Born and raised in Birmingham, UK, Shaykh Ahsan Hanif, PhD, is the Head of Qur’an and Hadith Sciences Department of AlMaghrib Institute, located in Houston, Texas.
According to Ahsan Hanif’s official bio:
In 2000, he gained a scholarship to enter the Islamic University of Madinah. After completing his Arabic diploma, he graduated from the Faculty of Shari’ah in 2006 with honours. He obtained ijazah in the Qur’an, and studied under a number of well known scholars, such as Sh. Abdul Muhsin al-Abbad and Sh. Muhammad ibn Muhammad Mukhtar al-Shinqiti. Shaykh Ahsan also completed his PhD in Islamic Law from the University of Birmingham… He’s also the Imam at Green Lane Masjid [mosque].
In December 2014 and April 2012 Ahsan Hanif delivered sermons at Salaheddin Islamic Centre in Scarborough, Ontario.
In a lecture at Green Lane Masjid in London, UK entitled “The Cure & The Remedy: Lessons From Surah Al-Fatihah,” Ahsan Hanif said (the video was published on Apr 13, 2012):
And you are not from amongst those people who incurred the wrath and anger of Allah, nor are you from amongst those people who are the misguided [Quote from the Surah Al-Fatiha, the first chapter of the Quran]. Those people who incurred the wrath of Allah, some of the scholars of tafseer [exegesis] said, they are the Jews or they are like the Jews. Those people who know the truth, yet they refuse to act in accordance to it. And the people who are misguided are like Christians, those people who act but without knowledge, act based upon ignorance. And so from the mercy of Allah and the blessings of Allah and the favors of Allah is not only that you have the straight path [الصراط المستقيم], but you have the book of Allah [Quran], and you the authentic Sunnah [teachings] of our Prophet, peace and blessing of Allah be upon him. So when you worship Allah, you do it based upon knowledge. When you praise Allah it is based upon knowledge. When you came closer to Allah it is based upon knowledge. When you seek the pleasure of Allah it is based upon knowledge. And when you have that knowledge you act in accordance to it. So just from Surah Al-Fatiha [first chapter of the Quran “The Opening”] when we say we worship Allah alone, if a person was then to go and make dua [prayer, supplication] to other than Allah then he is like the Yahood [Jews], he is like the Jews. He has knowledge, but he is not acting in accordance to it. And if a person was to go and pray without knowing how to pray, then they are the misguided, because the knowledge is there but they are acting upon misguidance.