Dr. Jasser Auda

Dr. Jasser Auda is a scholar of Islam, whose scholarship has focused on an objective-based approach to the understanding of the Qurʾān and Prophetic traditions. He is currently the President of Maqasid Institute, an international network of research centres and educational projects, a Professor and Al-Shatibi Chair of Maqāṣid Studies at the International Peace College in South Africa and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Contemporary Maqāṣid Studies. He is a Member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, Fiqh Council of North America and the International Union of Muslims Scholars.

He holds a Ph.D. in the Philosophy of Islamic Law from the University of Wales (UK), a Ph.D. in Systems Analysis from the University of Waterloo (Canada), and an M. Jur. thesis on the Maqāṣid of the Sharīʿah from the Islamic American University (United States). Early in his life, he memorized the Qurʾān and undertook traditional studies at the Study Circles of Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, Egypt, where he learned from a number of distinguished scholars of Qurʾān, Usūl and Ḥadīth.

Previously, he worked as a professor at the universities of Waterloo, Ryerson and Carleton in Canada, Alexandria University in Egypt, Faculty of Islamic Studies in Qatar, the American University of Sharjah in UAE, and the University of Brunei Darussalam in Brunei. He was also a Founding Director of Al-Maqasid Research Center at Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, UK; a Founding Deputy Director of the Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics, Qatar; and a Fellow of the Islamic Fiqh Academy, India.  Professor Auda has lectured on Islam in many countries across the world and has authored 25 books in Arabic and English, including the best-selling Maqasid Al-Shariah: A Beginners Guide, which has been translated into 30 languages.