Ustadh Majed Mahmoud
Ustadh Majed Mahmoud was born in Saudi Arabia where he studied the basics of Islamic sciences for 9 years as part of the Saudi school curriculum. He then immigrated to Canada during high school, and earned a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Windsor. Majed went on to obtain a Masters in Business Administration from Wayne State University. During this period, he finished his memorization of the Quran. In his pursuit for Islamic studies, he has taken over 50 courses with AlMaghrib, Bayyinah and other institutions, including topics in theology, Islamic jurisprudence, and Quranic sciences. Majed has traveled around the world lecturing about different aspects of Islam and recently completed a TV series with Huda TV & Peace TV. He is currently pursuing a Bachelors degree in Islamic Jurisprudence & Legal Theory from Al-Madinah International University while working as a Mechanical Engineer.
Shaykh Joe Bradford
Shaykh Joe Bradford Scholar of Islamic law and holds a graduate degree in Islamic Law and Legal Theory from the Islamic University of Medina. His research and writings center on Islamic Finance, Islamic Law in the modern world, and classically the Hanbali school of Islamic jurisprudence. He has also studied traditionally as well. He works in finance. He is a published author of Simple Zakat Gude, and you can see some of his books on Amazon by clicking here. He is also the founder of Muslim Money Guide, which provides an independent source of information for financial planning, financial awareness, and education on all issues related to halal and haram of finance.
Br. Omar Usman
Omar Usman is a founding member of MuslimMatters, Qalam Institute, Muslim Strategic Initiative, and Debt Free Muslims. He is a regular khateeb and has served in different administrative capacities in various national and local Islamic organizations. You can follow him on Google+ or on Twitter @ibnabeeomar. Check out his latest project at Fiqh of Social Media.
Imam Suleiman Hani
Imam Suleiman Hani is an inspirational religious speaker and youth lecturer hailing from Dearborn, Michigan. At the age of 14, Imam Suleiman left his family to attend a Qur’an Memorization school in the US where he successfully completed a 10-month program. Soon thereafter, he began leading taraweeh prayers at some of the largest mosques across the United States. His lifelong Islamic studies intensified as he gained knowledge at the hands of local and global scholars, completing hundreds of classical and modern texts as well as curriculums of multiple Islamic universities. He has since been giving workshops and seminars around the USA, as well as motivational and theological lectures at North American and European conferences. He’s been known in recent years for his popular one-day seminars, “Paradise & Hellfire”, “How to Memorize the Qur’an”, and “Islam vs. Modern Philosophies.” His specialties include Fiqh, ‘Aqeedah, Tazkiyah, Tafseer, Hadith, philosophy, counseling, and social justice.
Imam Hani gained experience as an Imam and a youth director since the age of 19, where his main focus was to help the youth resist modern-day challenges and corrupt ideologies. He earned his Ijazah in Sahih Muslim from Sheikh Zaheeruddin Mubarakpuri, who presently has one of the shortest Ijazahs in the world, as well as Ijazahs in the six books of hadeeth from five scholars.
Imam Hani recently authored a book in English on the topic of memorizing the Qur’an through IIPH and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Islamic Studies and a Master of Science degree in Leadership and Strategy. He presently works as an instructor at the international Himmah University of Da’wah, an Imam and youth lecturer in Michigan, the CEO of Hifdh Coach, and a traveling speaker for national and international religious, humanitarian, community, and interfaith organizations.
His most recent hobbies include mixed martial arts, archery, traveling and writing.
Suzy Ismail is currently a Visiting Professor of Communication at DeVry University and the Curriculum Developer, Lead Instructor, and Communication Counselor at the Center for Muslim Life: a nonprofit social platform that focuses on strengthening marriages, families, and communities. She is the author of several books including “Modern Muslim Marriage,” “9 to 5: Muslims in the Western Workplace,” “When Muslim Marriage Fails,” and “The BFF Sisters.” She specializes in presenting a range of communication lectures and diversity workshops at major corporations such as Goldman Sachs and NJNG, at national conferences, schools, and universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, NYU, Rutgers, Simmons, University of Kentucky, Drexel, John Jay, Stony Brook, Bryn Mawr, St. John’s and many more. She has been interviewed on numerous media outlets such as Fox News, BBC, PTV, and is often featured on talk shows, in magazines, and on national and international radio and television broadcasts regarding the subject of her work.
