Bilal Brown accepted Islam in 1999 and went to study Arabic in the Arab world in 2004 where he became fluent within 6 months. He returned to the UK in 2006 and left again in 2008 to study Islamic Sciences. He graduated from 4-year intensive 6-day a week, all-year-round accelerated course in Shari’ah studies at the Al-Dawli Institute of Arabic and Islamic Sciences in Damascus in 2012 in addition to studying privately with scholars in Damascus. He then went to Yemen to further his studies in Shafi’i jurisprudence, Arabic grammar and self-rectification. Bilal Brown returned to the UK in November 2014. Since 2004 he has studied Arabic and various Islamic sciences, such as:

Arabic grammar, Arabic literature, Arabic morphology, Arabic rhetoric, Poetic meters (Arud), Hadith and Hadith terminology, Quranic hermeneutics, Quranic sciences, Tajwid and memorisation of the Quran, Islamic doctrine, Principles of Islamic jurisprudence, Comparative fiqh, Inheritance law, Islamic history, Lecturing skills (Al-Khitabah), Preaching skills (Al-Da’wah), Prophetic biography and characteristics, Spiritual excellence and Self-rectification.

He has travelled the Middle East and studied with prominent scholars from all over the Muslim world for a period of approximately 8 years. He has taught Islamic Jurisprudence and other subjects in Arabic to Arabs and non-Arabs. He has studied several texts in the Hanafi and Shafi’i schools of law and marriage and divorce law in the Maliki School.

He has 2 years of experience working in the field of alcohol and drug addiction as well as several further years of experience working with and teaching young people. He also has certificates in Childcare, IT, Social Science, and Counselling.

He currently teaches Arabic and Islamic sciences in the northwest and online in England in the UK and conducts chaplaincy, translation, and community work. He is the Managing Director of New Beginnings convert support organisation, was previously Head of Islamic Studies at Darul Hadis Latifiah Northwest Secondary School for boys and is also a long-standing council member of the BBSI. 

Bilal Brown is the winner of the 2023 BISCA Award for Education and Teaching.

After teaching as a qualified teacher for a decade, Azmol Ali had decided to leave his profession and the world behind him to seek the bounty of his Lord.  He headed for Damascus with his family in January 2009 and spent a total of approximately two and a half years there.  He started with the Arabic Language in an international language institute for foreigners in Mezzeh which lies south-west of central Damascus. After graduating from the language school, he was admitted to the third and final year of the “Ta’hili” program – an intensive preparatory Shariah program at the Abu Noor Institute, Damascus. 

When the uprising broke out in Syria, Azmol wanted to continue and finish off what he had already started as a student of knowledge in Damascus, and subsequently went to Egypt.  After assessing the environment there, he realised that Egypt was not the place for him to grow spiritually, so he headed off to study the traditional Islamic sciences of the Shariah at the renowned Dar al-Mustafa in the blessed and illuminated city of Tarim, Hadramout, Yemen.  There he resided with his family and continued his studies for a further five years. 

After a total of about eight years, he returned back to the UK and started imparting the traditional knowledge of the Sacred Sciences in his home town Loughborough, Leicestershire. 

Shaykh Dawood embraced Islam in 1998 at the hands of the esteemed Shaykh Mawlana Isma’il Waadi Naqshbandi, may Allah shower His mercy upon him. He began his studies under local scholars, most notably Shaykh Ibrahim Osi-Efa and Shaykh Haroon Hanif.

Upon the advice of his teachers, he travelled to Syria in 2007 where he spent five years studying. Firstly the Arabic language (Sarf, Nahwa, Balagha) at the prestigious Abu Noor Institute then the Arabic Institute in Mezzeh. He then continued on to study the sciences of Shariah including Hanafi Fiqh, Usul, Aqidah, Tasawwuf, Hadith and Tafseer at Ma’had Fath al Islami and privately with leading scholars of Sham. He then travelled in his pursuit of sacred knowledge to Jordan and then to Turkey. He holds licences in various sciences from numerous scholars. Shaykh Dawood has been blessed to have studied under the tutelage of many great scholars including Shaykh Hassan Al-Hindi, Shaykh Muhammad Jumuah, Shaykh Abdur-Rahman Ghawsh, Shaykh Mahmood Dahla, Shaykh Khalid Al-Kharasa, Shaykh Samir An-Nass , Shaykh Umar Nashuqati, Shaykh Muwaffaq Al-Murabi’, Shaykh Salih Al-Murabi’, Shaykh Muhammad Bisam Hijazi, Shaykh Muhammad Shuqayr, Shaykh Ahmad Yusuf Dubanah Zada, Shaykh Abdul-Malik As-Saa’di, Shaykh Firas Shaheen, Shaykh Muhammad Anas Al-Siba’i, Shaykh Muhammad Abu Ghawsh, Shaykh Abdur-Rahman Idrisi, Shaykh Ali Khadhr.

Shaykh Dawood currently resides in Istanbul with his family and works alongside various scholars at the Shaykh Al-Akbar Institute in Istanbul for the propagation of Islamic sciences and da’wah. He also teaches in many Islamic institutions as well as online.

Ustadh Mohammad Riazul Islam Razak completed his memorisation (hifz) and pronunciation (tajwid) of the Quran at Jamiatul Islamiyyah Darul Uloom Bolton
in 2006. He has studied extensively with local scholars in the UK, and completed the two-year Marifah Essentials course in 2019.

He has been teaching Quran memorisation, fiqh, and tajwid since 2008.

He currently resides in Oldham, UK with his wife and daughter and works as a manager for BT.