Dr. Haroon Sidat

Dr. Haroon Ebrahim Sidat is a scholar of Islam with an interest in Islamic theology, law, Sufism, and the social sciences. He completed his' Ālimiyyah studies at Jamiatul Ilm Wal Huda and a BA in Economics and Finance from the University of Manchester. He joined the Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK at Cardiff University in 2015, having been awarded the Jameel scholarship for postgraduate study. His doctoral thesis explored the fascinating world of the dārul ‘ulūm in modern Britain. Since then, as a Research Assocciate he has been involved in research on imams in Britain and is now part of the project 'Legacies of Learning: from Turath to Transformation' project, which explores the Islamic intellectual legacy that seeks to answer civilizational questions in the modern world. He published a paper that explores the interaction between Islamic law, history, ethics, and contemporary concerns for Muslims living in the West in a paper titled ‘Competing Spaces of Religious Belonging: Deobandi Debates on Interest/Usury as a Case Study’. The second contribution is a book chapter published by Edinburgh University Press, titled ‘The Taalib as a Bricoleur: Transitioning from Madrasah to University in Modern Britain’, which reflects on his experiences of transitioning between and inhabiting two worldviews simultaneously: the classical Islamic tradition and the modern university. He is preparing a manuscript based on his thesis, which will explore the madrasa's history, lived reality and imagination in modern Britain. His other contributions focus on Islamic ethics, law, theology, revivalist movements, and the engagement of Muslim scholars with the three Muslim publics: the mosque, society, and academia.