Hamza Yusuf

Sheikh Hamza Yusuf
Hamza Yusuf at the Islamic Society of North America convention, Chicago in 2007
Born	Mark Hanson 1960 (age 48–49) Walla Walla, Washington, U.S.
Occupation	Islamic scholar
Religious beliefs	Sunni Islam
Website Sheikh Hamza.com

Hamza Yusuf Hanson (born Mark Hanson, 1960) is an Islamic scholar who teaches at the Zaytuna Institute in California, United States. He is a prominent American convert to Islam, and is one of the signatories of A Common Word Between Us and You, an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders, calling for peace and understanding.

Biography

Yusuf was born in Washington State and raised in Northern California. In 1977, Hanson converted to Islam during college, just before his 18th birthday in Santa Barbara, and changed his name from Mark Hanson to Hamza Yusuf. After his reversion he subsequently traveled around the Muslim world and studied Islam for ten years. He then returned to the United States and received degrees in Religious Studies and Health Care. He has travelled the world as a renowned Islamic lecturer. He founded the Zaytuna Institute, which has established an international reputation for presenting a classical picture of Islam in the West and which is dedicated to the revival of traditional study methods and the sciences of Islam. Sheikh Hamza currently resides in Northern California with his wife and five children.^[1] His ancestral origins are from Minnesota.

Time abroad

Yusuf spent four years studying in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere in the Middle East. Later he traveled to West Africa and studied in Mauritania, Medina, Algeria, and Morocco under such scholars as Sheikh Murabit al Haaj; Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah, head of the Islamic court in Al-'Ain, United Arab Emirates; Sheikh Muhammad Shaybani, Mufti of Abu Dhabi; Sheikh Hamad al-Wali; and Sheikh Muhammad al-Fatrati of Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt^{[citation needed]}. After more than a decade abroad, he returned to the United States and earned degrees in nursing from Imperial Valley College and religious studies at San José State University. In 1996, Yusuf co-founded the Hayward, California-based Zaytuna Institute, dedicated to the revival of Islamic Sciences and the preservation of traditional teaching methods.

He has traveled all over the world lecturing about Islam and contemporary issues. Yusuf has translated several classical texts and poems from Arabic^[2] and presently oversees an effort to establish an Islamic seminary in Berkeley, California. He has hosted three seasons of "Rihla (Journeys) With Sheikh Hamza" on the Arabic-language MBC satellite channel.

At the recommendation of Abdullah bin Bayyah, he met with U.S President George W. Bush shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001^{[citation needed]}. He also met with the Arab League, and global leaders at the World Economic Forum at Davos. Sheikh Hamza has denounced terrorism and extremism, while promoting cooperation and education.^{[citation needed]}

Yusuf is the first American lecturer to teach in Morocco's prestigious and oldest university, the University of Al-Karaouine in Fes.^{[citation needed]} He is married and has five children, all boys.

Yusuf famously said in a 2001 interview to The Guardian, "I would rather live as a Muslim in the west than in most of the Muslim countries, because I think the way Muslims are allowed to live in the west is closer to the Muslim way".^[3]

Publications

Books authored

• The State We Are In: Identity, Terror, and the Law of Jihad (contributing Author), 2006.
• Educating your Child in Modern Times
• Agenda To Change Our Condition (Co-authored with Imam Zaid Shakir)

Books translated with additions

• Purification of the Heart: Signs, Symptoms and Cures of the Spiritual Diseases of the Heart
• Content of Character
• The Creed of Imam al-Tahawi

Books which include his foreword or note

• Instruction of the Student : The Method of Learning
• The Prophetic Invocations By Mostafa Al-Badawi

Papers

• Zaytuna Seasons Journal
• Caesarean Moon Births
• Climbing Mount Purgatorio

External links

Websites

• Sheikhhamza.com - Contains list of books recommended by Hamza Yusuf and a small biography
• [1] - Shaykh Hamza Yusuf's organization
• [2] - First Accredited Muslim College in the United States, Co-Founded by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf
• [3] - Myspace site with Audio Material By Hamza Yusuf
• [4] - Agenda to change our condition By Hamza Yusuf
• [5] - Lectures by Hamza Yusuf on DVD and CD

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:GlobalCentreRenewalGuidance

Articles, interviews

• AP Article upon Hamza's involvement in starting a Muslim University
• Hamza Yusuf article in The Guardian
• Tough Medicine: Interview with Sh. Hamza Yusuf in Egypt Today by Ethar El-Katatney
• FRONTLINE: Interview with Shaykh Hamza Yusuf
• Viewpoint: What the West can learn from Islam
• Islam post-9/11: Hamza Yusuf
• Holocaust Denial Undermines Islam
• BBC: Thought of the Day
• In Praise of God - The Prophet’s Birthday BBC World Service
• HomeGrown Muslim Leaders
• Terrorists are mass murderers, not martyrs
• Hamza Yusuf on TV, Truth, and Technomania
• Excerpts from "The Science of Shariah"
• BBC
• A Time for Introspection

Videos

• Radio program interview with Hamza Yusuf & Zaid Shakir
• Hamza Yusuf on Al Jazeera English Riz Khan show
• Hamza Yusuf Audio and Video lectures

See also

• Zaytuna Institute
• Zaid Shakir

References

^{[citation needed][citation needed]}