Shaykh Gibril Haddad was born in 1960 in Beirut, Lebanon to a middle-class Lebanese Catholic family. His father died during the Lebanese Civil War and his family was forced to flee Lebanon for the United Kingdom where Haddad completed high school. Later his family moved to the United States where Haddad attended Columbia College in New York City and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
Yasir Qadhi was born in Houston, USA but the family moved to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he attended local schools. By 15 he had memorized the Qur’an and graduated from high school two years early as class valedictorian. He returned to the United States, where he earned a B.Sc in Chemical Engineering at the University of Houston.
Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller is an American Islamic scholar, teacher and author who lives in Amman. He is a translator of a number of Islamic books, a specialist in Islamic law, as well as being authorised by Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri as a Sheikh in the Shadhili Order.
Muhammad Taqi Usmani was born on 1943 in Deoband, India to the Mufti Muhammad Shafi. He is known to have lineage leading back to the Third Caliph Uthman. Mufti Taqi emigrated to Karachi, Pakistan when he was four years old and was taught Islamic studies by his scholarly parents. His father then founded a madrassa and he continued studying there to receive an Aalim degree and then a Mufti degree.
Shaykh Muhammad Adil, also known as Shaykh Mehmet Adil, was born in 1957 in Damascus. He is the eldest son of Shaykh Nazim Adil Al Haqqani. He is regarded as the 41st Shaykh of the Naqshbandia Haqqani Order. He is a Sayyid. On his fathers side his lineage goes back to Sheikh Abdul Qadir Gilani, while his great grandmother is of the lineage of Mevlana Jalaladdin Rumi. Shaykh Muhammad Adil spent his youth in Syria under the guidance of both…
Dr Asim Yusuf was born in London and grew up in Manchester, before emigrating to South Africa with his family for a ten-year stay. It was here that he met his spiritual guide, Shah Ghulam Muhyi ad-Din Kazi, and began traversing the path of traditional Islam – the methodology of uniting the practical, intellectual and experiential facets of religion – under his instruction. He also went on to study Medicine and became a Psychiatrist.
Shaykh Asrar is a teacher of Islamic Studies but continues to further pursue his knowledge on Islamic fiqh, aqeedah and other contemporary issues. He was a regular contributor to online blogs but now spends much time delivering public speeches to benefit the youth. He is currently writing a Sharh of Jami`i al-Tirmidhi.
Maulana Tariq Jameel was born in 1953 in Pakistan and is a popular speaker in Pakistan, especially for the deobandi community.
The scholar had a basic upbringing with a view to becoming a medical professional, but during his pursuit of an MBBS, he was enlightened by Islamic knowledge. He studied at Jamia Arabia, gaining insight to sciences such as Qur’an, Sharia, Hadith, Logic, Tasawwuf and Fiqh.
Shaykh Abdullah Bin Bayyah was born in 1935 in the East of Mauritania. He is a scholar who grew up in a house known for its scholarship; his father Shaykh Mahfoudh Ben Bayah was one of the region’s eminent scholars and the head of the Conference of Mauritanian Scholars established after the country’s independence.
Shaykh Dr. Muhammad bin Yahya al-Ninowy was born in Syria and is a Sayyid. He began studying under his father Yahya Ninowy in Aleppo, Syria. He memorised the Quran and graduated in Islamic Studies including studying both Hanafi and Shafi madhabs.
Dr Tahir ul Qadr was born on 19th February 1951 in Jhang, Pakistan. He is the son of the scholar Shaykh Dr Farida’d-Din al-Qadri. He was educated from the young age in both the Islamic and secular sciences simultaneously. The Shaykh is often titled, by his followers as Shaykh-ul-Islam.
Mufti Hafiz Qazi Hassan Raza was born in the city of Haripur, Hazara in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan (NWFP) on the 12th September 1964.
Shaykh Muhammad Al-Yaqoubi descends from a scholarly family that traces its roots back to Morocco. He is a sufi, a sayyid and a jurist, continuing the legacy of his late father, the Imam of the famous Grand Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Sayyid Ibrahim al-Yaqoubi. For several years running, the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute has included him as one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world.
Shaykh Mohammed Aslam memorised the Quran from an early age, after which he embarked on a path of seeking sacred knowledge. He ultimately travelled to Damascus where he undertook extensive private studies as well as enrolling in one of the most prestigious Islamic institutes in the world, Mahad al-Fath al-Islami seminary from where he graduated after six years of full time study with some of the greatest scholars in the world.
Mufti Monawwar Ateeq is a young Mufti from Birmingham, UK. He has spent they majority of his time studying and is currently doing a PhD in Islamic Law, University of Birmingham. as part of his studies he also teaches Arabic and the dars-nizami.
He began studying when he was young by his mother, who was a student of Habib Umar b. Sumayt, Syed Ahmed Abdullah Saleh Faris, Syed Abu Bakr al-Shibli and other notable scholars from Zanzibar, East Africa. At the age of 9 he began studying classical Islamic studies under Shaykh Muhammad Adam b. Eesa al-Qadiri and Shaykh Abu al-Qalam Qadri, where he studied texts of Arabic grammar, Aqeeda, Hanafi Fiqh, Qur’anic exegesis and accomplished the hifz of the Holy Qur’an.
Saqib Shaami’s older brother, Musharraf Iqbal, died. She was told to excercise patience, and she was to witness a greater return for her unforgettable loss in the form of a son. Within the short space of a year the mother was visited in her dream by Sufi Ghulam Nabi again and he indicated glad tidings of the birth of her son and said “he will be a shining star”. The family was rewarded with the birth of a boy who was named Saqib which means a shining star.