I received a master’s degree in Islamic studies in Malaysia and a master’s degree in religious studies at UBC. In my first master’s degree, I trained in traditional Islamic sciences and wrote a 6-credit thesis on epistemology of Islamic belief. I used my second master’s degree to round off my training in the history of Western religions with special attention to research methods and wrote a 12-credit thesis on blasphemy legislation in postcolonial Pakistan. I have taught for several years in high school and college settings in Pakistan and Malaysia and enjoy teaching Arabic at UBC from time to time along with my full-time job as Student Advisor at the language division of Sprott Shaw College.

Research Interests

• History of Jewish, Christian and Islamic scriptures
• Provenance of the Qur’an
• Pre-Islamic Arab hanifism

Projects

In my previous projects, I had been concerned with epistemology of religious belief and codification of Islamic law in the context of the modern nation-state. I have since become more interested in the history of scripture. My current project is concerned with the provenance of the Islamic scripture with attention to Jewish, Christian and hanif Arab background of Muhammad’s mission.