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Dr. Shadee Elmasry was born and raised in New Jersey. He began studying the traditional sciences rigorously at age eighteen. He studied in Yemen, Mecca and Madina, London and Cairo under several veteran ulama. He studied Arabic Maliki fiqh, usul, aqida and suluk. Among his teachers are Mahmoud Shabieb, Rami Nsour, Salek bin Sidna, Muhammad al-Jindi, Muhammad Alawi al-Maliki, Habib Umar bin Hafiz, and Hafiz Ghulam Yasin.

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In addition to traditional learning, Dr. Elmasry has received a masters and PhD in religious studies, completing his masters thesis at The George Washington University and his PhD at The University of London, SOAS on Da’wa in the Works of Imam Abd Allah bin Alawi al-Haddad.

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Dr. Elmasry went on to teach at several universities including Yale, The University of London SOAS, Trinity College, Hartford Seminary and Manhattanville College. Currently, he has found his way back home as Scholar in Residence and Director of Education at the New Brunswick Islamic Center in New Jersey. He is also the founder and head of Safina Society—an institution dedicated to disseminating Ahl al-Sunna & Jama knowledge live and online.

Sheikh Mahdi Lock is a professional freelance translator of classical Arabic Islamic texts into English. He has a BA in Arabic and History from the University of Leeds, an MA in Arabic Linguistics from King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, and a Diploma in Translation from the Chartered Institute of Linguists in London, of which he is also a Member (MCIL). He has been studying theology, law, and other Islamic sciences for several years with teachers in England, North Africa, and the Middle East. 

To date, his translated works include:

Kitāb al-Ḥalāl wa al-Ḥarām by Imam Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī 

Kitāb al-Waqf from al-Mughnī al-Muḥtāj by al-Khaṭīb al-Shirbīnī 

The introduction to al-Majmūʿ by Imam Yaḥyā al-Nawawī

Sharḥ al-Ṣudūr by Imam Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī

Almost 2000 pages of the Khawāṭir of Imam Muḥammad Mutawallī ash-Shaʿrawī (http://www.elsharawyreflections.com)

La Dhukūriyyah fī al-Fiqh by Imam Muḥammad at-Tāwīl

Manhaj al-Ḥaḍārah al-Insāniyyah fī al-Qurʾān by Imam Muḥammad Saʿīd Ramaḍān al-Būṭī

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For Nawa Books, he has translated the following:

Al-Wāfī: A Thorough Commentary on the Forty Nawawiyyah by Imams Muṣṭafā al-Bughā and Muḥyī ad-Dīn Mistū

Man and Allah’s Justice on Earth, Inward Sin, A Unique Pedagogical Approach in the Qurʾān, To Every Young Woman Who Believes in Allah, Islam and the Problems of the Youth, all of which are part of the Pinnacle Papers series by Imam Muḥammad Saʿīd Ramaḍān al-Būṭī

The first volume of al-Fiqh al-Manhajī ʿalā Madhhab al-Imām ash-Shāfiʿī, by Imams Muṣṭafā al-Bughā, ʿAlī ash-Sharbajī, and Muṣṭafā al-Khin

The Rights of the Husband and Wife by Shaykh ʿAbdul Hādī al-Kharsah

Remembrances & Etiquettes of The Prophet ﷺ

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Mahdi has also been teaching English and Arabic for about two decades, from primary school through to the university level. He teaches other sciences privately, mainly fiqh, and regularly does online study circles, such as the Halaqah Book Club. 

Nuh Saunders was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the grandson of converts to Islam who were sure to instill in him a love of Islam. As an aspiring Student of Knowledge, he began his studies in Arabic and Quranic studies at the Quba Institute in Philadelphia. He then began an in-depth study of Aqidah and Dawah with Shaykh Abdur Rahman Sondalani privately. During this time, he was privileged to study Shafi'i Fiqh with Imam Muhammad Amin of Atlantic City, New Jersey.

At the advice of Imam Amin and many others, Ustadh Nuh set out to the Islamic world to further his pursuit of knowledge. At first, this led him to Egypt where he had the opportunity to study Arabic grammar and Tajweed with scholars of Al-Azhar University. After that, he moved to Tarim, Yemen to enroll in the world-famous Dar Al Mustafa Islamic Seminary. He has studied the various Islamic sciences including fiqh, hadith, seerah, and Tassawuf.

