Voices of wisdom & scholarship

Sarah Ahmed is an educator and author of Reading Quran, A Step-by-Step Guide to Qur'anic Fluency. She is an Islamic scholar, writer and home educator. She graduated with an alimiyyah degree in 2011 from Dar ul-Uloom al Madania in New York.

She has served as an Islamic Studies instructor and Qur'an teacher for the past decade. She is passionate about working with youth, focusing on empowering young Muslim women with knowledge on their deen and spirituality. She currently resides in Dallas, Texas with her husband and three children and is working on other beneficial Islamic works.

Suhaib Webb is a contemporary American Muslim Imam, thought leader and educator. After his conversion to Islam, Webb left a career in the music industry and pursued his passion in education. He graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Education from the University of Central Oklahoma.

Imam Webb has completed the memorization of the Qur'an and holds a number of licenses from traditional scholars in various Islamic sciences. Imam Suhaib Webb strongly advocates for an authentic articulation of the American Muslim identity.

Ustadh Ubaydullah Evans is ALIM's first Scholar-in-Residence. He converted to Islam while in high school. Upon conversion, Ustadh Ubaydullah began studying some of the foundational books of Islam under the private tutelage of local scholars.

Since then he has studied at Chicagoland's Institute of Islamic Education (IIE), in Tarim, Yemen, and Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, where he is the first African-American to graduate from its Shari'a program. Ustadh Ubaydullah also instructs with the Ta'leef Collective and the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN).

Dr. Mustafa Khattab is a Canadian-Egyptian scholar, author, and public speaker. He is the translator of The Clear Quran®, one of the most widely distributed English translations of the Qur'an in the world today.

Born and raised in Egypt, Dr. Khattab memorized the entire Qur'an at a young age and developed a deep passion for Islamic studies. He pursued his academic journey at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, one of the oldest and most prestigious Islamic institutions in the world, where he earned both his Master's and PhD degrees in Islamic Studies.

His mission has always been to make the Qur'an accessible to everyone — Muslims and non-Muslims alike — without compromising the depth and authenticity of the original Arabic text. The Clear Quran® represents years of meticulous work, combining scholarly precision with a natural flow that speaks to contemporary readers.

Mufti Hussain Kamani was born and raised in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. His journey to pursue sacred Islamic knowledge began at age six. By the age of nine, he was able to complete memorization of the Holy Qur'an. He then traveled to England, where he completed the seven-year Ālimiyyah program and specialized in Iftāʾ.

He studied Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and other classical texts under one of the great Hadith scholars of our age, Shaykh al-Ḥadīth Mawlānā Yusuf Motala, and was deeply shaped by his mentorship. For over twenty years he has served as an imam and a teacher of Hadith, Fiqh, and Tazkiyah. He played a central role in shaping the Qalam Seminary, where he served as the Director and a senior faculty member. He also taught at Darul Qasim College during his time as an Imam in Chicago.

At the heart of Mufti Hussain's work lies a commitment to forming the next generation of imams and leaders grounded in the Islamic tradition, as well as scholars with the intellectual rigor to critically engage, shape, and transmit that tradition in the face of the problems of the modern world. He has trained thousands of students, and many of them now lead their own communities as imams, chaplains, and educators across the country.

Shaykh Saad Baig serves as the Head of School at the Al-Rahmah Educational Program, bringing over 20 years of experience in education, religious leadership, and community development. He previously served as Imam and Director of Religious Affairs at the Islamic Center of the Quad-Cities and is widely recognized for his leadership in faith-based institutions, offering expertise in counseling, academic instruction, and strategic planning.

Shaykh Saad works closely with both Islamic and public schools, serving as a liaison on pressing issues such as anxiety, trauma, depression, addiction, family and child welfare, and the integration of migrant families. He also provides leadership coaching and financial sustainability guidance to masajid and Islamic schools across the country. Currently, he serves as a resident scholar and outreach leader at the Islamic Society of Baltimore (ISB), where he actively promotes interfaith collaboration and civic engagement.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Religion from Augustana College and a Master's in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Western Illinois University. He completed the rigorous seven-year Ālimiyyah program at Darul Uloom Zakariyya in South Africa in 2008 and is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Nonprofit Leadership to further his commitment to impactful and sustainable service.

Ustadha Aatifa Shareef is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Texas and Maryland and an instructor at Qalam. She teaches a preparatory class for working in the community at the Seminary as well as other classes, workshops, and intensives.

