I am the Chaplain for the Harvard Islamic Society (HIS), a student organization that is dedicated to meeting the social and religious needs of the Muslim community at Harvard and promoting an awareness of Islam in the Harvard community. (The Islamic Society has been serving the Harvard community since its establishment in 1955.) I have been an intermittent sermon-deliverer and prayer leader for the Friday congregational service, organized by HIS for more than a decade. I started as an active member of the Islamic Society when I was an undergraduate and for several years was an advisor to the Islamic Society as a graduate student.

I was born and raised as a Muslim in New York City. I came from New York City to attend Harvard College in 1992, graduated in 1996 with a degree in Comparative Study of Religion (so I understand what it means to be a Muslim student at Harvard College!), went on to pursue graduate studies here and have been at Harvard ever since! I like reading classical Islamic texts, science fiction and fantasy fiction novel and, of course, spending time with my family. Y ou can find me at the Friday congregational service (in Lowell Lecture Hall at 1:15) every week unless I am delivering the sermon elsewhere or traveling. I have led study circles on essential Islamic belief and practice, Qur’anic recitation, Prophetic traditions and traditional Arabic linguistics at the HIS Prayer Space and around the Boston metro area for years. One of the ways in which I can be helpful to interested students is by advising them on strategies for living as Muslims in the Harvard community.

I have been a student of the traditional Islamic sciences for more than 15 years, spent a brief time studying in Southern Arabia, have a couple of traditional licenses to transmit what I have learned from my teachers, am an ABD in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and am currently finishing a dissertation in post-formative Islamic ethics and traditional Arabic literary theory.

I live in the Boston suburbs with my wife (Harvard College `98) and our three children. I am available for discussions about Islamic belief and practice, comparative religious studies and ethics.