Lote Tree Foundation

Shaykh Noorud-deen Rashid graduated from Middlesex University with a joint BA Hons Degree in Accounting and Finance with Business Economics. Additionally, he completed a PGCE at Warwick University and taught for a number of years at Luton Sixth Form College. Meanwhile, he continued his Islamic education on a part time basis. In 2007, Shaykh Noorud-deen was blessed with the opportunity to travel abroad and study with some of the leading scholars of Syria. Amongst his teachers were: Shaykh Samir Al-Nass, Shaykh Mazin Bakir, Shaykh Rashad Shams and Shaykh Mojeer Al Khateeb. He followed a broad curriculum for 5 years, paying special attention to Fiqh (Islamic law) and Seerah (prophetic biography). After completing his studies, Shaykh Nooruddeen returned to the UK in 2012. Shaykh Noorud-deen Rashid has been involved in Dawah and teaching the Islamic sciences for nearly 20 years. He is a founding member of the Ash-Shifa Trust in Banbury. He is also active within the Luton community where he has been part of the Fountain Institute Sacred Study programme for a number of years. Furthermore, he is giving talks weekly on the local community radio station – Inspire FM, and teaching multiple courses on a daily basis.

Ustadh Hamza grew up in Kenya, where he began his Islamic Studies. He came to the UK at the age of 14 and started teaching Quran and other Islamic sciences. Having graduated with BSc in Civil Engineering, he then completed his postgraduate studies on Structural design. After that he travelled to Jordan to further his Arabic and Islamic learning. He obtained an Ijazah of Quran in the narration of Hafs from `asim. He then travelled to Egypt whilst studying at Ebrahim College to further his studies in Quran and has obtained ijazah for all the 10 Qira'aat (modes of recitation). He is currently doing masters in Islamic Studies at SOAS University.

Ustādh Haroon Hanif has been blessed due to the fact that ever since leaving school he has been involved in some form of Islamic activity. However in the early 1990s, along with other brothers from Liverpool, he began to actively pursue the path of seeking Sacred knowledge. He travelled in 1995 to IESH, France to study Arabic Language for 1 year through which he attained proficiency in spoken Arabic. He returned to Liverpool where he began to study with the local scholar, Shaykh Siraj Islam Chowdhury for a period of 11 years in which he studied with him various Islamic sciences, primarily focusing upon Islamic Law. Whilst studying, he worked as a Housing Officer, and also engaged in teaching whatever he had studied. He completed memorisation of Qur’ān over six years ago. Ever since then he has been blessed to lead Tarawih prayer every year. He also delivered Friday khutbas regularly at the Liverpool Islamic Society over a period of a few years. He was then blessed, particularly after been inspired by meeting Shaykh Samir Nass from Damascus, in 2007 to travel to the blessed land of Syria. Whilst he was there, he continued his studies by accessing some of the great scholars in Damascus, Syria, through private and public classes. In this final year, he studied at one of the madrassas in Damascus, whilst at the same time completed his reading of the Qur’ān to attain Ijaza. As of present, he is a Teacher in Residence at the Greensville Trust, where he regularly teaches on the Micro Madrasa initiative in both Liverpool and Huddersfield and teaches at Lote Tree College.