Saarah is a candidate for the Islamic Studies MA at Columbia University. Saarah completed her BA in Arabic and Islamic Studies at SOAS (University of London) where she focused on the legal and ethical understandings of adoption in the Muslim world today. She also completed her MA in Human Rights Law at SOAS, where her studies focused on critical legal theory and the limitations of the human rights regime. In between her degrees Saarah worked at Think Equal, an International NGO focused on early education to combat discriminatory practices. She was also involved in various voluntary work that included organizing campaigns to feed the homeless, and working with refugees and asylum seekers. Her (academic) interests include decolonization of systems and knowledge production, the intersection of Islamic ethics and law, and universal social justice. Upon completing her MA, Saarah hopes to continue with her academic pursuits alongside working with marginalized communities by addressing the unethical and discriminatory systems and policies in place today.

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Alifiya is a candidate for the Islamic Studies MA in the Middle East Institute at Columbia University. She was born in Houston, Texas, where she completed her primary and secondary studies. She completed her graduation and post-graduation from Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah in Surat, India, majoring in Islamic Studies and Arabic Literature, with a focus on Faṭimī adab and its continuing legacy. Her interests include reading and composing Classical Arabic poetry. From the ISMA program she hopes to gain global perspective on the subjects of Islamic history, law, art, and especially literature. She wishes to further explore Islamic literary sources, which are like a window into the past and often provide moral as well as academic frameworks which help in contemplating the present and future.

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Shamim Hossain is a second-year MA candidate in the Islamic Studies program at Columbia University. His research focuses primarily on Islam in Bengal, particularly the Fairazi movement in the 19th century. He also works in Digital Humanities, and is involved with the Muslim Manuscript Project at Columbia. He is also interested in liberation theology in general and specifically connecting modern and pre-modern models of economics and justice. He plans to continue his research and pursue a PhD after obtaining his MA.

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Akif is an MA candidate in the Islamic Studies program at Columbia University. His professional background is as a portfolio manager and equity research analyst covering the energy infrastructure sector. Akif holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in Economics and International Studies from Northwestern University.

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Nicholas was an infantryman with the United States Army from 2011-2014. While abroad, Nicholas felt there was need for greater emphasis or discretion for regional customs, which has guided his academic and career ambitions since. Currently, Nicholas is pursuing a B.A. in Political Science, an M.A. in Islamic Studies, and studying Arabic . His academic interests include tribal dynamics in Afghanistan, modern Levantine history, Islamic law, state formation, and U.S.-Middle East relations. He plans to write a thesis about Kandahar's Pashtun tribes. Nicholas is currently studying Arabic in Jordan with the Boren Scholarship. After completing his graduate studies, he hopes to enter the United States Foreign Service.

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Born in India on December 21, 1946, Syed Tasnim Raza immigrated to Pakistan, the day it was created as an independent state, on August 14, 1947. He attended King Edward Medical College in Lahore, Pakistan, graduating in December 1970. He came to America six months after graduating from medical school and trained in surgery and then cardiothoracic surgery from July 1971 to June 1979 at the State University New York at Buffalo and the Buffalo General Hospital. In April 2011, he joined the faculty in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Columbia University Medical Center, where I am an Associate Professor of Surgery and director of the CT Surgery Stepdown Unit.

In the last few years, he developed an interest in the history of medicine. He realized that from Hippocrates and Galen (130-216 CE), most historical accounts jump to the Renaissance, brushing off the centuries in-between as the medieval dark ages. But those centuries included the Islamic Golden Age where Greek medicine was not only practiced but also progressed. To learn more about that period and to learn what were the contributions of the Arab/Islamic physicians during the medieval period, Syed Tasnim Raza decided to join the Middle East Institute to pursue a Master’s degree in Islamic studies.

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Ayaz Talantuli completed a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and in Near Eastern Languages and Civilization at the University of Washington in Seattle. His research is focused on the Islamization of nomadic tribes in Central Asia. Through an analysis of historical primary sources written in Arabic and Turkic scripts, he seeks to explore the process of the expression of Islamic concepts and Arabic religio-linguistic forms in Turkic languages. After completing the program at MEI, Ayaz plans to pursue a Ph.D. in order to go beyond philological issues to inquire about religious adaptations at work in shaping or enriching Turkic vocabulary in a Muslim framework.Ayaz Talantuli completed a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and in Near Eastern Languages and Civilization at the University of Washington in Seattle. His research is focused on the Islamization of nomadic tribes in Central Asia. Through an analysis of historical primary sources written in Arabic and Turkic scripts, he seeks to explore the process of the expression of Islamic concepts and Arabic religio-linguistic forms in Turkic languages. After completing the program at MEI, Ayaz plans to pursue a Ph.D. in order to go beyond philological issues to inquire about religious adaptations at work in shaping or enriching Turkic vocabulary in a Muslim framework.

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Huzaifa is currently a second year MA student. He graduated from Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah with a BA in Arabic and Islamic studies with a specialization in adab (Arabic literature). His previous research focused on the depiction of Imam Husayn's martyrdom in contemporary Arabic poetry. His current research interests include: Islamic jurisprudence and legal history, Muslim identity and legal practice in colonial South Asia, and Ismaili Shi'ism. He is also a dexterous Arabic calligrapher.

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Zahabiya has completed a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Houston. In 2018, she spent time in Cairo studying Egyptian Arabic, where she immersed in the cultures and traditions that intrigue her most. This has led to her current research interests, which focus on a comparative analysis of gendered experiences through class, economic development, and religion analysis in Middle Eastern/South Asian communities. In her work, she explores previous anthropological scholarship and ethnographies to better understand behavioral patterns and the role of cultural relativism. Upon completing her master’s degree, she intends to work for an organization/firm in which she can apply her critical thinking and analytical skills.

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Toqa Badran, a native New Yorker of Egyptian heritage, is a candidate for the MA in Islamic Studies. Toqa completed her Bachelors degree here at Columbia with a double major in Political Science and Anthropology, and served as the college’s first Arab or female Muslim University Senator. Her academic and socio-political interests include linguistics, specifically with regards to languages within the Islamic world, revitalizing premodern world-views as methods of modern empowerment, and fighting for the freedom of occupied East Turkistan. She hopes to pursue a PhD after completing the MA program.

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