Nur al-Habib Foundation

Shaykh Dr Asim is one of the most senior English speaking scholars in the UK, and has studied widely and received authorisation from senior scholars from around the world. In particular, he is considered an international authority in Islamic Psychology and its philosophy, and a specialist in Islamic bioethics, astronomy, and metaphysics.

Most pertinently for this course, he has engaged in detailed readings of a number of major classical works of tafsir with some of the most senior scholars in the world. In addition to a general permission to teach tafsir, he has a specific authorisation to transmit the tafsir works of Ibn Kathir, al-Baydawi, al-San’ani, al-Nasafi, al-Zamakhshari, as well as the Itqan and other Quran-centric works of Imam al-Suyuti – all with multiple unbroken chains of transmission.

His studies have included the majority of the branches of the Islamic sciences, including advanced study of theology, philosophy, Islamic law (primarily Hanafi, but also basic studies of the Shafii and Maliki schools), Quranic hermeneutics, the principles of hadith critique, juristic principles (both approaches), the grammar and philosophy of the Arabic language, classical and modern logic, western and Islamic rhetoric, hadith commentary, shamail and tasawwuf. He has taught most of these subjects over the years.

He also narrates with specific the six canonical works of hadith, as well as the Muwatta of Malik and several other major classical works of hadith, via some of the best and highest chains of transmission in the world. Each of these entailed either complete or near-complete readings with over thirty senior scholars.

He teaches advanced classes in analytical theology, metaphysics, the philosophy of Islamic law and the theoretical study of mystical experience. Since 2014, he has been engaged in a complete reading, commentary and analysis of the Ihya Ulum al-Din of Imam Ghazali, and has to date completed the first third of the forty volumes with his students.

Professionally, the Shaykh is a full-time Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Director for Mental Health Services in the Black Country, with a special interest in Islamic spirituality and mental health, about which he is regularly invited to lecture internationally at Universities, including Oxford, Cardiff, Chicago and Toronto.

He is the author of several books, most notably Shedding Light on the Dawn, as well as being a poet and lyricist better known by his pseudonym Talib al-Habib, with three well-received nasheed albums to his name. Shaykh Asim is the Emeritus and Founding Chair of the British Board of Scholars and Imams, the largest and most diverse scholarly organisations in the Western world.