Sacred Time Project - December 1st -3rd, 2006

PROGRAM TITLE
Bringing the Quran to Life

PROGRAM DATES
Friday, December 1st - Sunday, December 3rd, 2006

CONFIRMED SCHOLARS ATTENDING RETREAT
Mufti Abdur Rahman Ibn Yusuf
Shaykh Ahmed Rabbani
Shaykh Yousuf Abdullah

LOCATION
University of Michigan (North Campus)
Ann Arbor, MI


REGISTRATION
Costs:
$35 for University of Michigan Ann Arbor students
$40 for non-students
(includes food, supplies, HOUSING and TRANSPORTATION)
Meals included in registration:
Saturday: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Sunday: Breakfast

REGISTER ONLINE
Instructions:
1. Fill out the 2006 STP Retreat Online Registration form.
2. Make checks payable to the Muslim Students' Association
3. Mail $40 ($35 if UMICH student) registration fee to:

Sacred Time Project
555 E. Williams St. Apt 23I
Ann Arbor, MI 48104


BACKGROUND
We embarked on this project Spring 2004 after realizing the wealth of resources the Michigan Library System has which most students do not have knowledge about, let alone access to. We brought Sheikh Tewfik to campus in order to give a tour of the Islamic texts alongside background information regarding the significance of the scholars who wrote them. This session allowed many students to feel connected with the tradition of Islamic scholarship. With a more intensive weekend retreat, we hope to continue this project and expand our reading selection to a wider selection of time periods and genres.

PURPOSE
The objective of this program is to increase the level of appreciation and understanding students have of the great scholars and texts that played an instrumental role in the preservation of the Islamic sciences. Geared to communicate a small portion of the sacred knowledge passed down with great scholarly effort, this programs aims to instill a sense of appreciation and understanding for the texts we possess on our very campus. In order to ensure maximum benefit we are planning to limit registration to about 60 students. We hope this will facilitate a more interactive relationship between the students and the the scholars inshAllah.

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Shaykh Tewfik Choukri
 Scholar-in-Residence, As-Sabeel Institute, Indianapolis , IN
Shaykh Tewfik, being born in Algeria , traveled to Syria at an early age in order to study the various Islamic sciences. Already a hafidth of Quran, Shaykh Tewfik excelled in his studies under some of the world's greatest scholars. He was one of the foremost students of Shaykh Ramadan Buti from Damascus . After completing years of study, Shaykh Tewfik returned to Algeria and then went on to get a degree in Political Science. He has been in the US for over 4 years and is presently, he is the scholar-in-residence for the As-Sabeel Institute as well as is the primary scholar in the Indianapolis area.

Sidi Omar Mahmood
 Sidi Omar, a native of California, traveled to Yemen after his studies at UCLA. Studying under the famous Haba'ib family, he reached very advanced levels in a cross-spectrum of Islamic Sciences, giving particular attention to the inward sciences. Sidi Omar is a sought after teacher and has taught at Deen Intensives throughout the US . He is one of the primary instructors for the Shifa' Foundation based in Michigan. He currently is finishing a PhD in Clinical Psychology at Wayne State University.

Sidi Usama Canon
 A native Californian, Usama embraced Islam in 1996 and has since been a student of Hamza Yusuf of the Zaytuna Institute. In 1998 he traveled abroad to a number of Muslim countries and studied for a period of time in Morocco and Egypt. Since 2000, Usama has been an active volunteer and member of Zaytuna Institute's staff. He serves as the institute's Outreach Program Director and as a translator for the classes of resident scholar Shaykh Salek bin Siddina. He presently resides in Hayward, California with his wife and three children.

Shaykh Ahmed Rabbani
 Deputy Imam at the IAGD Masjid, Rochester, MI
Shaykh Rabbani memorized the Quran in Hyderabad, India, at the age of twelve. He proceeded to attend an eight-year Alim program at the Jamia Dabhel in Gujarat. He has obtained a plethora of ijazas from well know scholars in Tafsir, Hadith, Fiqh, and Seerah. Furthermore, Shaykh Rabbani possesses an ijaza to teach Ghazali's Ihya-Uloom-al-Deen. He is a tajweed master, holding ijazas in all ten qira'at from Shaikh Al-Muqri Ahmedullah. Fluent in English, Urdu, and Arabic, the shaykh teaches classes and lectures in the Detroit vicinity. He currently resides in Michigan with his wife and four children.

