Sohaib Saeed

Shaykh Dr. Sohaib Saeed Bhutta
Native name	صہیب سعید
Born	1984 (age 41–42) Glasgow, Scotland
💼 Occupation	Academic author
🌐 Website	sohaibsaeed.wordpress.com

Sohaib Saeed Bhutta (; born 1984), better known simply as Sohaib Saeed, is a British Islamic scholar, translator, imam and academic specialising in Quranic studies and exegesis. He is known for his research on Quranic hermeneutics, his translations of classical exegesis works, and his contributions to contemporary Quranic scholarship. Saeed is the founder and director of the Ibn 'Ashur Centre for Quranic Studies and has taught Islamic studies at institutions such as the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh.

Early life and education

Saeed was born in 1984 to a Punjabi family in Glasgow, Scotland. He belongs to the Bhutta clan of Jats from southern Punjab, Pakistan, whose forefathers had converted to Islam at the hands of the medieval Sufi saint Bahauddin Zakariya.

Saeed studied philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, where he completed both a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Science degree. After his studies in philosophy, Saeed moved to Egypt to pursue traditional Islamic scholarship. He studied at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, graduating in 2013 from the Faculty of Theology with a specialisation in exegesis and Quranic sciences. He was one of only a handful of Western graduates to deliver a series of lectures in the adjacent Al-Azhar Mosque. Saeed later completed a PhD in Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the SOAS University of London under the supervision of the Egyptian scholar Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem. His doctoral research focused on “reflexive Quranic hermeneutics,” particularly the method of interpreting the Quran through the Quran itself.

Career

Saeed leading the Friday prayer at the University of Glasgow, organised by the Glasgow University Muslim Students Association.

Saeed has held teaching and research roles at several universities and academic institutions in the United Kingdom and European Union. He has lectured in Islamic studies at the University of Glasgow, Freiburg University, Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World and the University of St Andrews, and previously taught Arabic language and Islamic studies at his alma mater, the University of Edinburgh. He also serves as an honorary Muslim chaplain (imam) in the latter university. In 2017, he founded the Ibn 'Ashur Centre for Quranic Studies. Saeed has also been involved in collaborative research projects in Quranic studies, including work reviewing Quranic translations and academic submissions in the field. He has contributed to several scholarly publications, including the Journal of Qur'anic Studies, Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an (Brill Publishers) and The Handbook of Qur’anic Hermeneutics (De Gruyter). Saeed's English translation of the opening section of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi’s monumental commentary al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr (The Great Exegesis) received the Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding in 2018.

Beyond academia, Saeed has contributed to public and digital education initiatives related to the Quran. He has worked with the Bayyinah Institute as a head of research and senior Tafsīr consultant, collaborating with Nouman Ali Khan on translation and commentary projects. Saeed frequently delivers lectures and courses at institutions and seminaries, including Al‑Salam Institute, iSyllabus, the Islamic Seminary of America, the Whitethread Institute, Roots Academy, Cambridge Muslim College and Karima Foundation. He has also joined in 2021 as a scholar providing oversight for major online Quranic platforms such as Quran.com and QuranReflect, exploring how classical exegetical methods can be applied in modern scholarship and digital platforms.

Saeed is the founder of a scouts group in Edinburgh as well as an arts project that has toured the UK. He has also coordinated the Islam Festival as part of the annual Edinburgh Festivals and been involved with Interfaith Glasgow. In 2013, he accompanied representatives of the Muslim Council of Scotland to a meeting with the Church of Scotland, and also attended the Scottish Religious Leaders Forum hosted by Interfaith Scotland to discuss the place of religion in Scotland. Saeed signed the Glasgow Multi-Faith Declaration for Cop26 in 2021. In 2024, he recited verses from the Quran at the Edinburgh Castle in celebration of Eid al-Fitr. He was invited to the Scottish Parliament in November 2025 to sign the Glasgow Interfaith Declaration committing to build a more just, inclusive, and compassionate Glasgow.

Works

• The Great Exegesis, Volume I: The Fātiḥa (translation from Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s al-Tafsir al-kabīr). Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 2018.
• Explaining the Qurʾān Through the Qurʾān (Edinburgh University Press)
• “The Shāhīn Affair and the Evolution of uṣūl al-tafsīr”. Journal of Quranic Studies 21.3 (2019).
• “The Digital Mufassir: Re-imagining the Tafsir of al-Alusi for a New Era”. Osmanlı’da İlm- i Tefsir, ed. M. Taha Boyalık & Harun Abacı.Istanbul: İSAR Publications, 2019.
• “Fights and Flights: Two Underrated ‘Alternatives’ to Dominant Readings in tafsīr”. Journal of Quranic Studies 24:1 (2022).
• “Tafsīr al-Qurʾān bi’l-Qurʾān”. The Handbook of Qur’anic Hermeneutics, ed. Georges Tamer (De Gruyter, 2024).
• “The Untranslated Qur’an: Retelling the Surah of Joseph”. Retranslating the Bible and the Qur’an, ed. Pieter Boulogne, Marijke de Lang and Joseph Verheyden (Leuven University Press, 2024).
• “Exegetical Qur’an Translation: Theoretical and Practical Considerations” (2024).

References

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