Ustadha Aatifa Shareef holds a Masters in Psychology degree with a Clinical Concentration from the University of Dallas as well as an Ālimiyyah degree from the Qalam Seminary. Born and raised in Columbus, OH, she graduated from Northwestern University with a BA in Psychology and a minor in Religious Studies. She is working to combine her two fields of study by understanding psychology in an Islamic context and providing counseling for the Muslim community in America.

Kenneth "Aqil" Ingram II studied Judicial Law and Jurisprudence at the Islamic University of Madinah and Psychology at Thomas Edison State University. He further had the opportunity to participate in academic gatherings with scholars from varying regions of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Kuwait.

He has been involved in spreading the message of Islam within the United States of America for over two decades. He has provided extensive family counseling and has engaged in community organizing across the country. Throughout this time, he has become an author, educator, translator, and orator. He is also the former Director of Language and Theology at the M&M Learning Center and a former Administrative Chaplain with the Department of Public Safety.

Shaykh Ismet Akcin is an experienced Imam and dynamic scholar with over two decades of experience. He was born in Turkey and completed his Hifdth and Alimiyah schooling there before moving to Egypt to study Shariah and Qiraa under world-renowned Shaykh Ahmed Nuaina. He holds a degree in Sharia from Al-Azhar University and a Master's Degree in Inter-Disciplinary Studies from Niagara University in New York.

In January 2018, Shaykh Ismet Akcin joined the Islamic Society of Baltimore as an Imam. He has also served as the Director and Imam of the following: Islamic Cultural Center of New York, Manhattan; Islamic Center of Greater Miami, Florida; Islamic Center of El Paso, Texas; and Rochester Islamic Center, NY. Shaykh Ismet also served as the Imam at the Akev Islamic Center of Gumusyaka in Istanbul, Turkey.

Shaykh Ismet is known internationally as a Qari whose precise recitation of the Glorious Qur'an penetrates the hearts of those who are fortunate enough to hear him. His masterful control of tajweed and intonation and his exceptional delivery of Allah's words have made him a world renowned Qari.

Dr. Ra'id Awadallah received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech in 1998. He joined Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in the same year and he is currently a member of the principal professional staff. Over the last 23 years, he has led a team of researchers developing efficient numerical models for tropospheric propagation, electromagnetic scattering from randomly rough surfaces, radar cross-section of complex targets, pulsed propagation in complex urban structures, and characterization of thin-film metamaterials.

Dr. Awadallah is also an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins University Engineering Program for Professionals where he teaches courses on basic and applied electromagnetism.

Prior and in parallel to his pursuit of the technical disciplines, Dr. Awadallah spent many years studying various Islamic disciplines such as Arabic Language, Tafseer, Fiqh and Hadeeth. He has been teaching these various Islamic disciplines, especially Arabic Language and Tafseer, at various masajid in the Baltimore area since 1998.

Muhammad Ahmed memorized the Qur'an at the age of eleven. He later began his formal Islamic studies in the Ālimiyyah program under Shaykh Yaseen Shaikh before continuing his education in Karachi, Pakistan. There, he studied at the renowned Jamia Binoria International and received his Ālimiyyah Shahādah. He also earned a master's degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Karachi.

Upon returning to Baltimore, Muhammad served as a Resident Scholar and Youth Director at the Islamic Society of Baltimore. During his tenure, he played an instrumental role in developing and shaping Revive, the masjid's popular young-adult program. Alongside his work at ISB, he also served the historic Masjidul Haqq in Baltimore City, one of the oldest masjids in the state of Maryland, where he delivered khuṭbahs, taught classes, and provided strategic direction for community programming.

Muhammad is currently based in Cairo, Egypt, where he is continuing to expand his Islamic studies while remaining connected to the Islamic Society of Baltimore through online teaching and programming. He is deeply passionate about youth development, Islamic education, and empowering the next generation of Muslims to live confidently and proudly by their faith.

Zaki Ali finished memorizing the Qur'an at the age of nine and has since been leading Taraweeh prayers across the country for the past thirteen years. He graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas with a Bachelor's in Psychology and recently completed a Bachelor's in Shariah from the Islamic University of Madinah.

He also holds ijāzāt (certifications) in Qur'an and other Islamic sciences under various scholars and teachers. He is now serving as a resident scholar and youth director at the Islamic Society of Baltimore.