Suzy provides youth, marriage, women empowerment, gender relations, identity, and family seminars across the US and also teaches full-time at Noor-Ul-Iman high school. She currently serves as an executive officer and director on several non-profit boards, commissions, and organizations including Vice President of the Board of Directors at NUI. She received her Bachelor’s in English, Communication and Middle Eastern Studies, her Master’s in Communication and Information Studies, and attended the School of Communication as a doctoral student in the field of Organizational Communication. She is currently working on her Ph.D. in Human Services with a focus on Marriage and Family Intervention and resides in Princeton, New Jersey with her husband and three children.
Mufti Hussain Kamani
Mufti Hussain Kamani was born and raised in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. His journey to pursue sacred Islamic knowledge began at age six. By the age of 9, he was able to complete memorization of the Holy Quran. To further advance his study of Islamic Sciences, he later traveled to the United Kingdom and pursued formal Islamic authorizations (ijazahs). For 7 years, Mufti Kamani studied a rigorous curriculum covering the Arabic language and literature, Islamic jurisprudence, Tafseer of the Holy Qur’an, Hadith, Islamic Philosophy, and Aqeedah. Afterwards, he was selected for a post-graduate level course in Islamic Law and Legal Verdicts, which he completed within two years. He later earned his graduate degree in Business Management from the University of Coventry in the UK. Mufti Kamani currently resides in Chicago, IL with his family, where he has served as an Imam for 6 years. He also serves as an instructor for the Qalam Institute. By the grace of Allah, he is the co-founder of KamaniOnline.com, a internationally recognized
clothing brand for men’s designer wear. During his pastime he also enjoys jujitsu.
Ustadh Hamza Tzortzis
Hamza Andreas Tzortzis is an international public speaker on Islam, a writer, lecturer, instructor and researcher. He is particularly interested in Islam, politics, western and Islamic thought and philosophy.
Hamza delivers workshops, seminars and courses on the foundations of Islamic thought. He is an instructor for prominent dawah organisations including AlKauthar Institute.
Hamza is known for engaging prominent academics and intellectuals including Professor Peter Simons, Professor Lawrence Krauss, Professor Simon Blackburn, Professor Ken Gemes and Professor Dan Barker. Hamza delivers presentations across the world on various topics; ranging from ‘Does God Exist’, ‘Why Islam?’, ‘The Miracle of the Qur’an’, ‘Islam or Atheism?’ to ‘Can we live better lives without Religion’.
Hamza is a popular speaker at UK University campuses, and has also travelled the world extensively to deliver lectures, most notably in the USA, Australia, Netherlands, Malaysia, Canada and Lebanon. Hamza has authored a number of Islamic publications as well as serialising a number of articles on his popular blog.
Hamza has also led major pieces of research including ‘Non-Muslim Perceptions of Islam and Muslims’ through iERA, and is currently working on a number of publications. Hamza studies Islamic thought and philosophy with a qualified scholar who has been authorized to transmit Islamic knowledge (ijazah).
Hamza is one of the main initiators of the contemporary emergence of Muslim public debaters and speakers using western and Islamic philosophy to defend and explain Islam. Hamza heads the research team and Lectures for iERA.
Dr. Farhan Abdul Azeez
Farhan Abdul Azeez was born and raised in Michigan. He attended Michigan Islamic Academy, a full-time Islamic school, from KG-12th grade. His passion for Islam led him to study Arabic and Tajweed during the summer of 2004 in Egypt. He later served as an Islamic Studies teacher to High School Grades at the same school. Farhan has studied extensively with Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan, Shaykh Abdul Nasir Jangda, and others at the Bayyinah Dream program, wherein he graduated and earned a diploma in the Arabic language. He is also an avid student with AlMaghrib Institute, having taken classes with them since 2004.
He has fundraised extensively for Islamic Relief USA, as well as Helping Hand USA and other masajid and social service organizations. He also travels around the US to give talks at youth groups, MSAs, Masjids, community events, and conferences.
Farhan completed his undergraduate studies from Michigan State University (MSU) in 2006, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Human Biology. During his time there, he served as Public Relations head and later President of the Muslim Students Association. He also went to medical school at MSU, graduating from Michigan State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2012. He currently is a medical resident specializing in Emergency Medicine.
