Sheikh Gibril Fouad Haddad

Sheikh Gibril Fouad Haddad is a well-known Lebanese-American scholar and religious leader and has emerged as one of the clearest voices of traditional Islam in the West and is quickly earning a reputation as a respected translator and interpreter of the sacred Islamic texts.

Born in 1960 into a middle-class Lebanese Catholic family in Beirut, Lebanon, and schooled in England, he declared his shahadah in 1991 as a graduate student at Columbia University in New York where he obtained his PhD degree in French literature.

The same year, he met his teacher, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani of Cyprus, from whom he took the Naqshbandi tariqa. He taught at the State University of New York at Stony Brook for 2 years and in 1997 moved to Damascus where he studied the Islamic disciplines for 9 years.

Among the teachers he has been honoured to read with are Shaykh Dr. Nur al-Din `Itr, Shaykh Adib Kallas, Shaykh Wahbi al-Ghawji, Shaykh Muhammad al-Ya`qubi, Shaykh Adnanal-Majd, Shaykh Mu`tazz al-Subayni, Shaykh Dr. Samir al-Nass, Shaykh Dr. Wahbaal-Zuhayli, Shaykh `Abd al-Hadi Kharsa, and Shaykh Muhammad Muti` al-Hafiz. Healso holds ijazas from Shaykh Dr. Muhammad ibn `Alawi al-Maliki and ShaykhHusayn `Usayran, the last of the close students of the pious Qadi Shaykh Yusufal-Nabhani, as well ijazas from more than 100 shaykhs from Algeria to Yemen -Allah reward them all and continue to benefit us through them.

Among his 30 or more published works covering Islamic doctrine, hadith and history are "Allah's Names and Attributes" by Imam al-Bayhaqi,"The Prophet's Night Journey and Heavenly Ascent" by Shaykh Muhammad ibn `Alawi al-Maliki, "Albani and His Friends: A Concise Guide to the Salafi Movement", "Mawlid: Celebrating the Birth of the Holy Prophet,upon him blessings and peace", written in refutation of Mufti Taqi Usmani's fatwa against its celebration, Shaykh Ibn `Alawi's "The Prophetsin Barzakh", "Jesus Christ and His Blessed Mother" by al-Habib`Ali al-Jifri, "Sunna Notes Volume 1: Hadith History and Principles", "Sunna Notes Volume 2: The Excellent Innovation in the Qur'an andHadith", "The Four Imams and Their Schools", al-Suyuti's"Remembrance of God", and a translation of Qadi Ibn Jahbalal-Dimashqi's "Refutation of Ibn Taymiyya on Attributing a Direction toAllah Most High", and Mulla Ali Al-Qari's "Major Dictionary of Hadith Forgeries".