Management

A team of 41 professionals.

Ethica's management of 6 is supported by 20 mufti-level Islamic finance scholars and 15 battle-hardened IT professionals and administrators, bringing years of practical industry experience.

Atif R. Khan
Managing Director

Atif R. Khan is Founder, Managing Director, and Shariah Board Member, growing Ethica from inception to over 15,000 paying professionals in 65 countries. He brings over 30 years of finance experience to Ethica. Atif launched Ethica in 2002 while studying the Shariah sciences for five years, the last years of which were spent one-on-one with some of the world's leading Islamic finance bankers and scholars while developing Ethica’s content. Prior to learning about the harms of conventional banking, his earlier finance experience included investment banking at Morgan Stanley in New York and London, executing over $3 billion in transactions in several departments, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, equity capital markets, and debt capital markets. He went on to become Chief Financial Officer of Iprox Limited in London before pursuing his work in Islamic finance. Previously he was Director of Islamic Finance at BankT&D in Dubai. Atif earned a Bachelor's with a summa cum laude distinction from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Master's from Harvard University.

Abedelhadi M. Shajrawi
Technical Director

Abedelhadi manages a fourteen person technology team that provide maintenance, development, and design support. In addition to managing Ethica’s e-learning delivery to a global clientele spanning 65 countries, he also develops new systems to streamline payment and authentication gateways. His corporate experience with Istanbul IT spans a number of institutions including Western Union, Manaseer Group, Qibla, Pharmacy One, and others. Abedelhadi holds a Bachelor’s in Information Technology from Albalaqa University and a Master’s in E-Business from Arab Academy for Banking and Financial Sciences.

Imran Mufti
Legal Counsel

Imran Mufti is Legal Counsel at Ethica. He is also a lawyer at the Dubai office of Lovells where he specializes in Islamic capital markets. His recent experience includes advising on some of the most high profile Sukuk transactions to date including the US$3.52 billion pre-IPO Sukuk for Nakheel, the US$2.53 billion convertible Sukuk for Aldar, the dual-listed US$750 million Sukuk for Dubai Islamic Bank and the US$600million Sukuk for Dar Al-Arkan Real Estate Development Company (representing the first international Sukuk for a Saudi corporate entity). Imran studied law at the University of London and is qualified as a lawyer both in the United Kingdom and in New York.

Muhammad Isa
Analyst

Muhammad Isa is an Analyst at Ethica where he handles marketing, research, and customer service. He regularly engages in product launches, including pedagogical content production, text indexing, and website design. Parallel to his regular duties, Muhammad Isa is now growing Ethica’s social media presence through new initiatives he handles independently. He brings a wealth of knowledge in Quranic exegesis, Arabic rhetoric, jurisprudence, and contemporary issues, especially those related to the harms of interest-based banking. He is fluent in English and Arabic, both spoken and written.

Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institution (AAOIFI)

All certifications, examinations, training videos, and quizzes at Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance are based on AAOIFI's latest Shariah Standards. AAOIFI, pronounced "a-yo-fee," is the world's leading standard-setting body for Islamic finance and these standards are the same ones chosen by many of the major financial centres of the world. We are independent of AAOIFI and promote their Shariah Standards because we believe that doing so promotes common global standards, greater Shariah convergence and cooperation among scholars, and increased clarity among financial institutions who wish to better manage their product development and Shariah teams. To learn more about AAOIFI, please go to www.aaoifi.com.

Ethica Shariah Standards

Mufti Ibrahim Essa
Head of the Shariah Board

Mufti Ibrahim is a well-known Shariah Scholar in the field of Islamic banking and Takaful. He is personally assisted by a team of 12 leading muftis while he serves on the board of a number of financial institutions. He completed his Darse Nizami (Masters in Quran and Sunnah) and Takhassus fil Ifta (Specialization in Islamic Jurisprudence) from Jamiah Darul Uloom Karachi and is a Member of Darul Ifta Jamiah Darul Uloom Karachi. He has authored over two thousand fatwas on topics ranging from Islamic banking to zakat. In addition to his role as Shariah Advisor at Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance, Mufti Ibrahim is Chairman of the Shariah Supervisory Board of Sind Bank; Member of the Shariah Board of Habib Metropolitan Bank; Shariah Advisor at Equitable Financial Solutions Australia; Shariah Advisor at ORIX Leasing Pakistan; Shariah Advisor at EFU Takaful; previously Shariah Advisor at Ernst & Young; and Shariah Advisor at a number of charitable institutions including The Indus Hospital, The Citizens Foundation, Layton Rehmatullah Benevolent Trust, The Hunar Foundation, and others.

Dr. Muhammad Zubair Usmani (Mufti)
Shariah Advisor

Dr. Muhammad Zubair Usmani is a Shariah Advisor at Ethica. He reviews and approves our certification and handles training and consultancy work on a case-by-case basis. As one of the world's leading Islamic finance scholars and a noted expert on AAOIFI Shariah Standards, he also serves as a Shariah Advisor at Muslim Commercial Bank, Pak-Qatar Takaful, and ICAP's Accounting Committee where he oversees the development, execution and compliance of Islamic banking products. He is increasingly involved with a variety of sukuk and private equity related forums around the world and is an active trainer in all areas of Islamic finance. He is a regular featured speaker at the National Institute for Banking and Finance, Jamia Darul Uloom, and the Centre for Islamic Economics, and is an internationally recognized scholar in Islamic finance. He holds the Alamiyyah and Takhassus from Jamia Darul Uloom.

Mufti Ismail Ebrahim Desai
Shariah Advisor

Mufti Ismail Ebrahim Desai is a Shariah Advisor at Ethica. He currently serves as Shariah Advisor to various Islamic financial institutions and educational institutes around the world including South African National Zakah Fund (SANZAF), Al-Mabroor Investments, Central Bank of Malawi, Shariah Review Bureau and a number of Islamic investment firms and real estate funds. Mufti Ismail has developed various Shariah auditing, governance and risk management standards for Islamic financial institutions and has issued several hundred expert legal opinions (fatwas) with a special focus on Islamic finance and economics. Mufti Ismail holds a Master's in Islamic Finance, Master's in Islamic Theology and other honorary academic qualifications.