INSTRUCTORS
Delivering high quality and original content is not an easy task, and formulating such
material is even harder. This is why Mizãn makes sure proper scholarship coming out of prominent seminaries is involved in this entire process.
Shaykh Amin Rastani
Shaykh Amin Rastani traveled to the holy city of Qum after high school in 1999 to pursue hawzah studies in the Hawzah Ilmiyyah of Qum. Due to references by scholars in the US, he was able to get into one of the top schools therein, and graduated from the six-year introductory level covering all Islamic disciplines, after which, he began the four year intermediate level of fiqh and usul al-fiqh studies (namely the works of the late Shaykh Murtadha al-Ansari of “Makasib” and “Rasa’il”). Afterwards, he had the opportunity to participate in advanced kharij fiqh classes. He also holds a master’s degree in Semitic religions with a dissertation on the Code of Canon Law (Catholicism) through the University of Religions and Denominations of Qum. Shaykh Amin is also a teacher of the Howza and lectures internationally on various occasions of the Islamic year. In 2017, he moved back to the US and is currently serving the Dallas community.
Shaykh Mahdi Rastani
Shaykh Mahdi Rastani was born and raised in the US. After finishing high school, he joined the Islamic Seminary of Qum and completed six years of introductory and intermediate studies at Shahidain Islamic Seminary. These six years were devoted to building an understanding of different Islamic sciences, namely Arabic syntax and grammar (sarf and nahw), logic (mantiq), Islamic theology (kalaam), Islamic rulings and law (ahkaam), Islamic history, jurisprudence (fiqh), principles of jurisprudence (usul al- fiqh). Afterwards, he continued his studies for another three years under the supervision of many scholars including Ayatullah Sayyid Hashemi Shahroudi. During these years, his studies were focused on grasping the works of the late Shaykh Murtadha al-Ansari, namely ‘Makasib’ and ‘Rasa’il’ as well as delving deeper into Islamic philosophy by studying the well-known works of the great Allamah Tabatabei, ‘Bidayat al-Hikmah’ and ‘Nihayat al-Hikmah’. He then attended advanced classes on jurisprudence (bahth al-kharij) taught by his eminence, Ayatullah Hashemi Shahroudi. Shaykh Mahdi has made many trips throughout the United States and Europe lecturing on and teaching Islamic teachings based on the Shi’a school of thought in English, Farsi and Arabic. He is currently assisting a Shia Islamic school, Wisdom Academy and he is the resident alim of City of Knowledge Islamic center in Dallas, Texas.
Ustadha Sr. Fatemah Meghji
Fatemah Meghji completed her BA in English Literature and Religious Studies from the University of British Columbia, after which she left to study in the female seminary. She studied at Jamiat al-Zahra and completed the masters program in Qur’anic Tafsir and Qur’anic Sciences with honors. She is currently an instructor at the Mizan Institute, leading the Sisters Department. Moreover, she has been teaching in a professional capacity for several years, previously serving as the Islamic Director at the Az-Zahraa Islamic Academy. Her current projects include a book on human evolution in the Shi’ite tradition, and her research interests include usul al-tafsir, Qur’anic hermeneutics, and women in the tradition.
Sayyid Ali Imran
Sayyid Ali Imran obtained a BCom in Marketing from York University, Toronto in 2010 and went on to work as an Internet Marketer, until he moved to the seminary of Qom in 2012 to pursue his studies. He studied in the seminary until 2021 while also concurrently obtaining a M.A in Islamic Studies from The Islamic College of London in the summer of 2018. He continued his seminary studies in legal theory, jurisprudence and philosophy, eventually attending the advanced kharij of Usul and Fiqh in 2018. Sayyid Ali partook in a wide variety of private & public classes outside of the official seminary curriculum, some of which included classes on epistemology and philosophy, rijal, thematic hadith analysis, hermeneutics, manuscript workshops etc. He publishes much of his own research and as well as translation work on www.IqraOnline.net
Shaykh Mahdi M. Shahkolahi
Shaykh Mahdi Mohammadpour Shahkolahi is currently pursuing doctoral study in the Department of Theological and Religious Studies at Georgetown University. Raised in Maryland, Shaykh Mahdi earned his B.S. in Information Systems from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (cum laude). Upon graduation, he spent 9 years studying traditional seminary sciences in Qom, Iran, earning a B.A. in Islamic Studies and Jurisprudence (summa cum laude), and an M.A. in Islamic Studies and Jurisprudence, with a minor in Philosophy (magna cum laude), from the Islamic Seminary of Qom. In addition to his studies at the Islamic Seminary of Qom, Shaykh Mahdi spent 2 years as a visiting student at the Imam Sadiq (as) Institute (under the auspices of Grand Ayatollah Jaʿfar Subhani) and the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute (under the auspices of Grand Ayatollah MisbahYazdi) studying kalam, Sadrian Philosophy (al-Hikma al-Muta’aliya), Islamization of the Sciences, Philosophy of Religion, and Epistemology. During his graduate studies in Qom, Shaykh Shahkolahi also served as a lecturer at the Islamic Seminary of Qom, teaching undergraduate courses in Arabic Morphology (sarf), Arabic Syntax (nahw), and kalam. Shaykh Shahkolahi serves the Muslim community – both in the Washington, D.C. metro area and throughout North America – by presenting talks, conducting workshops, and teaching classes at Islamic centers/masjids, seminaries, universities, schools, and spiritual retreats.