Umar Faruq Abd-Allah

Umar Faruq Abd-Allah (born Wymann-Landgraf; born 1948) is an American Islamic theologian, author, spiritual guide, and educator. He later converted to Islam and earned a PhD on the origins of Islamic law from the University of Chicago.

Umar Faruq began his academic career in teaching Arabic and Islamic studies at institutions in the United States and Canada. In 1982, he relocated to Spain to teach Arabic, and in 1984, he was appointed to the Department of Islamic Studies at King Abdul-Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. While in Jeddah, he taught courses on Islamic studies and comparative religion and studied with several traditional Islamic scholars.

In 2000, Umar Faruq returned to the United States to work with the Nawawi Foundation in Chicago, where he remained for over a decade. From 2012 to 2013, he taught Islamic studies at Darul Qasim Institute in Chicago. He is currently scholar-in-residence at The Oasis Initiative.

Umar Faruq is associated with the Islamic neo-traditionalist movement and is regarded as a prominent figure.

Works

Sedgwick, Mark (2009). Nova Religio, pp. 119–120

Turan, Ş . (2011). Umar F. Abd-Allah, A Muslim in Victorian America: The Life of Alexander Russell Webb. Osmanlı Araştırmaları, 37 (37), 252-260

Mālik and Medina: Islamic Legal Reasoning in the Formative Period (2013)

Islam and the Cultural Imperative (2004)