Shaykh Waleed Edrees al-Meneese is a prolific scholar, author, and master of the Islamic sciences and one of the world’s leading experts on the modes of Qurʾānic recitation (Qirāʾāt) and Ḥanbalī jurisprudence. He is the president and chancellor of the Islamic University of Minnesota, with branches all over the world.

Born in Alexandria, Egypt, he started his journey in Islamic studies at the young age of eleven and memorized Qurʾān by the age of fourteen. His early teachers in Alexandria included the late Muḥammad Najīb al-Muṭīʿī, the late Shaykh ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Burmāwī and Shaykh Sayyid Saʿd al-Dīn al-Ghubāshī, with whom he studied a variety of sciences and classical texts for ten years. He traveled to Riyāḍ, Saudi Arabia, to serve as an instructor and used the opportunity to study with some of the renowned scholars of the region, including the late Grand Muftī of Saudi Arabia Shaykh ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Bāz, the late Shaykh ʿAbd al-Razzāq ʿAfīfī (with whom he spent a total of 5 years), Shaykh Muḥammad b. Ṣāliḥ al-ʿUthaymīn, Shaykh Ṣāliḥ Āl al-Shaykh, Shaykh Ismāʿīl al-Anṣārī, Shaykh Ṣāliḥ b. Fawzān, the late Shaykh ʿAbdullah b. Jibrīn, Shaykh ʿAbdullah b. Quʿūd, the late Shaykh ʿAbdullah b. Ghudayān and others.

Shaykh Waleed is one of the world’s foremost experts on the fourteen modes of Qurʾānic reading, having mastered them and received Ijāzah from some of the world’s preeminent Qurʾānic scholars, including the late Shaykh Dr. ʿAbbās Muṣṭafā Anwar of Egypt, Shaykh Dr. Īhāb Aḥmad Fikrī Ḥaydar of Madīnah, Shaykh Muḥammad Sāmir al-Naṣṣ of Damascus, the late Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ʿAbdullah Khalīl of Alexandria, Shaykh Miṣbāḥ ʿAlī Ibrāhīm Wadn al-Dassūqī, Shaykh Muḥammad Yūnus Ghalbān, Shaykh ʿAbdullah Muḥammad Sirāj al-Ṭuwaylī, the late Shaykh Aḥmad Muṣṭafā Abū Ḥasan al-Mulayjī, Shaykh ʿAbd al-Bāsiṭ Hashim, Shaykh ʿAbdullah b. Ṣāliḥ al-ʿUbayd of Riyāḍ, and Shaykh Muḥammad Kurayyim Rājiḥ, the Imām of the reciters of Syria. Today, he is one of the world’s most sought-after teachers in the Qurʾānic Readings. Since he began teaching in 1412/1991, numerous Imāms, scholars and students alike have received Ijāzah from him, including Shaykh Muḥammad b. Ḥasan Dido of Mauritania.

Shaykh Waleed has received Ijāzah from over a hundred scholars, which he has published in a work entitled Inʿām al-Mālik al-Quddūs bi Asānīd Walīd b. Idrīs. He has some of the highest chains in Qurʾān and ḥadīth attainable today. Some of the foremost senior scholars who have granted him Ijāzah include the late Shaykh Ismāʿīl al-Anṣārī, Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir Karāmatullāh, Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Mullā al-Aḥsāʾī, Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qayyūm al-Raḥmānī, the late Shaykh Ẓahīr al-Dīn Mubarakpūrī, Shaykh Ṣafiyy al-Raḥmān Mubarakpūrī, Shaykh Muḥammad Isrāʾīl Nadwī, Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Kittānī, and many others.

Apart from his traditional training, Shaykh Waleed’s formal degrees include a Bachelor’s degree in Arabic language from the College of Literature, Alexandria University in Egypt; a Master’s degree in Islamic jurisprudence from the American Open University with the highest honors (summa cum laude), and PhD in Islamic jurisprudence from the Graduate Theological Foundation. His master’s dissertation was entitled, ‘The effects of the fourteen Qurʾānic Readings on areas of creed and jurisprudence,’ and translation is forthcoming. His PhD was a study of the jurisprudential rules pertaining to the means of communication.

His numerous written works include:

