Mawlana Hamzah wald Maqbul

Biography
He was born in Whittier, California, and lived in Southern California until the age of ten when he moved to Blaine, Washington. After graduating from Blaine High School, he went on to attend the University of Washington and in 2004 completed a Bachelors of Science in Biochemistry and a Bachelors of Arts in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

During his study at the university he was active on campus, serving as the president of the UW Muslim Students Association. After 9/11 he was also listed by the University of Washington as an expert on Islam and was invited to address various groups from all walks of life from universities to high schools to community groups as well as all forms of media (TV, Radio, Newspaper, Internet).

After graduation Shaykh Hamzah went on to pursue traditional Islāmic studies, which took him to a number of countries, including Syria and Egypt where he studied the Arabic language, Morocco, Mauritania, and UAE, where he studied the madhhab of Imām Mālik, grammar, usul al-hadith, and the two renditions of the qira’ah of Imam Nāfi’, Warsh and Qālūn, and finally Pakistān where he had the opportunity to study tafsīr, Usūl al-Hadīth, Hadīth, ‘Ilm al-Rijāl and Hanafī Fiqh. All of these studies culminated in him receiving an Ijāzat al-Tadrīs, literally meaning “a license to teach” which is the equivalent in Pakistānī Islāmic seminaries to a MA in Arabic and Islāmic studies, as well as an unbroken chain of transmission by which to narrate the Hadīth of such books as the Muwatta' of Imām Mālik, the Sihāh al-Sittah (Bukhārī, Muslim, Abū Dāwūd, Tirmidhī, Nasā'ī and Ibn Mājah), and the Sharh Ma'ānī al-Athār of Imām al-Tahāwī.

After his return to the United States, Shaykh Hamzah spent five years as the resident scholar of the Thawr Institute, a non-profit religious and educational organization based in Seattle, Washington, teaching, giving khutbahs in local Masājid, and travelling through America promoting the knowledge and practice of the sunnah. He has in the past worked closely with Darul Qasim, CAIR, the Halal Food Standards Alliance of America (hfsaa.org) and a number of other non-profit organizations that serve the Muslim Community.

He is currently collaborating with the Imam Ghazali Institute and the resident scholar for Ribāt, a center for learning and remembrance in the Midwest United States.