Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Shaykh Faraz Rabbani is a researcher and teacher of the Islamic sciences, specializing in Islamic Law. He is the Educational Director of SeekersGuidance, and a partner and legal advisor with StraightWay Ethical Advisory. He has two published books: Sufism & Good Character and Absolute Essentials of Islam: Faith, Prayer, and the Path of Salvation According to the Hanafi School (White Thread Press, 2004.)
Shaykh Faraz was raised in Canada and obtained a Bachelor's in Economics & Commerce from the University of Toronto in 1997. Subsequently, he spent ten years studying and teaching Islamic sciences in Damascus, Amman and Karachi under leading Islamic scholars including Shaykh Adib Kallas, Shaykh Hassan al-Hindi, Shaykh Muhammad Jumuah, Shaykh Akram Abd al-Wahhab, Shaykh Nuh Keller, and Mufti Mahmud Ashraf Usmani. He currently lives and teaches in Toronto, Canada, with his wife and three children.
Shaykh Mufti Mohamed-Umer Esmail
Shaykh Umer Esmail is a Canadian born, traditionally trained scholar who started his quest to acquire Islamic knowledge at a young age and continued formal studies of the Sciences of Shari`ah in different parts of the world for thirteen years.
He initially studied Urdu and Arabic as well as other traditional Islamic Sciences at the Institute for Islamic Studies in Dewsbury, UK. There he acquired an Ijazah (teaching certification) in Hanafi Fiqh, Hadith, Tafsir, Tajwid and the Ten Qur’anic Qira'at. He then traveled to Karachi, Pakistan, where he studied under some of the greatest living scholars of our time; including Justice (Rtd) Shaykh al-Islam Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani (may Allah preserve him). There he received an Ijazah in ten major books of Hadith. He also spent two years specializing in the science of Fiqh and Ifta’ (giving legal verdicts) and during this time he published hundreds of Fatawa (legal verdicts). Furthermore, he was blessed with the opportunity to study Islamic Finance under the tutelage of Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani.He has an Ijazah in Hadith from world renowned Hadith scholars including Shaykh al-Hadith Maulana Sarfraz Khan Safdar, Shaykh al-Islam Maulana Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani, Mufti Muhammad Rafi Usmani (Grand Mufti of Pakistan), Shaykh al-Hadith Maulana Mufti Sahban Mahmood, and Shaykh al-Hadith Maulana Zahid-ur Rashidi.
After graduating, Mufti Umer Esmail worked six years as the Imam at the North Austin Muslim Community Center in Austin, Texas. In addition to leading prayers, he taught classes in Islamic Sciences, including Arabic, Tajwid, Islamic Finance, Fiqh, Aqidah, Hadith and Tafsir. He has been the spiritual Advisor for the Austin Chapter of MYNA since 2003.
Shaykh Omar Qureshi
Shaykh Omar Qureshi completed his Bachelor's degree at the University of Missouri – Columbia in Microbiology in 1995 and later obtained a M.Ed. in Science Education – Curriculum and Instruction from the same institution. As a teacher in Saudi Arabia, he also studied various Islamic Sciences with Sh. Salman Abu-Ghuddah. He continued his Islamic studies in Damascus, Syria at Ma'had al-Tahdhib wa-l-Ta'lim and privately with local Damascene scholars such as Sh. Hussain Darwish. Currently Omar is an upper school science teacher at Morgan Park Academy in Chicago. In addition to teaching, he is pursuing a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Education and Comparative Education at Loyola University in Chicago, where he is focusing on Muslim moral educational philosophy.
Shaykh Yahya Rhodus
Ustadh Yahya Rhodus was born in America’s Midwest. He became Muslim at the age of 19 in the San Francisco Bay Area and began studying with Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and distinguished scholars visiting from Mauritania, Shaykh Khatry and Shaykh Abdullah Ould Ahmadna. In 1998, he left for Mauritania to further his studies of Islamic Sciences. There he spent over a year studying with some of Mauritania's great scholars, including Shaykh Murabit al-Hajj, one the great scholars of our age. In 2000, he moved to Tarim, Yemen to continue his studies at the prestigious Dar al-Mustafa. There he studied with renowned scholars including Habib `Ali al-Jifry, Habib `Umar bin Hafiz, and other local scholars. In 2005, he returned to the US from his studies overseas to serve as a full-time teacher at Zaytuna Institute until the summer of 2007. To further his studies he then moved back to Tarim, where he currently resides with his family.
Ustadha Shireen Ahmed
Ustadha Shireen Ahmed (Umm Umar) was born and raised in Canada. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology. During her university studies, she was actively involved in MSA work at the local as well as the national level. After graduation, Umm Umar spent three years in Syria, studying Arabic at the University of Damascus and Islamic studies at Jamia Abi Nour and taking private classes in Tajweed, Hadith, Hanafi Fiqh and Seerah. Subsequently, she spent seven years in Jordan furthering her studies of Arabic and Hanafi Fiqh. During this time, she also worked at SunniPath developing online courses.
Umm Umar is currently responsible for Course Development at SeekersGuidance. She resides in Toronto, Canada, with her husband and three children. Between continuing her studies of the sacred sciences and homeschooling her children, Ustadha Shireen is working on her first publication, Thread of Pure Gold, which is a translation and a commentary on the classical Islamic text on parenting, Simtu al-‘Uqyan.