Umar Faruq Abd-Allah
Umar Faruq Abd-Allah | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1948 Columbus, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Scholar, author, spiritual mentor, educator |
| Years active | 1980s–present |
| Known for | Islamic theology, Islamic neo-traditionalism |
Umar Faruq Abd-Allah (originally named Wymann-Landgraf; born 1948) is an American scholar specializing in Islamic theology, as well as an author, spiritual mentor, and educator.
Biography
Umar Faruq Abd-Allah was born in Columbus, Nebraska, in 1948 into a Protestant household. He spent his formative years in Athens, Georgia, where both of his parents served as university professors. After embracing Islam, he completed a doctoral degree at the University of Chicago focusing on the foundations of Islamic jurisprudence.
He initially taught Arabic language and Islamic studies across institutions in the United States and Canada prior to moving to Spain in 1982. Two years later, he accepted a position at King Abdul-Aziz University located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he instructed courses on Islamic studies and comparative religion while pursuing traditional scholarship under established Islamic teachers.
Upon his return to the United States in 2000, he dedicated over ten years to the Nawawi Foundation based in Chicago and later provided instruction at the Darul Qasim Institute between 2012 and 2013. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah is widely acknowledged as a prominent leader within the Islamic neo-traditionalist school.
Works
- A Muslim in Victorian America: The Life of Alexander Russell Webb (2006), published by Oxford University Press
- Mālik and Medina: Islamic Legal Reasoning in the Formative Period (2013)
- The Islamic Struggle in Syria (1983), released by Mizan Press
- Islam and the Cultural Imperative (2004)
- al-Īmān fiṭra: Dirāsa lil-Īmān al-Fiṭrī fī al-Qurʾān wal-Sunna wa Kathīr min al-Milal wal-Naḥal (Faith is Innate), published in 2014
His scholarly contributions have had a meaningful impact on the study of Islamic legal theory, historical analysis, and modern religious thought.
See also
- Shaykh Nazim Al-Haqqani
- Hamza Yusuf
- Nooruddeen Durkee
- Daniel Moore (poet)
- Umar bin Hafiz
- Murabit al-Hajj
- List of Sufis
- Shaykh Yahya Rhodus
- Shaykh Abdul Hakim Murad
- Habib Ali Al Jifri
References
- Short description with empty Wikidata description
- 1948 births
- 20th-century Muslim theologians
- American Islamic studies scholars
- American male non-fiction writers
- Converts to Islam from Protestantism
- 21st-century Muslim theologians
- Living people
- Muslim scholars of Islamic studies
- American Sufis
- University of Chicago alumni