetic community in action as the sister organizations strive to provide spiritual support and educational programming for local Muslim residents as well as the diverse

students who have flocked to Knoxville over the years to study. In addition to her work in her local community, she spent many years in the pioneering field of online Islamic education as a consultant, writer, volunteer, and instructor, and travels widely across the United States.

Ustadha Zaynab Ansari was blessed to have studied in the Middle East, spending her formative years in Damascus, Syria, where she was introduced to the foundations of traditional Islam and the brilliance of the Islamic epistemological framework. A strong believer in women’s education and leadership training,

Ustadha Zaynab is a contributor to the Ribaat curriculum, a four-level certification program for women, led by Shaykha Dr. Tamara Gray, one of her original teachers in Damascus. Ustadha Zaynab was also honored to join the dynamic team at Jannah Institute under the leadership of Shaykha Haifaa Younis, where she contributes to the Year of Knowledge academic program.