1. Athr Ikhtilāf al-Qirāʾāt al-Arbaʿat ʿAshr fī Mabāḥith al-ʿAqīdah wa al-Fiqh (‘The effects of the fourteen Qurʾānic Readings on areas of creed and jurisprudence.’) Cairo: Maktabah Dār al-Ḥijāz. 1436/2014.
2. Al-Futūḥāt al-Raḥmāniyyah fī Sharḥ al-Arjūzah al-Mīʾīyah fī Dhikr Ḥāl Ashraf al-Bariyyah. USA: Islamic University of Minnesota Publications. 1440/2018. [Commentary on a 100-line poem on sīrah by Ḥanafī scholar Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz]
3. Al-Rawḍat al-Bahiyyah Sharḥ al-Matn al-Fāriḍiyyah. USA: Islamic University of Minnesota Publications. 1440/2018. [Commentary on a 127-line poem on the rules of inheritance by Ḥanbalī scholar Shams al-Dīn al-Fāriḍī (d. 981 AH)]
4. Al-ʿAdhbah al-Mustasāghah fī Sharḥ Manẓūmat al-Balāghah. USA: Islamic University of Minnesota Publications. 1440/2018. [Commentary on the 100-line poem on Arabic rhetoric entitled Miʾat al-Maʿānī wa al-Bayān by Ḥanafī scholar Qāḍī Muḥibb al-Dīn b. al-Shiḥnah of Aleppo (d. 815 AH)]
5. Al-Khayr al-Kathīr Sharḥ al-Naẓm al-Ḥabīr fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān wa Uṣūl al-Tafsīr. USA: Islamic University of Minnesota Publications. 1438/2016. [Commentary on poem on Qurʾānic sciences by the Imām of Makkah Saʿūd al-Shuraym]
6. Manhajiyyah Ithbāt al-Ahillah fī al-Fiqh al-Islāmīyy. USA: Islamic University of Minnesota Publications. 1426/2005. [Fiqh work on Islamic dates entitled ‘Methodology of establishing the crescents in Islamic jurisprudence’]
7. Fakk al-Qayd Sharḥ Muqaddimah Ibn Abī Zayd. USA: Islamic University of Minnesota Publications. 1440/2018. [Commentary on Ibn Abī Zayd’s Introduction to al-Risālah, the first condensed Mālikī fiqh work]
8. Tarjumat al-ʿAllāmah ʿAbd al-Razzāq ʿAfīfī wa Fatawāh. USA: Islamic University of Minnesota Publications. 1440/2018. [Biography of his teacher Shaykh ʿAbd al-Razzāq ʿAfīfī (d. 1415/1994)]
9. Mukhtaṣar Iqtiḍāʾ al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm. Alexandria: Al-Amal Publications. 1430/2009. [Selection of Ibn Taymiyyah’s Iqtiḍāʾ al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm]
10. Dhāt al-Afnān fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān. USA: Islamic University of Minnesota Publications. 1436/2015. [Treatise on the Qurʾānic sciences]
11. Al-Hadiyyah al-Bahiyyah fī Sharḥ al-Manẓūmah al-Kīmiyāʾīyah. USA: Islamic University of Minnesota Publications. 1436/2015. [Commentary on a poem on chemistry by the female scholar Dr. Rashā Fāyid]
12. Al-Majālis al-Ramaḍāniyyah. USA: Islamic University of Minnesota Publications. 1436/2015. [A treatise on Islamic jurisprudence of the month of Ramadan]
13. Sharḥ al-Arjūzah al-Walīdiyyah al-Mutamammimah al-Raḥabiyyah. Riyad: Dār al-Muslim. 1421/2001. [Poem and commentary on the rules of inheritance]
14. Sharḥ Fatḥ al-ʿAllām fī Naẓm Masāʾil al-Asmāʾ wa al-Aḥkām. USA: Islamic University of Minnesota Publications. 1440/2018. [Poem and commentary on the theological boundaries between faith and disbelief]
15. Ittiḥāf al-Tāʾib bisharḥ Waṣiyyah Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd li al-Nāʾib. USA: Islamic University of Minnesota Publications. 1440/2018. [Commentary on Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd’s advise to his representatives when appointed chief judge over Egypt]
16. Qaswat al-Qalb. USA: Islamic University of Minnesota Publications. 1436/2015.
17. Al-Subul al-Marʿiyyah fī al-Siyāsah al-Sharʿiyyah. [Poem on rules of Islamic governance and politics]
18. Ijzāl al-ʿAṭiyyah fī Sharḥ Matn al-Shabrāwiyyah fī ʿIlm al-Naḥw. USA: Islamic University of Minnesota Publications. 1439/2017. [Commentary on poem of grammar by Imām al-Shabrāwī (d. 1171 AH)]
19. Fatḥ al-Mannān fī Sharḥ Ḥusn al-Bayān fī Naẓm Mushtarakāt al-Qurʾān. USA: Islamic University of Minnesota Publications. 1440/2018. [Commentary on poem on similar verses in the Qurʾān by Shāfiʿī scholar ʿAbd al-Hādī al-Ibyārī (d. 1305 AH)]
20. Ittiḥāf al-Shuyūkh bisharḥ Manẓūmah al-Nāsikh wa al-Mansūkh. USA: Islamic University of Minnesota Publications. 1440/2018. [Commentary on poem on abrogated verses in the Qurʾān by Shāfiʿī scholar ʿAbd al-Hādī al-Ibyārī (d. 1305 AH)]
21. Al-Futūḥāt al-Ṣamadiyyah fī Sharḥ Risālah al-ʿUbūdiyyah.
22. Nathr al-Fawāʾid Sharḥ Naẓm al-Qawāʿid.
23. Minḥah Wāhib al-Ḥilm Sharḥ Ḥilyat Ṭālib al-ʿIlm.
24. Al-Arjūzah al-Walīdiyyah fī al-Mawārīth wa Sharḥihā.
25. Sharḥ al-Tuḥfat al-ʿIraqiyyah
26. Sharḥ al-Risālah al-Tabūkiyhyah.
27. Sharḥ al-Īmān al-Awsaṭ.
28. Al-ʿAmal al-Qaḍāʾī Khārij Diyār al-Islām.
29. Al-Shūrā wa al-Taʿaddudiiyah al-Siyāsiyyah.
30. Al-Marʿah wa al-Taʿlīm Dirāsat Fiqhiyyah.
31. Misk al-Khitām Sharḥ ʿUmdat al-Aḥkām
32. Commentary of Ibn Qudāmah’s ʿUmdat al-Fiqh

Shaykh Waleed serves as president and chancellor of the Islamic University of Minnesota, senior member of the Permanent Fatwa Committee of the Assembly of Muslim Jurists in America (AMJA), member of the Educational Committee at the American Open University, Imām and president of the board of trustees of Dar-al-Farooq Islamic Center, member of faculty of the Graduate Theological Foundation, and chairman of the North American Imams Federation (NAIF).