Contributors

FIKR · Foundation for Inquiry, Knowledge, and Revival

Raised in Montreal, Tofael Nuruddin memorised the Qurʾān and began his ʿĀlimiyyah studies at Al-Rashid Islamic Institute in Cornwall, Canada, before completing the programme at Madrasah ʿArabiyyah Islāmiyyah in Azaadville, South Africa. He then specialised in iftāʾ at Jamiah Qasimul Uloom. Alongside his traditional training, he studied Philosophy and MESAAS at Columbia University after entering the Specialist in Philosophy program at the University of Toronto. He teaches ʿaqīdah at FIKR and in the ʿĀlimiyyah Program at Darul Ehsan, serves as Program Coordinator at Nida-ul-Islam (NJ) and as ʿĀlimiyyah Principal at Tawheed Dawah Center (NJ), and is a co-founder of Dirayah Seminary.

FIKR · Foundation for Inquiry, Knowledge, and Revival

Rafiul Muntakim completed the memorisation of the Qurʾān at Darul Uloom New York in 2014 and began his ʿĀlimiyyah studies there before completing the final years of the programme at Madrasah ʿArabiyyah Islāmiyyah in Azaadville, South Africa (2019–2022). During this period he studied the ten canonical modes of Qurʾanic recitation under Qāriʾ ʿAbdullāh Motara. He then pursued specialised studies in the Science of Ḥadīth at Madrasatul Uloomi Sharʿiyyah in South Africa, and completed his iftāʾ training at Jāmiʿah Ḥākim al-Ummat in Bangladesh (2023–2025) under Muḥammad Yaḥyā.

FIKR · Foundation for Inquiry, Knowledge, and Revival

Faatima Uddin is a researcher and writer affiliated with FIKR, where she contributes to programming and study circles oriented around the intellectual heritage of the Islamic tradition. Her interests lie at the meeting point of classical scholarship and contemporary questions facing Muslim communities, with particular attention to the formation of women in the disciplines of ʿilm.

Georgia Islamic Institute

Syed Ahaz bin Atif serves on the faculty of the Georgia Islamic Institute, where he teaches alongside the Institute's scholars in the classical Arabic sciences, and serves as the imam of a masjid in Georgia. He is the author of An Elucidation of the Governing Powers of Arabic Syntax and their Types, a summary of al-ʿAwāmil al-Miʾah, published by the Institute. His work focuses on making the foundational instruments of Arabic grammar accessible to serious English-language students of the tradition.

University of Johannesburg

Aaishah Lombard is a Lecturer in Religion Studies at the University of Johannesburg and a PhD candidate whose work centres on Islam and Muslim lived realities in contemporary South Africa. She holds an ʿĀlimiyyah qualification from Madressa Zakariyya lil Banaat in Lenasia, rooted in the Darul Uloom tradition, alongside a BA Honours in Islamic Studies and an MA in Semitic Languages and Cultures from the University of Johannesburg. Her research spans Islamic liberation theology, religion and social justice, lived religion, practical theology, and Islamic psychology, drawing on ethnographic and liberationist methodologies to examine how faith-based worldviews shape individual and communal well-being.

Emergency Medicine · Darul Uloom Canada (Chatham)

Mateen Khan received his medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine and is board certified in Emergency Medicine. Alongside his clinical career, he completed the ʿĀlimiyyah course at Darul Uloom Canada in Chatham, Ontario. His work sits at the meeting point of contemporary medical practice and the classical Islamic sciences, with particular attention to bioethics, the cultivation of istiqāmah, and the tradition of tadabbur in the Qurʾān.

FIKR · Foundation for Inquiry, Knowledge, and Revival

Mariam Farhan began her Qurʾānic journey at Madrasah Āʾishah Ṣiddīqah Banāt in Karachi, Pakistan, where she completed the memorization of the Qurʾān in 2016. She then pursued the ʿĀlimiyyah program at the same institution, completing the six-year course in 2023 with a focus on Qurʾān, Ḥadīth, Fiqh, and Tafsīr. Alongside her Islamic education, she studied the sciences at Shaheed-e-Millat Government College for Women in Karachi. She has served as an educator at several institutions in both Pakistan and the United States, including Madrasah Aṣḥāb al-Ṣuffah (Karachi), Masjid Ḥamzah, Jāmiʿatul ʿUlūm (New York), and the Elmont Islamic Center, actively participating in youth initiatives and women’s study circles.