Dr. Suheil Laher

Areas of Expertise

Islamic law, Qur’anic studies

Biography

Dr. Suheil Laher has an MA in Religious Studies from Boston University and a PhD in Arabic and Islamic Studies from Harvard University. He previously served as Academic Dean at Fawakih Institute where made significant contributions to the classical Arabic curriculum. He has previously taught at Harvard, Brandeis and Boston Universities, and has also taught courses at the Ella Collins Institute and the Bukhari Institute. He has benefited from a number of teachers of traditional Islamic disciplines, in the U.S. and abroad, and has ijazahs in Islamic theology (‘aqidah), Islamic law (fiqh), hadith and other subjects.
He conducts research in Islamic theology, law, Quran and hadith studies. He has published academic articles, book chapters, encyclopedia articles, and scholarly translations, and has presented at academic conferences in the US and abroad.
He served as Muslim Chaplain at MIT for over ten years, an experience that helped lead him to believe strongly in the value of both inter-religious and intra-Muslim dialogue, with a view to better understanding and fruitful cooperation to help make God's earth a better place.

Selected Publications and Work

Laher, Suheil. Tawātur in Islamic Thought: Transmission, Certitude And Orthodoxy (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, December 2024). Laher, Suheil. "Between East and West: The Ḥijāzī-Tamīmī Cleavage and Non-Uniformity of the Quranic Reading Traditions" Journal of the International Qur’anic Studies Association, forthcoming. Laher, Suheil. “Arabic Prayer, or Persian or both? Abū Ḥanīfa’s view and its Legal Reception,” in Pre-modern comparative literary practice in the multilingual Islamic world(s), Proceedings of the British Academy, ed. Hany Rashwan, Huda J. Fakhreddine, and David Larsen, (Oxford University Press, forthcoming est. 2026). Laher, Suheil. “Reflections on the Banalization of Knowledge,” in collected volume Serving Those Called to Serve: Reflections and Insights into the Mission, Theory, and Practice of Theological Education. Ed. Henson, Greg, and Thomas E. Phillips. El Cajon, California: DTL Press, 2025. Laher, S., Tariq I., "Fiqh of AI in Daily Life," Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America conference proceedings, 2026.

Selected BIS Teaching

• IRL-511 A Light Among the People: Living the Qurʾān (Thematic Approach)
• IRL-512 Thematic Tafsīr (Exegesis) of the Qurʾān
• IRL-521The Sunnah of the Messenger (Thematic Approach)
• IRL-541 Fiqh of Worship and Transactions
• IRL-542 Fiqh of Societal Affairs
• IRL-543 Uṣūl al-Fiqh (Legal Theory) & Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿa (Objectives of Islamic Law)
• IRL-532 Advanced Applied Islamic Theology (ʿAqīda)

These are courses taught at BIS. For current academic information, explore the graduate program.

Professional and Community Service

Khateeb at Islamic Center of New England
Muslim chaplain at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1998-2014.