Shaykh Walead Mohammed
 Associate Imam at the Dallas Central Mosque, Richardson, TX
Shaykh Walead Mohammed has completed a degree in Arabic Language and Literature from Al-Azhar University in Cairo. He has also studied the Islamic sciences, including Quranic exegesis, marriage and divorce law, law of transactions, hadith methodology and commentary, juristic methodology, and spiritual sciences with notable scholars such as Shaykh Bakri Al-Tarabishi a Quranic scholar with the highest Quran ijaza in the world, Ustadh Ali Hamidullah, one of the foremost Arabic grammarians , Shaykh Kurayyim Rajih, the grand shaykh of Quran reciters in Damascus, Shaykh Ahmad Taha Rayyan, the foremost Maliki shaykh in al-Azhar, and Shaykh Ali Jumua, the grand mufti of Egypt. He also has authorization to teach Quranic recitation from Shaykh Bakri al-Tarabishi of Damascus. He has also taught in Deen Intensive Programs including the Rihla program in New Mexico. Currently he is lives in Richardson, TX, USA with his family and 5 children.

Dr. Sherman Jackson
 An American convert to Islam during the 1970s, Dr. Abdul Hakim Jackson is originally from Philadelphia. He is an associate professor in Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Prior to coming to Michigan, he completed his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. (1990) in the Department of Oriental Studies and Islamic Near East at the University of Pennsylvania. He specializes in the Islamic sciences of theology, law, and medieval Arabic.

Dr. Abdul Hakim Jackson is extensively published within the academia. He is a noted expert of the constitutional jurisprudence of Shihab al-Din-al-Qarafi, whose works revolve around the concepts of constitution, tyranny, and power within Islamic law - topics very relevant today as Muslim countries strive to follow the classical Islamic legal traditions. He has written a book centered around this figure, entitled Islamic Law and the State: The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Shihab al-Din al-Qarafi (1996). Recent published articles center around Mutazilite objectivism, Islamic Law and the sociopolitical reality in the United States, among others. He is a sought after speaker at various law schools throughout the country, and is well-known for his oratory skills. He has been teaching the Seerah, Usul al-Fiqh, and 'History of Islamic Law' courses within ALIM since its inception four years ago.

Mufti Abdur Rahman Ibn Yusuf
 Shaykh Abdur-Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera has been studying the traditional Islamic sciences and writing scholarly works for most of his life. He completed the bulk of his studies at Darul Uloom Bury, North England, where he memorized the Qur’an by the age of fifteen and thereafter went on to complete a rigorous, six-year Shari‘a program. He graduated from this program with authentic certifications (ijaza) in numerous Islamic disciplines, including Arabic, Islamic jurisprudence, and hadith. To date, Shaykh Abdur-Rahman has authored the highly popular Fiqh al-Imam: Key Proofs in Hanafi Fiqh (1996) and co-authored Reflections of Pearls (1995). He also published Provisions for the Seekers (1996), a translation and commentary of the Arabic work Zad al-Talibin, a collection of short hadiths compiled by Mawlana 'Ashiq Ilahi from ‘Allama Tibrizi’s Mishkat al-Masabih. This work has recently been revised and republished in an extended edition. His latest published work is Prayers for Forgiveness: Seeking Spiritual Enlightenment through Sincere Supplication (2004), a translation of Al-Istighfarat al-Munqidha min al-Nar, a collection of seventy prayers for forgiveness of Imam Hasan al-Basri. Additionally, Shaykh Abdur-Rahman has completed an unpublished translation of Imam Abu Hanifa’s Al-Fiqh al-Akbar, along with its commentary, written by ‘Allama Maghnisawi, with notes from Mulla ‘Ali al-Qari’s larger commentary (to be published soon).

He presently serves as Imam of a southern California masjid and continues to work on scholarly publications through White Thread Press. Some of his fatawa can be found at www.sunnipath.com and some of his lectures at www.zamzamacademy.com and www.al-rashad.com.

Shaykh Yousuf Abdullah
Shaykh Yousuf Abdullah memorized the Quran and completed his degree in Islamic Studies from Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband and has been active in Chicago by teaching classes on various subjects including The methodology of extrapolating fiqh from Hadith, Arabic, Tafseer, Islamic Finance, and Seerah. He also earned he Bachelor's from University of Illinois at Chicago and currently works as an Analyst for Accenture.

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COMMITTEES & CONTACT INFORMATION
Project Chair
Sarah Youssef (sayou@umich.edu), (734) 776-8142

Food
Sarah Chaudhry (sarahrcumich.edu) & Menatullah Ads (mmads@umich.edu)

Housing
If coming from outside Ann Arbor, you can either stay in a hotel on campus or we could find students who are willing to host you in their apartments. If staying in a student apartment, we will arrange for your transportation to and from the retreat location.

Brothers: Hazem Malas (hazmalas@umich.edu)

Sisters: Saniya Zafar (szafar@umich.edu)

Registration
Check back for Online Registration. If you have questions regarding registration please contact: Sarah Youssef (sayou@umich.edu)

Publicity and Onsite Organization:
Iman Sediqe (imanas@umich.edu)

General question or concerns, please email: stp5retreat@umich.edu

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NIGHTLY READINGS
There will be no nightly readings this time.