Biography of this week...

Bismillah,

KHALIL ABU ASMAA (CHRISTOPHER MOORE) was born and raised in America into a practicing Christian family. While on the path to becoming a professional musician, he went through a deep spiritual and emotional journey that led to his conversion to Islam in the summer of 1994 at the age of nineteen.

He later traveled to the Muslim world in search of sacred knowledge and a balanced understanding of the prophetic legacy. He has studied in the blessed city of Madinah (1996 to 1999), the deserts of West Africa, the Atlas Mountains of Southern Morocco, and the Hadramawt Valley of Yemen.

He holds a B.A. in English, with a minor in Religious Studies, from George Mason University (2001) and a M.A. in Liberal Arts from St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland (2007). He has also studied Arabic-English translating and interpreting at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.

He works as a Translator / Lecturer / Writer / Researcher / Editor
A Washington Post story about him can be found in his website.
Information about his formal education, study abroad, technical training, publications & translations, and language competencies can be found below :

St. John's College, Annapolis, MD (USA)Master of Arts in Liberal Arts (M.A.L.A.), August 2007
"Great Books” program of study in Philosophy, Theology, Literature, Politics, and History, consisting of over 440 hours of classroom discussion

Partial list of authors read: Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Rousseau, Kant, Locke, Hobbes, Hegel, Nietzsche, Tocqueville, Gibbon, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Plutarch, Herodotus, Thucydides, and others.

American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Completed one full semester of study towards an M.A. in Translation and Interpreting (Dec. 2005)
Topics studied included: Academic writing and research methods, and the skills, techniques, and theories concerned with both liaison and consecutive interpreting.

George Mason University, Fairfax, VA (USA)Bachelor of Arts - English, May 2001
Major concentration in nonfiction writing and editing.

Minor in Religious Studies, with a focus on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Islamic University of Madinah, Saudi Arabia (KSA)
Graduated from a four-semester, intensive Arabic and Islamic studies course (Sept. 1996 - May 1998)
Completed two semesters towards a B.A. in Islamic Law (Sept. 1998 - May 1999)
Topics studied included: Quranic Exegesis, Prophetic Traditions and Terminology, Jurisprudence, Research Methodologies, Juridical Principles, Arabic Grammar and Morphology, History of Legislation, and Political Law.

Alhamdulillah we have benefited greatly from his work, he is a true example for us, to read his story and the effort he has put to learn our beautiful deen is very inspiring and fulfilling.

May Allah (The Exalted) bless him and us, and give him the strenght to keep sharing his knowledge with all of us.

ameen.

If you want to know more about his beautiful story, feel free to go to his website http://www.reflectonthis.com/about.html