About Imam Luqman Ahmad

Sheikh Luqman Is the Imam of Masjid Ibrahim Islamic Center in Sacramento, California where he has served since 1996. He recently returned to Sacramento after a two year absence. He comes from a well known religious Muslim family in the Philadelphia area. He is married and the father of five children. His father, Sheikh Abdul-Karim Muhammad Ahmad converted to Sunni orthodox Islam in the fifties and was influential in the spread of Islam in the Philadelphia area. Sheikh Adbul-Karim was also the first Philadelphia Imam of the Darul Islam Community which itself was the very first national Indigenous American Muslim movement representing orthodox Islam in the United States. Sheikh Luqman's long and extensive Islamic education began during a time when there were only a handful of Muslim families in the City of Philadelphia. His first teachers were his parents. His mother, the late Wadia Um Luqman was one of the Mothers of the Believers of the Philadelphia and Tri-State region. She taught Imam Luqman the fundamental principles of tawheed and traditions of the Prophet (SAWS) before he entered grade school.

His father, the Imam's first sheikh, versed him in areas of tawheed, aqeedah, adab, fiqh, seera, and introduced him to the Mish'kaat which he read in its entirety. His mother Wadia (May Allah protect and hold close her soul) a wife, activist, mother of seven, was one of the first Philadelphia women to wear traditional hijaab in public. She reserved herself mostly to her home, where she taught adab, aqeedah, and fiqh, as she grappled with ways to maintain Islamic tradition in her children in a society that at the time, was unfamiliar with Islam and Muslims. Sheikh Abu Laith Luqman learned the discipline of patience and perseverance from his mother who often had to endure jeers and stares from strangers on the street because of her adherence to Islamic clothing style.

As an adolescent, young Luqman attended lectures at the feet of the late Colonel Amirudeen, where he would sometimes sit for hours at a time without a break. The Sheikh had such an impact on young Luqman that he would return to his Philadelphia neighborhood and preach the sheikh's words to kids (many who are now Muslims) on the street corners and basketball courts of inner-city Philadelphia. Accompanied by his father, Imam Luqman attended many lessons of the legendary African scholar, Sheikh Dawood (the first African sheikh) of the famous State Street Mosque in Brooklyn, which at the time, was one of the major centers of traditional learning in the United States. Sheikh Luqman also took instruction from the well known Egyptian sheikh Suleiman Dunyaa. During this time, the Imam continued to receive knowledge from his father, who introduced him to ihyaa uloom al-deen by al-Ghazaali, at the age of 15. This contributed to Sheikh Luqman's distinctive spiritual personality, which endears him to his students.

Other early influences upon Imam Luqman were Sheikh Naafi' Muhaimin, whose, son, and childhood playmate of Imam Luqman, Sheikh Anwar ibn Naafi' continues to be a close friend and colleague until this day. Sheikh Rasheed Awad Abdullah, whom the Imam has known since the age of six, has taken many lessons from him and still benefits from his council.

During this early period of the Imam's life, the Muslim population in the area was sparse. The Imams family made frequent excursions to the secluded tranquility of Ezzideen village which was one of the first indigenous Sunni Muslim housing developments in the United States. There, Imam Luqman as well as other children , outside of the din of the inner city, were given lessons in fiqh, seera, aqeedah as well as archery, and martial arts. There the Imam was exposed to pastoral living and environment by one of the Philadelphia areas premiere elderly statesman, Sheikh Hajj Musa, as well as Sheikh Mukhtaar Abdullah, who was and is a master of adab and husnul mantaq and the sunna of hunting archery. Many times he was also in the presence of sisters besides his mother, whom remained until her death in 2002, the love of his life and a principle influence. The Imam took lessons in adab, tawheed, and mu'aamalaat from some of the early Muslim women of Islam in America such as another one of the Um al-Mu'minaat, Haajja Najwa, Sister Fareedah Abdullah from whom the Imam learned the rules of sabr, istiqbaal al-qibla, adab and who by giving the Imam his first prayer rug at the age of seven, helped instill in the Imam the value of salaat.

The Imam as a child spent many hours in the home of the late Sheikh Suleiman Abdul-Haadi, a close friend of the Imam's father, and founder of the group; ‘The Last Poets'. This is where Sheikh Luqman was first exposed to the original form of American Islamic poetry, and urban linguistic expression, an essential communicative tool.