Shaykh AbdurRahman Ahmad
AbdurRahman Hashim Ahmad was born in 1977 in Lackawanna, New York. Both of his parents converted to Islam in the early seventies. At the age of 2, he moved with his parents and two brothers to the city of Makkah in Saudi Arabia and spent 6 years there. He began his Hifz studies in the Masjid Al-Haram and other places as well, while his father was a student at Umm Al-Qura University.
At the age of 8 his family moved again, but this time to Karachi, Pakistan, where his father took up a post as an Arabic teacher in Jamiat Uloomul Islamia Binnori-Town Karachi. Abdur-Rahman continued his studies at the same madrasah. In 1986 at the age of 9, he completed his Hifz of the Qur’an and then began studying to be an ‘alim of Islamic Sciences. He studied Tafseer, Hadeeth, Fiqh, Arabic grammar, and other sciences under highly respected Islamic scholars. His specialization was in Hadith and he graduated in 2000. He currently resides in Trenton, New Jersey with his wife and two children and is the Imam at Masjid As-Saffat in Trenton NJ.
Ustadha Yasmin Mogahed
Ustadha Yasmin Mogahed is known for her gift of captivating an entire audience with her thoughts and insightful reflections. She is a Psychology graduate, and attained her Masters in Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As a skilled creative writer, her literature speaks from the heart and after completing her graduate work; she taught Islamic Studies and served as a youth coordinator. Currently she’s a writer for the Huffington Post, an international speaker, and author who focuses most of her work on spiritual and personal development. Her ability to relate all intervals of life to one’s relationship with the Creator is a remedy for those seeking comfort and solace in this dunya, and she has the honour of becoming AlMaghrib Institute’s first female instructor.
Ustadh Wisam Sharieff
Ustadh Wisam Sharieff is the founder of Advocating Qur’anic Literacy (AQL), an institute focused on educating communities on how to read, memorize, and understand the Qur’an. He has taught over 15,000students worldwide through traveling seminars, long-term study, and online instruction. He graduated from the Qur’an Academy in Lahore, Pakistan with a bachelor’s degree in Arabic grammar and a minor in Arabic literature. His studies include studying personally with Dr. Israr Ahmed (R) for one year, studying a summer in Makkah, and earning his ‘ijaazah in Egypt in the Hafs ’an ‘Aasim’s recitation. Ustadh Wisam is also a certified radiology technician.
Mohamed Abutaleb
Mohamed Abutaleb has a joint background as a student of both engineering and Islamic studies. He has studied numerous sciences of the tradition, including Quranic exegesis, Arabic language, grammar, rhetoric, and basic jurisprudence under the tutelage of several teachers and scholars. He was also blessed to memorize the entire Holy Quran. Mohamed completed his Ph.D. at MIT in Electrical Engineering. He previously completed a Master’s in Electrical Engineering and Bachelor’s degrees in Physics and Mathematics. He works as a systems engineer in the health field. Mohamed’s passion for teaching rivals his admiration of learning. He strives to spread his knowledge of Islam through many venues: in addition to delivering regular Friday sermons at many mosques, he conducts classes, workshops, and lectures on Islam at universities, schools, community centers, cafes, and religious institutions. His ability to captivate diverse audiences stems mainly from his focus on practical and relevant applications of Islamic teachings to daily life.
Mohamed is an advocate of growth through outreach and social activism. As part of this advocacy, he has served both as President and as Trustee for the University of Maryland MSA and is a co-founder of the Capital-Area Islamic Library, one one of the first full-function automated Islamic libraries in North America. In addition, he supports the youth efforts of the Muslim American Society (MAS) and has advised the Muslim Interscholastic Tournament (MIST) since its inception. Mohamed is always on the lookout to support emerging youth and service programs as well.
Ustadh Marc Manley
Marc Manley was born in Detroit, Michigan and embraced Islam in 1992. He subsequently learned and then taught the Arabic language for a few years. Marc has a passion for writing and educating. His writing has been recognized through a number of venues, from the Philadelphia Inquirer as well as Best Design, in the 5th Annual Brass Crescent Awards. Marc has taught Islamic studies Crescent Academy in Canton, Michigan, and has previously held roles such as being the Drexel University and University of Pennsylvania Chaplain. Marc completed his ijazah at Quba Institute in the area of Khutbah. Marc currently delivers sermons at Drexel and the Philadelphia area, and maintains his popular blog www.marcmanley.com