Shaykh Arif Abdul Hussain founded the Al-Mahdi Institute in 1993 and currently serves as its director and as a Senior Lecturer in Legal Theory and Philosophy. 

Shaykh Arif began his seminary education at the Madrassa al-Sayyid al-Khūʾī in London from which he graduated in 1988. He continued his seminary studies in Qom between 1989 and 1993 during which time he also had the opportunity to study privately under some of the leading scholars of Qom. Upon returning to the UK, after founding AMI, he continued his advanced studies (dars al-khārij) under Ayatollah Hussain Amini. He was awarded an ijāza of ijtihād from both Ayatollah Hussain Amini and Ayatollah Professor Sayyid Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad.  

He is the author of the Islam and God-Centricity series which presents the essential message of Islam through a fresh re-evaluation of religion and human purpose. In addition to these works, he has authored and translated numerous other books and articles. He is currently working on a translation of the second volume of al-Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr famous work of legal theory Durūs fī ʿilm al-uṣūl, having translated the first volume in 2003. 

He is the author and translator of several other works and a prolific public speaker to Muslim communities around the world. He has previously taught at Madrassa al-Sayyid al-Khūʾī, the seminary of Qom, and the Islamic College, London. 

Publications 

Books 

• Islam aur Markaziyyat-ilahi (Urdu translation of Islam and God-Centricity: Reassessing Fundamental Theological Assumptions), trans. by Mohammad Khalid. Birmingham: AMI Press, 2022.
• Islam aur khuda-markaziyyat (Urdu translation of Islam and God-Centricity: A Theological Basis for Human Liberation), trans. by Mohammad Khalid. Birmingham: AMI Press, 2022.
• Islam and God-Centricity: Plurality and Mutability of Religion. Birmingham: Sajjadiyya Press, 2022.
• Islam and God-Centricity: Examining the Articles of Faith. Birmingham: Sajjadiyya Press, 2020.
• Islam and God-Centricity: Reassessing Fundamental Theological Assumptions. Birmingham: Sajjadiyya Press, 2019.
• Islam and God-Centricity: A Theological Basis for Human Liberation. Birmingham: Sajjadiyya Press, 2017. 

Articles and Chapters 

• “Islamic Normativity Regarding Brain Death: Implications for Organ Donation.” In Organ Donation in Islam: The Interplay of Jurisprudence, Ethics, and Society, ed. Mahdiyah Jaffer, Aasim I. Padela, and Gurch Randhawa, 99-128. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2023. 
• With Riaz Walji, “An Examination of the Authenticity and Sharia Status of the Third Segment of Ziyāra ʿĀshūraʾ al-Mashhūra.”
• With Hashim Bata, “Approaches to Supplication (duʿāʾ).”
• With Hashim Bata, “Approaches to Female Covering in Sharia.”
• “Autonomy and ‘Lack of Harm’ A Comparison between the Judicial Precepts of Autonomy and ‘Lack of Harm’.”
• “The Conflict between the Actual and Apparent Regulations.”
• “The Existential Perspective on the Meaning and Implication of Impure Substances within Shīʿī Jurisprudential Discourse.” In The Regulations of Purity and Impurity in Islam: Proceedings of the 8th AMI Contemporary Fiqhī Issues Workshop 2-3 July, 2020, edited by Hashim Bata, 79-110. Birmingham: AMI Press, 2022.
• “A Functional Interpretation of Zakāt and the Inclusion of Contemporary Taxation as Its Legitimate Form.” In The Efficacy of Financial Structures for Islamic Taxes and Dues: Proceedings of the 7th AMI Contemporary Fiqhī Issues Workshop, 4-5th July, 2019, edited by Wahid M. Amin, 8-32. Birmingham: AMI Press, 2020.
• “Ensoulment and the Prohibition of Abortion in Islam.” AMI Working Papers Series No. 4 Birmingham: AMI Press, 2016.
• “Rethinking the Regulation of Fasting,” AMI Working Papers Series No. 1. Birmingham: AMI Press, 2016.

Translations 

• Muḥammad Bāqir al-Ṣadr. Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence: According to Shi’i Law, translated by Arif Abdul Hussain. London: ICAS Press, 2003.
• Muḥammad Ishtihārdī. Lamentations: The Tragedy of the Lord of the Martyrs, translated by Arif Abdul Hussain, ed. by I. K. A. Howard and S. Valji. Birmingham: Al-Mahdi Institute, 2001.