Shaykh Zahir Arshad Bacchus
Shaykh Zahir was born in Guyana on the eastern shores of South America. The
Muslim community in Guyana, much like their cousins in Trinidad and Tobago, are
decendants of indentured laborers from India who started arriving in the
Caribbean from 1837.
He immigrated to Canada with his family when he was five years old and attended
Islamic classes in Toronto from a very early age. After high school he
completed a degree in Zoology with a minor in history at the University of
Toronto. During his years on campus he was actively involved with the Muslim
Student Association assisting in organizing many important events such as
hosting the Mayor of Sarajevo during the tumultous years of genocide against
Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovinia.
The one-week Deen Intensive Program in Connecticut in 1995 exposed Zahir to the
sweetness of taking sacred knowledge from qualified teachers. At the Deen
Intensive he had the fortunate opportunity to sit with Shaykh Hamza Yusuf,
Shaykh ‘Abdullah al-Kadi, and Dr. Abdal-Hakim Murad, teachers who earned their
stars at the feet of some of the best contemporary scholars in the Muslim
community.
Shaykh Zahir returned to Toronto consumed with the desire to go on a rihla in
search of sacred knowledge. In 1996 he said goodbye to his family and friends
in Toronto and left for Amman, Jordan to study Arabic.
The following year he enrolled in the Arabic program at the University of
Damascus and it is in Damascus that he would spend the next six years of
uninterrupted study.
In the years he spent in Damascus, Shaykh Zahir had the blessing of meeting and
sitting in the company of some of the premier scholars of Damascus, learning
Hanafi fiqh, ‘aqida (science of beliefs), mantiq (logic), and usul (critical
intellectualism), hadiths, and tafsir.
In October 2003 he said goodbye to Damascus and returned to Toronto. Shortly
after returning he was conducting several classes for Muslims in the greater
Toronto area, fulfilling the purpose for the years of dedicated study.