Team

Rosina-Fawzia Al-Rawi Al-Rifai was born in Baghdad and spent her childhood in Iraq and Lebanon. Her grandmother initiated her into the culture and traditions of the Middle East where belly-dancing played a major part as an expression of the world of the feminine.

Fawzia Al-Rawi holds a PhD in Islamic studies. She completed her Arabic, Islamic and ethnological studies at the Universities of Vienna and Cairo. She then spent 12 years in Jerusalem where she brought up her children and worked at the Institute for the Promotion of Palestinian Agriculture and at the University of Jerusalem, while deepening both her theoretical and practical knowledge of Sufism under the guidance of Sidi Shaykh Muhammad Al-Rifai. She has been living in Vienna with her husband and their three children since 2001.

Fawzia Al-Rawi has been teaching Sufism for over 25 years. She holds workshops in various countries and works particularly with women. Her teachings draw on a wealth of experience from a bicultural environment which uniquely enables her to build a bridge of understanding between different cultures, open a space where these can meet and thus contribute to peace. Further details can be found on her website

Hany Talaat Ahmed Ibrahim completed his PhD in Religious Studies at the University of Calgary. He is teaching at the University of Calgary and Mount Royal University, Canada. He specializes In pre-modern Islamic thought, Arabic Sufi literature, and Islamic art and architecture.He has recently published a book on Ibn 'Arabi entitled Love in the Teachings of Ibn 'Arabi (2023)

Mukhtar H. Ali is a Research Fellow at the Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Studies, University of London. He specializes in Sufism, Islamic philosophy and ethics, and has published widely in various peer-reviewed venues. He has also translated several works in classical and contemporary Islamic metaphysics, which include The Principles of Correspondences (2013) and The New Creation (2018) and The Horizons of Being: The Metaphysics of Ibn al-ʿArabī in the Muqaddimat al-Qayṣarī (2020).

Reza Shah-Kazemi is an author in the fields of Islamic studies and Comparative Religion. He obtained a Ph.D in Comparative Religion from the University of Kent. He is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, and has been involved in important interfaith initiatives for the last two decades. He has edited, translated and written numerous books and articles, including The Spirit of Tolerance in Islam and the award-winning Justice and Remembrance: Introducing the Spirituality of Imam Ali. His first book, Paths to Transcendence according to Shankara, Ibn Arabi & Meister Eckhart, was heralded by Professor James Cutsinger as an “irreplaceable, meticulous and far reaching study”; was praised by professor Patrick Laude as “a major landmark in comparative metaphysics”; and described by Martin Lings as "an important book in the school of Sophia Perennis". Charles LeGai Eaton described Shah-Kazemi's The Other in the Light of the One: Qur'anic Perspectives on Interfaith Dialogue, as "a pioneering masterpiece". His book, Common Ground Between Islam and Buddhism, was launched by HH The Dalai Lama, who described the work as "pioneering" in his Preface to the book.

Imam Abdul Karim Pinckney was born and raised in The Bronx, NY, and converted to Islam in 1999. He was a student at Zaytuna Institute in Hayward, CA, for five years where he studied Maliki fiqh. He took bayyah with Sidi Muhammad Sa'id al-Jamal ar-Rifa'i as-Shadhili in 2009. He was also was an assistant to Imam Musa Abdul Ali in Mt. Vernon, NY, at Masjid Yusuf Shah from 2012-2015. Currently he is the Imam at the Farm of Peace where his duties include giving classes, assisting events, and giving Friday sermons. He has a yearning for helping beloveds come to know their Lord with clarity through revelation and reason, in the hope of reaching direct experience, with the result of an increase in love of God.

Jamila is practiced in the art of healing as a Murabi in
the Shadhdhuliyya Sufi Tariqa. Before becoming a Sufi, she taught
hundreds of people the art of opening to the deep silence within as a
teacher of meditation in the Vedic tradition. Her love of writing
began more than forty years ago and in her master’s practicum in
Spiritual Ministry through the University of Sufism, she developed a
program of self-discovery and self-reflection called Writing from the
Heart, which helps people open to their own deepest wisdom.

In search for both meaning and deep inner healing, Reem found the depth of solace in, and through, the Remembrance of Allah (SWT). Although well-versed and trained in different spiritual healing modalities and energy work, unsurpassed was her experience of the invocation of His Divine Names. Gently holding hands with many of the great spirits of our time, including Ibn ʿArabi, Al-Ghazzali and Hafiz to name a few, the path of Sufism became a clear path calling her home; Sufism, as the Heart of Islam. Reem is a disciple of Sidi Muhammad al-Jamal ar-Rifaʿi ash-Shadhuli. She is a writer at heart, a consultant by nature, and a student of mystical Sacred knowledge.

Saqib, a passionate seeker on a lifelong journey to discover Sacred knowledge, has traversed the realms of both Eastern and Western spirituality. This pursuit lead him on a quest for knowing Truth or objective Reality, transcending cultural and religious biases. His path led him to the profound insights found within the Qur’an, further illuminated by the teachings of luminaries such as Ibn Arabi and Rumi. These great sages of the Islamic mystical tradition, who advocated for 'knowing through taste' or dhawq, profoundly influenced his spiritual outlook.

Embracing the Akbarian perspective, Saqib has been fortunate to study under esteemed masters from various Sufi paths, including the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi, Mevlevi, and Shadhili orders. His commitment to spiritual and intellectual growth is mirrored in his professional life. With over twenty years of experience in the educational sector in the UK, Saqib has been at the forefront of integrating online learning technologies.