Mawlana Bilal Ali Ansari received his undergraduate education in Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois in Urbana, IL, and in the Applied Behavioral Sciences at National-Louis University in Lisle, IL, from where he graduated with a Bachelors in Arts in the field of Applied Behavioral Sciences with a focus on adult learning theory (andragogy).
Mawlana Bilal acquired an education in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Jāmiʿat al-Ḥasanayn in Faisalabad, Pakistan, where he studied classical and modern texts in Arabic, Islamic Theology, Islamic Law, Qur’anic Studies, and Hadith. His teachers there include Mawlana Khwaja ʿUbayd Allāh, Mufti Aḥmad ʿAlī, and Shaykh Ramzī al-Ḥabīb al-Tūnisī.
Mawlana Bilal completed his Dars Niẓāmī studies at the Jāmiʿat Dār al-ʿUlūm in Karachi, where received certification (ijāzah) in Hadith from Mufti Muḥammad Taqī al-ʿUthmānī, Mufti Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-ʿUthmāni, Muftī Maḥmūd Ashraf al-ʿUthmāni, Mufti ʿAbd al-Raʿūf al-Sikharwī, and Mawlana Iftikhār Aḥmad al-Aʿzamī. Mawlana Bilal’s specialization-level research in Hadith studies was supervised by the critical scholar ‘Allamah Dr. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm al-Nuʿmānī (al-Chishtī).
Mawlana Bilal also holds certification in hadith from Mawlana Dr. ʿAbd al-Halīm al-Nuʿmānī, Mawlana Salīm Allāh Khān, Mawlana Sarfarāz Khān Ṣafdar, Mawlana ʿAbd al-Ḥamīḍ al-Sawātī, and Mawlana Khān Muḥammad — direct students of Shaykh al-Islam Ḥusayn Aḥmad al-Madanī and/or Mawlana Fakhr al-Ḥasan al-Murādabādī.
He has continued studies in discursive theology (kalām), Islamic Jurisprudence (uṣūl al-fiqh), and Islamic Philosophy under Shaykh Mohammed Amin Kholwadia at Darul Qasim. His research interests include early Hadith methodology and nomenclature, Ḥanafī legal theory, Education and curriculum development, Mental Health, and Islamic Bioethics. He currently teaches courses in Arabic, Islamic Law, and Hadith Studies.
His publications include:
Papers:
Contentions of Indian Ḥanafī Scholars on the Permissibility of Financial Interest in Post-Mughal India. In Osmanli’da İlm-İ Fikih: Âlimler, Eserler, Meseleler. Editörler: Mürteza Bedir, Necmettin Kizilkaya, Hüseyin Saglam. İstanbul 2017.
Islamic Perspectives on Psychological and Spiritual Well-Being and Treatment. Hooman Keshavarzi and Bilal Ali. In Islamaphobia and Psychiatry: Recognition, Prevention, and Treatment. Editors: H. Steven Moffic, John Peteet Ahmed Zakaria Hankir, Rania Awaad. Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019.
Imam al-Bukhārī and the Ḥanafīs: Understanding al-Bukhārī’s Attitudes Towards Ḥanafī Scholarship. (In process of publication)
Exploring the Role of Mental Status & Expert Testimony in the Islamic Judicial Process. Dr. Hooman Keshavarzi, Bilal Ali Ansari, and Dr. Aasim Padela. (In process of publication)
Encyclopedia Entries:
Forensic Psychiatry in Islam. Oxford Encyclopedia of Islamic Bioethics. Co-authored entry with Hooman Keshavarzi, head of the Department of Psychological Research, Khalil Center.
Days of Allah (Ayyām Allāh). The Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān (IEQ). Brief entry on the expression ayyām Allāh in the Qurʾān and its various exegetical interpretations for the second volume of the IEQ.
Companions of the Prophet (Aṣḥāb al-Rasūl). The Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān. Major entry on the aṣḥāb al-Raṣūl for the second volume of the IEQ.
Debt (Dayn). The Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān. Entry on the concept of debt in the Qurʾān for the second volume of the IEQ.