His main area of study is Quranic recitation. He was given the opportunity to study privately with such great Quran reciters such as Sayyid Ali Ba Alawi of Tarim Hadramawt and Shaykh Bashar al Riz, who is one of the great reciters of Damascus and a direct student of Abul Hassan al Kurdi. He has memorized the main text in the science of Tajweed and received ijaza. He has been been in Tarim for the past six years where he is studying full time with the intention of specializing in Dawah, and Quranic recitation, along with the variant modes of recitation under the tutelage of great scholars such as Habib Umar Bin Hafidh and many others.

Shaykh Shams Tameez is a graduate of UK-based seminary Jamia al-Karam. He then completed the Diploma at the Cambridge Muslim College in Contextual Islamic Studies and Leadership. After this he worked as an Imam at Aylesbury Mosque in Buckinghamshire before embarking on further studies in Istanbul at the Abu Hanifa Institute. 

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He has also been fortunate to study with great scholars from Syria currently residing in Istanbul such as Shaykh Khalid al-Kharsa, Shaykh Adnan Darwesh, Shaykh Ridwan al-Kaheel, Shaykh Muhammad Shuqayr, and Turkish scholars such as Mulla Yavus. He then travelled to Tarim in Yemen where he was blessed to study at Dar al-Mustafa. He returned to the UK and completed a Master degree at SOAS University in Islamic studies. 

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Since then he has completed the four year IKAN programme in Istanbul’s Sultan Ahmet Madrasa specializing in the rational sciences (m’aqūlāt). He is currently pursing a PhD at Ibn Haldun University focusing on Islamic philosophy within the Farangi Mahall tradition.

Imran Ahmed has been privately studying the Islamic sciences part-time for well over a decade. He has an interest in many Shar'i disciplines, with a focus on Hanafi fiqh. He has studied texts in disciplines including Sarf (morphology), Nahw (syntax), Balaghah (eloquence), Al-'Arud (poetic meter), Mantiq (syllogistic logic), 'Aqidah (theology), 'Ulum al-Qur'an and Tafsir (exegesis of the Qur'an), Mustalah al-Hadith (Hadith terminology and methodology), Hadith collections, Fiqh (substantive law), Usul al-Fiqh (jurisprudential methodology). He is also interested in editing manuscripts (tahqiq al-makhtutat).

Some of the teachers he has studied with include Shaykh Samer al-Nass, Mufti Abdur Rahman Mangera, Shaykh Faraz Rabbani, Mufti Ismail Moosa, Shaykh Jihad Brown, Shaykh Haroon Hanif, and Shaykh Mohammed Daniel.

Sheikh Osamah Salhia currently serves as the Imam of the Islamic Center of Passaic County- Clifton Campus (ICPC Clifton) after spending 8 years abroad studying Islamic Law at Al-Azhar University- Faculty of Shari’ah in Cairo, Egypt. He has taught numerous classes on various subjects including Islamic Law, Source Methodology, Arabic language, Qur’an Exegesis, Islamic History, Hadith studies and Purification of the Soul in his capacity as an Imam and teacher. Sheikh Osamah serves as an online instructor at Guidance College. He is also certified in the ten canonical modes of recitation, and traditionally trained in Shafi’i Fiqh and has previously worked as a Content Editor and Shari’ah Reviser for the International Islamic Publishing House (IIPH).

Muzzammil Ahmad is currently pursuing an MA in Islamic Law at SOAS, University of London. He’s also a graduate student at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt where he’s completed studies in Uṣūl al-Fiqh, and is currently working on his Master’s dissertation, editing and annotating manuscripts of “al-Sharḥ ‘alā Uṣūl al-Bazdawī” by the 16th century Ḥanafī jurist ‘Alā al-Dīn Ilāhdād ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Jaunpūrī (d. 923/1517). His previous studies include Dar al-‘Ulūm Nadwat al-‘Ulamā, a traditional seminary in Lucknow, India where he graduated with an ‘Alimiyyah in 2017, the Qalam Seminary in Arlington, TX, and the Dream program at Bayyinah Institute before that. He has memorized the Qur’ān, and is traditionally licensed in various Islamic sciences. He has a particular focus in the Ḥanbalī school, which he studies in-person and online with scholars from Egypt and Saudi Arabia.