Our Faculty
Our teachers are at the core of what we do here at Tayseer Seminary.
Shaykh Hassan Lachheb
Shaykh Hassan has extensively studied several disciplines including Principles of Jurisprudence (Usul al-Fiqh), Arabic Grammar, Philology, and Literature. He has also received many ijazaat (licenses to teach) from prominent scholars in Hadith, Comparative Jurisprudence (fiqh), and the Sciences of Quran. He has studied under several of the foremost Islamic scholars in Morocco.
Shaykh Hassan is the spearheading faculty member of the Tayseer Seminary. He currently resides in Knoxville with his wife and three children.
Ustadha Zaynab Ansari
Ustadha Zaynab Ansari has served Tayseer Seminary since 2014 as a scholar-in-residence, public speaker, facilitator of interfaith dialogue, youth mentor, and a full-time instructor at Tayseer Seminary. She has over ten years of experience as a student and teacher of traditional Islam in various settings, having spent her formative years studying in Damascus, Syria with both male and female scholars of Qur’an, Islamic law, theology, and spirituality.
Ustadha Zaynab travels throughout the United States, speaking on issues of concern to the North American Muslim community at various forums, including ALIM, MAS-ICNA, and ISNA.
Dr. Michael Dann
Prior to his time at Tayseer, Dr. Dann’s educational pedigree includes serving as an Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He earned his Ph.D. in Religion at Princeton University in 2015, and his B.A. in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2006. Dr. Dann studied the traditional Islamic sciences in Egypt with scholars from Al-Azhar University and in Morocco at Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah University.
At the moment, Dr. Dann also serves as an instructor of Arabic for Fawakih Institute and has served Muslim communities in Illinois, New Jersey and Massachusetts in various capacities.
Ustadh Nadeem Siddiqi
Ustadh Nadeem Siddiqi grew up in Knoxville and has lived here since 1977. He graduated from the University of Tennessee with a degree in economics in 2002 and from Tayseer Seminary in 2016. He is a current board member of Annoor Academy, ACO, and Tayseer Seminary. He serves as adjunct faculty for Tayseer Seminary where he teaches a course in activism.
Ustadh Nadeem is a local investor and advisor to businesses ranging from healthcare, IT services, real estate, and hospitality industries.
