Bilal Philips

بلال فيليبس

Canadian Islamic scholar and preacher born Dennis Bradley Philips in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1947; raised Christian, he converted to Islam in 1972, took a bachelor's degree at the Islamic University of Madinah (1979), a master's at King Saud University (1985) and a PhD at the University of Wales, and is the founder and chancellor of the International Open University (Islamic Online University); he lives in Qatar and has written, translated and commented on over fifty books.

Depth

At a glance

Roles
Scholar · teacher · writer
Region
Americas & Oceania · Arabia
Identifiers
Wikidata
Review
Completeness 3/5 · Help complete it

Life in time

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Place in the story

    Sunni (documented)

    Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.

    Summary

    Bilal Philips (born Dennis Bradley Philips, 17 July 1947, Kingston, Jamaica) is a Canadian Islamic scholar and preacher who converted to Islam in 1972, having been raised in a Christian household. 1 He took a bachelor's degree at the Islamic University of Madinah (1979), a master's in Islamic theology at King Saud University (1985) and a PhD at the University of Wales on exorcism in Islam, and lives in Qatar. 2 Wikidata records his birth at year precision only (1947). 3

    The International Open University

    He is the founder and chancellor of the International Open University (Islamic Online University), the free online university through which much of his teaching reaches its audience; he has written, translated and commented on over fifty books. 1 The two sources consulted disagree on the university's founding year (2007 in the academic study, 2001 in the Eaalim profile), so no year is stated here. 2 4

    Positions and faith

    Read this section as the report of the sources, not as a museum ruling.

    Two independent sources name his tradition for him personally: the English Wikipedia infobox gives his denomination as Sunni and his movement as Salafi, and the Eaalim Institute's profile independently calls him a Sunni scholar and states that he works within the Salafi-leaning Sunni tradition. 1 4 A peer-reviewed study analyses him as a proponent of neo-traditional Salafism within the Sunni Islamic tradition. 2 No source names a legal school (madhhab) for him, and the museum's faith list has no Salafi value, so his faith is recorded as Sunni, with the Salafi movement stated in his data record rather than encoded.

    References

    • The sources named by identifier above, recorded under data/source/.
    • Later translations and amendments of this article to be reviewed periodically with explicit dates.

    Sources

    1. Bilal Philips — English Wikipedia
    2. Bilal Philips as a Proponent of Neo-Traditional Salafism — Duderija and Rasool 2019
    3. Bilal Philips — Wikidata Q860317
    4. Bilal Philips — Eaalim Institute profile
    Cite this page

    islam.museum contributors. “Bilal Philips”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/bilal-philips/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-26.

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