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A list of all previous STP Speakers. Mind, Body, and Soul - March 2012 Shaykh Bilal Ali Ansari:
Initially a student of Medicine and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinios in Urbana, Mawlana Bilal Ali later began to pursue studies in the Islamic sciences at Madrasat al-Hasanayn in Faisalabad, Pakistan, a pioneering program of Arabic and Islamic studies founded by the famous orator and scholar, Mawlana Tariq Jameel. After four years studying the foundational Islamic sciences with erudite scholars such as Shaykh Ramzi al-Habib al-Tunisi and Mufti Ahmad ‘Ali, Mawlana Bilal completed a formal ‘Alamiyyah degree (equivalent Master degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies) at the famous Jami‘ah Dar al-‘Ulum in Karachi, where he studied Hadith with prominent scholars such as Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani, Mufti Muhammad Rafi Usmani, Mufti Mahmud Ashraf Usmani, Mufti ‘Abd al-Ra‘uf al-Sikharwi, and Mawlana Iftikhar Ahmad al-A‘zami. Upon graduation, Mawlana Bilal enrolled in a specialization course in Hadith and studied extensively under ‘Allamah Dr. Muhammad ‘Abd al-Halim al-Nu’mani (al-Chishti). He has acquired ijazahs in hadith from the most senior hadith masters of Pakistan, namely Mawlana Salimullah Khan, Mawlana Sarfaraz Khan Safdar, Mawlana ‘Abd al-Halim al-Nu’mani, and Mawlana Khan Muhammad, all direct students of Shaykh al-Islam Husayn Ahmad al-Madani. Currently, Mawlana Bilal is pursuing a degree in the Applied Behavioral Sciences and wishes to specialize in the field of Education on the course to a PhD in Islamic Studies.
darulhikmah.com/courses/instructors/mawlana-bilal-ali-ansari/
Shaykh Asim Ahmed:
Shaykh Asim Ahmed is a traditionally trained scholar from the greater New York area. Born in upstate New York, Shaykh Asim began his secular education but left to complete the memorization of the Qur'an in Lahore, Pakistan. After completing his hifdh, he returned to New York to resume his studies. In 1990, he returned to Lahore to complete the Darsi Nizami (Alim course) in Jamia Ashrafia. He also stayed at the Dar al-Uloom Al-Arabiyya al-Islamiyya the renowned seminary of the great revivalist and scholar of Hadith, Shaykh-al-Hadith Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhlawi (Rahmatullahi Alayh), in Bury, UK. There, he studied the Arabic language, Arabic morphology, Islamic jurisprudence, Tafseer (exegis) of the Holy Qur’an, Hadith (Prophetic Sciences), Philosophy, Aqeedah (Islamic Creed), and Spirituality. He then studied the six authentic books, completing his final year of studies in Dabhel, India in 1997. Shaykh Asim has also been formally granted ijazah in Spirituality from Dr.Ismail Memon. Shaykh Asim currently resides in Buffalo, NY where he teaches Arabic, Fiqh, Hadith, and Tafseer at Darul Uloom Al Madania.
Building a Community of Light - November 2011
Imam Siraj Wahhaj:
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Imam Abdullatif Finch:
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Imaam Siraj Wahhaj is one of the most admired Muslim leaders and speakers in America. Once a minister for the Nation of Islam(NOI) in the early 70s, the Imam left upon discovering NOI’s differences from mainstream Islam. He is an accomplished Muslim activist MashaAllah, once leading a community-based anti-drug campaign in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, in which he staked out drug houses in the cold of winter for 40 days and nights, forcing the closure of 15 drug houses. In 1991 Imam Siraj Wahhaj offered an invocation (opening prayer) to the United States House of Representatives. He was the first Muslims to do so. He is the founder and Imaam of Masjid At Taqwa in Brooklyn, New York, and is currently serving as the elected leader of the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA). He was the vice president of the Majlis as-Shura of New York. He has also served on the executive board of the Islamic Society of North America.
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Muhammad Abdul Latif Finch is the imam at the Lighthouse Mosque in Oakland, California, and a teacher and program developer for Deen Intensive Foundation. He also works with SeekersGuidance and assists Zaytuna College's annual Summer Arabic Intensive program in Berkeley, California. He is one of five students who comprised the first graduating class of the Zaytuna seminary program. Born in El Paso, Texas, and raised in the south, Abdul Latif embraced Islam in 1995 in Atlanta, Georgia, when he was 20 years old. He subsequently traveled throughout the Muslim world and, in 2002, relocated with his family to the San Francisco Bay Area to take advantage of the resources of knowledge and the community that had formed around Zaytuna Institute. There, he spent his initial year of studies under the tutelage of Shaykh Salik bin Siddina. In 2004, he was accepted as the first of three initial students into Zaytuna's pilot seminary program. He studied at Zaytuna with several teachers, including Imam Zaid Shakir, Shaykh Abdur Rahman Taahir, Qari Umar Bellahi, Shaykh Abdullah Ali, and Shaykh Yahya Rhodus, until he graduated in 2008 with an ijazah in the basic sciences of Islam. Since graduation, he has had the honor of tutelage under Dr. Umar Farooq Abdullah, Shaikh Mahi Cisse and Shaikh Abdulllah Ibrahim Niasse.
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