Shaykh Bilal Brown has studied over 8 years across the Muslim world in the Middle East shortly after his acceptance of Islam in 1999. He returned to the UK in 2006 however departed again in 2008 to further his study of the Islamic Sciences.
He graduated from a 4-year intensive 6-day a week course on Shari’ah studies at the al-Dawli Institute of Arabic and Islamic Sciences in Damascus in 2012. This was in addition to private studies with prominent scholars in Damascus.
He then travelled to Yemen to build a deeper understanding of the Shafi’I jurisprudence, Arabic Grammar and self-rectification. Shaykh Bilal has since then returned to the UK.
He has developed experience and understanding in the field of alcohol and drug addiction as well furthering his years of experience through closely working with and teaching young people. He has studied numerous texts in the Shafi’i and Hanafi schools of jurisprudence i.e. law, marriage and divorce law in the Maliki School.
His credentials are further extended by his certification in childcare, IT, social science and counselling.
Shaykh Bilal currently resides in Oldham where he teaches Arabic and Islamic sciences, in addition to Manchester, Rochdale and online. He is also the Director of a popular website for fiqh answers – an online source for Islamic Jurisprudence.
Mufti Hafiz Muhammad Faiz Rasool. He is Hafidh of the Quran, and studied Darse Nizami, Takhsus fil Fiqh. He worked as mufti in Minha ul Quran London, Sultan Bahu trust Birmigham, currently working as Mufti & Director in World Muslim Forum. He teaches and delivers classes on Islamic studies in London.
Ebu Bekir Tezgel was raised in the UK from 3-months-old but studied in Istanbul at an Ottoman Madrasah, in his teens. Achieved a degree in BSc Computer Science from Middlesex University in 1999, before setting out on the path of religion. Then continued to achieve a Bachelor’s Degree in Islamic Studies at Al-Azhar University, 2012. Further going on to obtain a higher licence in Islamic Law at the European Institute of Human Sciences in 2015. During this period he had also gained traditional ijazat from senior scholars throughout the Middle East.
He worked in a range of professions such as IT consultancy, teacher of Arabic language and Islamic studies, purchase & import coordinator, supplementary school headteacher and youth project manager. Now serving as the Senior Imam at Aziziye Mosque and board member of Aziziye Education Centre in London, where he continues to serve the community and works towards the integration of muslims in the region.
Shaykh Ahmad Faruq is currently a Muslim Chaplain at the NHS and a Board Member of the British Academy of Quranic Studies (BAQS). His preliminarily studies of the classical Islamic sciences were with his father Shaykh Muhammad Abdul Qadir, a renowned scholar specialising in Quranic exegesis (tafsir). Shaykh Ahmad Faruq completed his memorisation of the Quran and studied Arabic Language at the Institut Européen des Sciences in France. He then went on to study Arabic literature, grammar, logic, jurisprudence, theology, tafsir, hadith and other Islamic sciences with scholars in Syria and completed the BA Islamic Jurisprudence course from Ma’had al-Fath, Syria. He pursued his studies at the Faculty of Shariah & Law and graduated from Al-Azhar University, Egypt.
Sheikh Zahir Mahmood currently lives in the Birmingham and captivates the heart of youths with motivation and encouragement to change. He has mastered many sciences such as Quran, Fiqh and Hadith and is licensed to teach them (Ijazah) in many Islamic Sciences from various Shuyukh. He currently teaches at the As-Suffa Institute, Birmingham.
Dr Abida Malik is a sociologist who studies identities, citizenship, globalization and religion. She is the Director of Research at Bridge institute and a tutor of Sociology at the University of Nottingham. She completed her BA in Sociology, Masters in Research Methods and gained ESRC award for a PhD in Sociology.
