• About
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    In 2009, Zaytuna College was founded in Berkeley, California, with a mission that called for grounding students in the Islamic scholarly tradition as well as in the cultural currents and critical ideas shaping modern society.

  • Academics
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    As a Muslim liberal arts college in the West, Zaytuna offers a curriculum that provides its students with a foundation in the intellectual heritage of two major world civilizations: the Islamic and the Western.

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  • Admissions & Aid
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    Our mission is to educate students to become morally, intellectually, and spiritually accomplished individuals ready to contribute to our contemporary world in ways that are proportionate to their gifts and to the needs of human society.

     

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  • Campus Life
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    Zaytuna’s campus is on Holy Hill and students enter the College as part of a cohort, a community of learners that travel together through the curriculum.

Faraz A. Khan

Lecturer

Faraz A. Khan

Biography

Email: fkhan@zaytuna.edu

Office hours: By appointment

Shaykh Faraz Khan is a scholar of Ashʿari and Maturidi philosophical theology with field specialties in Hanafi Jurisprudence, Prophetic Biography, Hadith, and Logic. At Zaytuna College, he has taught Kalam Theology, Creedal Theology, Prophetic Biography, Readings in Muslim Spirituality, and Logic in the Islamic Tradition. Shaykh Faraz also serves as the coordinator of the Honors Program, in which he has taught additional seminars on classical Islamic texts. His research interests center on the engagement of philosophical theology and ethics with the contemporary age.

After completing undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin, he moved to Amman, Jordan, in 2004 and read classical texts with distinguished scholars in Ashʿari and Maturidi scholastic theology, Hanafi jurisprudence, prophetic narration, logic, and other religious sciences, receiving scholarly authorization (ijazah) after seven years of full-time study.

Shaykh Faraz’s most recent book, An Introduction to Islamic Theology: Imam Nūr al-Dīn al-Sābūnī’s Al-Bidāyah fī usūl al-dīn, was published under the Zaytuna College Curriculum Series in 2020. In the work, he translates and annotates a manual on Maturidi theology authored by Imam Nūr al-Dīn al-Ṣābūnī (d. 580/1184), a prominent Muslim theologian from Bukhara, which provides a foundation upon which modern Muslim discourse can be built. The text explains the central tenets of the Islamic creed and refutes erroneous positions of alternative theologies.

Shaykh Faraz is fluent in Arabic and has speaking fluency in Urdu.

Shaykh Faraz joined the faculty of Zaytuna College in 2013.

Education
Publications
Professional Activities

Education




  • Markaz Anwar al-Ulema, Traditional Islamic Studies, 2011




  • University of Texas at Austin, BA, Biology, 2000




Licenses (Ijazah Ilmiyyah)



  • Shaykh Akram Abd al-Wahhab, Classical Islamic Sciences and Texts, 2008 (transmit)

  • Dr. Hamzeh al-Bakri, Hadith collections and Imam Tirmidhi's Al-Shama'il, 2009 (transmit)

  • Shaykh Ahmad al-Jammal (Allah have mercy on him), Classical Islamic Sciences, 2010 (permission to teach)

  • Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qadir al-ʿAnī (Allah have mercy on him), Classical Islamic Sciences, 2010 (permission to teach)

  • Shaykh Faraz Rabbani, Classical Islamic Sciences, 2010 (written authorization to teach)

  • Dr. Salah Abul Hajj, Classical Islamic Sciences, 2010 (teach)

  • Shaykh Abdullah al-Talidi (Allah have mercy on him), honorary license to transmit hadith collections and to translate his recension of Imam Suyuti's Al-Khasa'is al-kubra, 2013

Journal Articles



BOOKS



  • An Introduction to Islamic Theology: Imam Nur al-Din al-Sabuni's Al-Bidayah fi usul al-din. Translation and annotation. Berkeley: Zaytuna College, 2020.

  • Ascent to Felicity: A Manual on Islamic Creed and Hanafi Jurisprudence (Imam al-Shurunbulali's Maraqi ’l-Sa`adat). Translation and annotation. London: White Thread Press, 2010.

Lectures, talks, and other speaking engagements



  • Rihla instructor (Theology, Refinement of the Soul). Deen Intensive Foundation. 2015–present.

  • Friday sermons and annual speaking engagements (Mawlid, `Ashura, Isra/Mi`raj). Bay Area mosques.

  • “On Gratitude.” RIS Convention, 2019.

  • Islamic Theology. RIS Knowledge Retreat instructor, 2017, 2019.

  • ISNA speaker. 2018, 2019.

  • Living Links classes, The 17 Benefits of Tribulation, Ramadan Reminders. Zaytuna College.

  • On Theology, Science and Consciousness. Renovatio interview.

  • Zaytuna in Your Community. Weekend theology courses in Los Angeles; Phoenix; Canton, MI; New York.