Dr. Fareeha Khan
Born and raised in Chicago, Fareeha holds an M.A. from the University of Chicago in Middle Eastern Studies and a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from the University of Michigan.

Fareeha studied under Dr. Sherman Abdul Hakim Jackson at Michigan, and her main academic research interests include Islamic law, women, and application and interpretation of the Islamic tradition in the modern period.

She is an affiliated scholar at Willamette University (where she has also served as assistant professor), and is an Advisory Editor for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Islamic Law.

Fareeha has been blessed to be able to study with Islamic religious scholars as well. Some of her teachers include: Sheikh Nuh Keller, Umm Sahl, Sheikh Faraz Rabbani, and Sheikh Ashraf Muneeb.

She lives with her husband Ibrahim Mansoor in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where she continues to write and study privately and online. She also serves on the Sila Executive Board.

Sulma Badrudduja
Sulma Badrudduja began studying the Arabic language in high school and while in college she finished her memorization of the Quran.

She studied traditional Islamic disciplines in Jordan and while there received several ijazas in Qur’anic recitation.

She received her ijaza in the Shatibiyyah with Mufti Umer Esmail, and she currently teaches the ten qira’at. She lives in Kentucky with her husband and children.

Sadaf A. Khan-Ahmad
Sadaf A. Khan-Ahmad was born in North Carolina to parents of South Asian origin. She obtained her Doctorate in Pharmacy while in Chicago, Illinois.

She subsequently began online studies in the Shariah sciences with Shaykh Faraz Rabbani and Ustadha Hedaya Hartford, followed by completion of an Alimah curriculum with various Hanafi scholars and muftis based in India and the United States.

She continues to study both online and in person with Islamic scholars such as Shaykh Nuh Keller, Ustadha Besa Krasniqi, and Shaykh Ashraf Muneeb. She currently teaches and resides in Chicago with her husband.

Past Instructors

Ustadha Umm Sahl
Born and raised in New Zealand, and of Albanian descent, Ustadha Umm Sahl left with her family to live in Turkey in 1982, where she met her first sheikh in tasawwuf, Ihsan Effendi of Zeytinburnu, Istanbul, whose student she remained until his death in 1991.

In 1983, she traveled to Egypt to study Arabic, where she lived for three years. In 1986, she married her husband Nuh Ha Mim Keller and moved to Amman, Jordan.

She studied Hanafi Fiqh and hadith terminology with Sheikh Shuayb Arnaut; Hanafi Fiqh and ‘Aqida with Sheikh Ahmad al-Jammal; Tajwid with Sheikh Ibrahim Rumana; and for the last 10 years, she has been studying Tafsir, Arabic grammar, Balagha, and Islamic Inheritance with Sheikh ‘Ali Hani.

In 1992, she joined the Shadhili tariqa of Sheikh Abdur-Rahman ash-Shaghouri, and was his student until his death in 2004. At present, she studies and teaches, helps her husband in his translation projects, and the running of the Zawiya of Abul Hasan ash-Shadhili in Amman.

Ustadha Noura Shamma
Noura Shamma has a B.S. in Elementary Education, an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies, and has completed coursework for a Ph.D. in Islamic Thought.

After spending two years studying with scholars in the US, she relocated to Amman, Jordan in 2003.

In Jordan, Noura has been studying Islamic sciences including Hanafi fiqh, Aqida, Arabic, Hadith and Tasawwuf with traditional scholars including Shaykh Nuh Keller, Shaykh Ashraf Muneeb, and Ustadha Besa Krasniqi.

“Allah loves kindness and gentleness in all matters.
Kindness and gentleness doesn’t enter into a thing except that it makes it beautiful”

Prophet Muhammed (صلى الله عليه و سلم)

“Two rakat before fajr (morning prayer) are worth more than the whole world.”

Prophet Muhammed (صلى الله عليه و سلم)

“One definition of wisdom is: to see the outcome of things.”

Umm Sahl