Founders
Shaykh Amer Jamil
Shaykh Amer was born and brought up in Glasgow, Scotland. After graduating from Strathclyde University with an LLB (Bachelor in Law), he spent ten years studying the Arabic language and Islamic Sciences. During this period he obtained a BA (Hons) in Islamic studies from the University of Wales and then strengthened his studies by studying for five years with renowned scholars in the Middle East. He has teaching licenses (ijaza) in various Islamic subjects which he studied. His teachers are many in number and from a range of different schools of thought. His balanced studies in both the secular and religious give him a combination of sound scholarship with a profound understanding of society.
Shaykh Amer's field of interest is primarily Muslim family law; an area in which he has studied in depth having studied all four schools of Islamic jurisprudence (Hanafi and Hanbali schools- Syria, Shafi and Maliki schools– Yemen). Currently, he is conducting a PhD research study on the way forward in dealing with the modern challenges of contemporary Muslim family law in modern day Britain. The research will deal with the complexities and concerns of Muslim families and provide practical solutions to modern challenges by showing how a correct understanding of Muslim family law does not conflict with UK law. He is the author of the Reminder series and has written on contemporary issues such as domestic abuse and Islam, Islam and terrorism and smoking in Islam.A freelance consultant and researcher on Muslim issues, he is currently involved as a Family Support Consultant at the Unity Family Services.
Shaykh Ruzwan Mohammed
Shaykh Ruzwan Mohammed is a Sunni theologian and Scholar. A graduate in Geopolitics and Arabic from the University of Glasgow, and has since then spent over a decade studying with a wide array of leading scholars and theologians in various countries in the Muslim world. He has studied Turkish language at the University of Ankara in Turkey and is a graduate of the Fat’h Islamic Law College in Damascus, graduating from the prestigious 6-year program with a distinction of merit, achieving overall first position in his year of graduation from the college.
Currently engaged in post-graduate research into the effect of both textual hermeneutics and environment on Islamic legal ethics, he is working on a study and translation of a text on jurisprudence by the Spanish philosopher Averroes .He serves as an advisor to various independent Muslim educational organizations in the United Kingdom and is actively involved in interfaith work, most notably accompanying David Lunan, the Head and Moderator of the Church of Scotland on a pilgrimage to Israel and Palestine, meeting Israeli cabinet ministers, members of the Palestinian legislature as well as the religious leadership of all sides to explore avenues towards peace. He is a regular on local and national radio as well as a contributor to national Scottish newspapers and magazines. In the summer of 2009, he co-founded of The Solas Foundation, which focuses on offering quality and transparent religious consultancy in the areas of Islamic Ethics and Education. He is the head developer of the ground breaking i-syllabus project, which aims to cater for the varying learning needs of muslim individuals and service providers through offering a complete contextual Islamic learning experience, providing background and relevance to Islamic teachings as they relate to the contemporary world.