Hafiz Ather Hussain al-Azhari عاطر حسين الأزهري

A British scholar, imam, and writer based in Leicester, Ather Hussain al-Azhari was formed in both the traditional seminary and the modern university. He completed memorization of the Qurʾan as a young hafiz, then studied Arabic grammar and the Islamic sciences at Jamia al-Karam in England. In 1995 he finished the classical seminary course at Bhera Sharif in Pakistan with first-class honors, under Pir Karam Shah al-Azhari. From 1996 to 1999 he studied at al-Azhar University in Cairo, specializing in hadith and graduating in Principles of Theology. He went on to the University of Birmingham, taking a BA in 2003, an MPhil in 2006 on the Jamiʿ of al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, and later a PhD in theology. He has taught the Islamic sciences in Birmingham, lecturing at the Hazrat Sultan Bahu Trust. Writing within the mainstream Sunni tradition, he is known for accessible introductory works such as The Four Sources of Shariʿa, a primer on usul al-fiqh covering the Qurʾan, Sunna, ijmaʿ, and qiyas, and Towards Understanding Aqida, a guide to core Muslim beliefs co-authored with Shahid Raza Naimi. His other writings treat early Islamic history, among them a study of Imam Husayn and the tragedy of Karbala, and he edited The Onlooker's Delight, a translation of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's biography of Shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani.