Founder of Cambridge Muslim College, Director of Studies in Theology at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge and author of many critically acclaimed books on Islam.
Possibly the most learned Muslim scholar of the Modern Era, who synthezied faith in scholarship in the form of a college, Cambridge Muslim College. Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad is currently the Dean and Aziz Foundation Professor at Cambridge Muslim College. He is also the Shaykh Zayed Lecturer in the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University and the Director of Studies in Theology at Wolfson College, Cambridge. He founded the first Muslim college in Britain; Cambridge Muslim College offering world-class Bachelors and Masters degrees in Islamic theology, law and spirituality. He has served as the Chair of the Muslim Academic Trust, UK. Today, he’s considered as Britain’s most influential Muslim. He has frequently featured amongst the top 100, in the 500 Most Influential Muslims list, issued annually.
He served as the Director of the Sunna Project at the Cambridge University’s Centre of Middle Eastern Studies. The Sunna Project published the arabic editions of the major Hadith collections. He is a strong proponent of inter-faith dialogue, particularly Muslim-Christian relations, and a signatory to the the letter; “ The Common Word Between Us and You”. Abdal Hakim Murad is believed to be an authority on arguably the most influential scholar of the Islamic tradition, Imam Al-Ghazali. He has translated many notable Islamic texts from Arabic to English, including two volumes of the Ihya Ulum ul Din (The Revival of Religious Sciences), the magnum opus series by Imam Al-Ghazali.
His research spans from noteworthy work in the field of Sufism (Islamic Spirituality), to compilation of computerized hadith databases and the Ottomon learned institution, among others. His book, “Bombing without Moonlight (2008)” won the King Abdullah I prize for Islamic Thought in 2007. He has published, supervised and edited numerous notable research publications and books. His latest book, published in 2020, “Travelling Home; Essays on Islamic in Europe” is a compilation of his lectures on Islamophobia in Europe. It discusses the mechanisms which Muslims should adopt to encounter this challenge, based on the spiritual and scholarly legacy of Islam. He also edited the well-acclaimed, Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology (2008).
Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad’s academic and scholarly profile is a unique and holistic blend of contemporary and traditional modes of learning. He graduated from the University of Cambridge and then enrolled himself in the historic Al-Azhar University, in Cairo, Egypt to ground his academic knowledge in traditional Islamic knowledge frameworks.
After graduating from Cambridge, he enrolled in language programs and gained a thorough command over the Turkish and Persian languages, at the University of London. In 1992, he was granted an admission at the prestigious University of Oxford for his PhD on “Religious life during the Ottoman Reign”. He has conducted halaqas and given lectures on the life and works of Imam al-Ghazali for different organizations in England and abroad. He also laid the foundations of the first eco-friendly mosque in Cambridge, Cambridge Central Mosque run entirely on donations and charity. He writes for The Independent, Q-News International; a Muslim magazine published in the UK and has edited and contributed to many Islamic scholarly journals.
We are truly honoured and privileged to have Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad on Al-Qadir’s Board of Advisors. Al-Qadir University Project Trust and hopes to greatly benefit from his vast experience, wisdom and extensive scholarship.
