Dr. Abu Zayd is the founder and director of the Quran Literacy Institute. He holds degrees in Islamic studies as well as traditional licenses (Ijāzah) in the ten modes of Qurʼānic recitation, books of ḥadīth and many Islamic texts. He is the author of Childrens Bequest, a textbook on the science of Tajweed based upon the first English translation of the Arabic classic Tuḥfat al-Aṭfāl.
He holds a Bachelors Degree in Islamic Studies from the School of Islamic and Arabic Studies (American Open University), a Masters Degree from the Islamic University of Minnesota under the tutelage of Shaykh Waleed Edrees, a Diploma in Classical Islamic Texts from Cambridge Islamic College, and an Advanced License in Islamic Scholarship (Shahādah al-ʿĀlimiyyah) from Al-Salam Institute, UK under the renowned Dr. Muḥammad Akram Nadwi. In addition, he has memorized the Qurʾān, received Ijāzah in the ten canonical modes of Qurʾānic recitation (via al-ʿAshr al-Ṣughrā and al-Kubrā) as well as the four Variant Modes of Reading (Shawādh), and possesses full auditory chains of transmission in the six books of ḥadīth from scholars worldwide.
His passion is to explore the beauty and breadth of the Islamic scholarly tradition, promote tolerance and a sense of Muslim cohesion, and bring some of the best elements of the classical scholarly tradition to bear on contemporary modes of teaching. His primary sources of scholarly and spiritual inspiration are Maulānā Muḥammad Yūsuf Iṣlāḥī of India—with whom he has had a life-long association, Shaykh Muḥammad Akram Nadwi of the UK, and Shaykh Dr. Waleed Edrees Al-Maneese.