At the age of eighteen, Imam Luqman was taken to the Sudan by his father, where he enrolled him in an exclusive and intensive usool ad deen and lugha (language) program at Omdurmaan Islamic University from where he graduated . While in Omdurmaan, the Imam received religious knowledge from a number of scholars, several of them who deserve special mention. Such as Sheikh Muhammad Hadiyyah, a well known Imam of Omdurmaan and a neighbor with whom the Imam became very close, Sheikh Muhammad Mustapha Bilal, who Imam Luqman always refers to as his “uncle”. Imam Luqman used to spend many nights at the Sheikh's house and sleep in his guest room. Sheikh Dr. Daf'Allah Hajj Yusuf, Sheikh Muhammad at-Taqlaawi, and from his most beloved of all his Sudanese teachers, and the one who made the strongest impression on him, Sheikh Zainul Aabideen al-Costi, from the village of Costi. Imam Luqman continued to take knowledge from him until the Sheikhs death in 1981 (may Allah preserve him)

Sheikh Luqman also studied at Umm Al-Quraa University in Saudi Arabia and at the Haram al-Mekki. While in Saudi Arabia, in addition to the teachers at Um al-Qura, the Imam studied with Sheikh Suleiman al-Hazmi, Sheikh Sayyid Sabiq who was his sheikh of tafseer al-Quran, and Sheikh Muhammad al-Ghazaali. Imam Luqman learned usool al-hadith from Sheikh Muhammad bin Humayad a classic era Az'harian trained in the Ottoman period. Imam Luqman also took lessons from the late American Sheikh; Muhammad Ghulaam Al-Haarith, who was one of the first indigenous American Muslims to attend Azhar University and who was a master not only the Arabic language, but fluent in 12 other languages including Hebrew. The sheikh was a guest in the home of Imam Luqman during the mid-eighties where Imam Luqman transformed his living room into a place of classroom where people came to take knowledge from Sheikh Muhammad. Other teachers of the Imam were Sheikh Muhammad al-Aslam, Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Fadhlallah and others.

Some of Sheikh Luqman's other teachers include: (May Allah bless them)

Sheikh Abdul-Karim Muhammad Ahmad , Tajweed, Fiqh, Aqeeda, Hadeeth
Umm Luqman – Aqeedah, Fiqh, Adab, Seerah
Sheikha Fareedah Umm Hannaan,-Aqeedah, Fiqh al-Mu'aamalaat
Sheikha Aminah Abdullah-Aqeedah, Seerah and
Sheikh Ameer Saab-Aqeedah, Usool al-Eemaan
Sheikh Sulaimaan Abdul-Haadee-Language, Modern Urban logic and Expression,
Sheikh Muhammad As'lam-Fiqh
Sheikh Abdullah bin Baaz-Aqeedah
Sheikh Muhammad Ghulaam al-Haarith-arabic Language, Seerah, usool al-Fiqh
Sheikh Zainul Aabideen al-Costi- Fiqh, Usool al-Fiqh, Usool al-Hadith, Qiraa'tul Hafs
Sheikh Daf' Allah Hajj Yusuf-Arabic Grammar, al-matan al-Ajroomiyyah
Sheikh Muhammad Hadeeya al-Umdurmaani-Fiqh, Tafseer, Usool al-hadith, Aqeedah
Sheikh Muhammad Taqlaawi- Aqeeah,
Sheikh Muhammad Ibn Humayd, Hadith
Sheikh Sayyid Saabiq- Tafseer, Fiqh
Sheikh Ridda Mu'tee-Aqeedah
Sheikh Sulaimaan al-Hazmi- Hadeeth
Sheikh Muhammad Mutaphah Bilaal-Hadeeth, Sahih Muslim
Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Fad'Allah-Usool al-Fiqh,
Sheikh Abdullah Ali al-Mekki, Aqeedah

This extensive background contributes to Imam Luqman's proficiency as a teacher of sunna, usool of religion, Sheikh Abu Laith Luqman is a Muslim American Thinker, known for his clarity, intimate understanding of American culture, and ability to communicate to a diverse Muslim and non-Muslim audience. He is an expert on current Muslim American politics and social evolution, as well as a competent advocate of Muslim Behavior Modification. His articles and opinions have been published by conservative republican outlets in New York, social justice periodicals in Dublin, and Islamic monthly magazines in Great Britain, and German Language news magazines on the internet. His opinions have appeared in various Islamic publications throughout the United States, and Great Britian. The Imam's position papers and commentary of Imam Luqman on Muslim have been translated into several languages. His readership extends from the United States to Australia, South Africa, the Middle East, and places too numerous to mention.

• National shura member of MANA (The Muslim Alliance of North America)

• Co-founder and council member of COSVIO (Council of Sacramento Valley Islamic Organizations)

• National Shura member of the “Umma” community under Imam Jamil al-Amin

• Currently, Imam of Masjid Ibrahim Islamic Center in Sacramento California (since 1996)

• Member of the Mayors Council on Faith Based Initiatives fir the City of Philadelphia

• Member of the Professional Consultation Committee on Clinical Pastoral education at Sutter Medical Center, in Sacramento California

• Executive committee member of the North American Imams Federation (NAIF)