Imam Abdul Karim
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.
Dr Hani Ibrahim
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)
Dr Mukhtar Ali - Advisor
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).
Dr Reza Shah Kazemi - Advisor
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.
Saqib Safdar - Director
A life long seeker of Sacred knowledge, Saqib explored Eastern and Western spirituality, which sparked in him a search for Truth or object Reality beyond one’s cultural or religious conditioning. He found answers to such metaphysical questions in the Qur’an itself through the works of Ibn Arabi, Rumi and other great sages in the Islamic tradition. He has studied with authorised masters of Sufi tradition.
Reem Ibrahim - Editor/Proofreader
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.
If you're interested in teaching a course or getting involved, please contact thehikmahproject@gmail.com
