Originally from Algeria, Shaykh Mokhtar Maghroui comes from a lineage of scholars, who trace their descent to our Master Muhammad ﷺ through his grandson, Hasan (May Allah be pleased with them all).

Shaykh Mokhtar was granted an ijazah (authorization) in both tasawwuf (Islamic spirituality) and sacred knowledge by his spiritual guide and the last living scholar of the Ottoman Caliphate, Shaykh Muhammad Emin Er (may Allah be pleased with him). Amongst his other teachers, Shaykh Mokhtar was especially beloved to the late hadith scholar Shaykh Mustafa al-A‘zami (may Allah be pleased with him), who valued him, sought his scholarly opinion on his work, and bequeathed to him his library.

In addition to his Islamic studies, Shaykh Mokhtar obtained an MA in physics and a PhD in electrical Engineering (both with distinction) from Syracuse University,  and taught engineering, math, physics and religion at the university and college level.

Shaykh Mokhtar has been an Imam in numerous US cities, lectured, taught, participated in interfaith dialogue, counseled, and offered spiritual guidance for decades.  He currently resides with his family in Istanbul, Turkiye, where he is the teacher and spiritual mentor of Al-Madina’s Suhba Program – a unique, transformational 8-month course of study that merges the spiritual and rational principles of Islam, and focuses on their practical application in daily living. The program ran in-person for three years and is currently fully online, with participants from all over the world. For a repository of his teachings, please see: www.shaykhmokhtar.com