Dr. Abu Zayd

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Dr. Abu Zayd is the founder and director of the Quran Literacy Institute. He holds degrees in Islamic studies as well as traditional licenses (Ijāzah) in the ten modes of Qurʼānic recitation, books of ḥadīth and many Islamic texts. He is the author of Childrens Bequest, a textbook on the science of Tajweed based upon the first English translation of the Arabic classic Tuḥfat al-Aṭfāl, and has translated and published numerous additional books.

He attained a bachelor’s degree in Islamic Studies from the School of Islamic and Arabic Studies and a master’s degree from the Islamic University of Minnesota under the direction of Shaykh Waleed Edrees. Under the tutelage of the renowned Dr. Muḥammad Akram Nadwi, he completed multiple programs, including a Diploma in Classical Islamic Texts from Cambridge Islamic College, an Advanced License in Islamic Scholarship (Shahādah al-ʿĀlimiyyah) and a License of Specialization in Legal Verdicts (Takhaṣṣus fī al-Iftāʾ) from Al-Salam Institute. In addition, he has had a life-long association with the late Maulānā Muḥammad Yūsuf Iṣlāḥī of India.

Dr. Abu Zayd is a licensed medical doctor, a founding member of Young Muslims, and a long-standing member of ICNA.

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Sumara Khan

Sumara Khan is the cofounder of the Quran Literacy Institute and a teacher of Islamic studies and Arabic based in NJ.

She pursued formal Islamic studies in Syria, where she spent a number of years at the prestigious Abū Nūr Institute in Damascus, graduating first in her class with a Diploma in Arabic and Islamic studies. While in Damascus she earned the admiration of her teachers and peers and served as the translator for the late Grand Mufti of Syria in the sisters classes.

She holds a master’s degree in Uṣūl al-Dīn from the American University for Islamic Sciences, and has memorized the Qur’an and received the coveted Ijāzah of memorization from Shaykh Waleed Edrees al-Meneese. In addition, she holds scholarly licenses (Ijāzah) in the Qurʾānic Readings of Ḥafṣ and Shuʿbah, the Books of Hadith and various classical texts, from Sheikh Waleed al-Meneese, Shaykh Muḥammad Akram Nadwi and others.

Sumara Khan is the founder and mentor of Iman Roots, a monthly forum in central NJ for women to educate themselves in Islamic knowledge and strengthen sisterhood.

She is the director of the popular Sisters Ḥifdh Program at the Quran Literacy Institute, the only adult, on-site Quran memorization program in the region.