Know Your Sheikh: Sheikh Uthman ibn Farooq

Sheikh Uthman ibn Farooq was born in Pakistan and is a member of the Yusufzai Pashtun tribe, but he grew up in California. In his late adolescent years, he began practicing and studying Islam, and ash- Shaikh Dr. Awad al-Gargur inspired him to pursue Islamic knowledge overseas.

For the next ten years Sh. Uthman would continue to balance his secular and Islāmic studies, earning a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, an executive MBA in technology management, while attaining traditional Ijāzāt (accreditation) in classic Islāmic texts from qualified Islāmic scholars, such as ash-Shaikh Dr. Yusūf Mishaʿal حفظه الله (Ph.D. Umm al-Qura) and ash-Shaikh Dr. Sādiq al-Manna (Ph.D. Umm al-Qura) حفظه الله .

Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates were among the places he visited in search of Islamic knowledge. He holds several Ijāzāt in the books of Ḥanbalī Fiqh, Uṣūl al-Fiqh, Ḥadīth, Muṣṭalaḥ al- Ḥadῑth and a Master’s degree in the sciences of Ḥadīth. In San Diego, California, he is the Imam of Masjid Al-Ribat.