In this episode, I had the pleasure of talking to Sh. Mustapha Khattab. We talked about his life story as well as what inspired him to write the new English translation of the Quran: Clear Quran. 

Dr. Mustafa Khattab is a Canadian-Egyptian authority on interpreting the Quran. He was a member of the first ‎team that translated the Ramadan night prayers (Tarawîḥ) live from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca and the ‎Prophet’s Mosque in Medina (2002-2005). Dr. Khattab memorized the entire Quran at a young age and later ‎obtained a professional ijâzah in the Ḥafṣ style of recitation with a chain of narrators going all the way to Prophet ‎Muḥammad ‎ﷺ‎.



He received his Ph.D., M.A., and B.A. in Islamic Studies in English with Honors from Al-Azhar ‎University’s Faculty of Languages & Translation. He lectured on Islam at Clemson University (OLLI Program, 2009-‎‎2010), held the position of Lecturer at Al-Azhar University for over a decade starting in 2003, and served as the ‎Muslim Chaplain at Brock University (2014-2016).



He is a member of the Canadian Council ‎of Imams, a Fulbright ‎Interfaith Scholar, and an iERA-Canada Outreach Specialist. He has served as an Imam in the U.S.A. and Canada ‎since 2007 and is the translator of The Clear Quran (2015), the author of The Nation of Islam (2011) and Outfoxing ‎Fox News (2017), and contributor to the Encyclopedia of Muslim American History (2010). His forthcoming works ‎include Qamus-ul-Quran (The Clear Quran Dictionary), The Clear Quran for Kids, and Shukran (children’s ‎story). He's currently the senior Imam of the Anatolia Islamic Centre, Mississauga, Canada.‎