Mufti Abdullah Nana
Mufti Abdullah Ebrahim Nana is a California-based mufti whose work focuses on issuing Islamic legal rulings (fatwas) on contemporary questions facing American Muslims, including questions of commerce and finance. He serves on UIF Corporation's Shariah Supervisory Board.
Background
Born in Novato, California in 1978, Mufti Nana studied Business Administration at UC Berkeley — serving as treasurer of the Muslim Student Association along the way — and graduated with honors in 1998. He then spent seven years at an Islamic university in South Africa completing coursework across the Islamic sciences, including fiqh (jurisprudence) and Arabic grammar, followed by post-graduate specialization (ifta) that qualified him to issue formal religious rulings. That training is specifically oriented toward answering novel, real-world questions rather than general religious education alone, which is reflected in his focus on modern financial and commercial questions — an area with relatively few formally qualified muftis in the US relative to demand.
He now serves as Imam at the Islamic Center of Mill Valley, delivering the Friday sermon at more than ten Bay Area locations including local universities, and teaches Arabic and the Islamic sciences full-time at a school in San Francisco. He is also the founder of HFSAA, a halal-certifying agency, and has presented research on Takaful (Islamic insurance) at the Harvard Islamic Finance Seminar.
Role in US halal home financing
As noted in our fatwas and financing models guide, UIF Corporation retains a standing Shariah Supervisory Board rather than a single one-time fatwa, reviewing its Murabaha and Ijara-style products on an ongoing basis. Mufti Nana sits on that board, which UIF's own disclosures list as chaired by Sheikh Nizam Yaqubi, with Abdulbari Mashal, Ph.D. as executive member.
Next: Dr. Abdulbari Mashal