Shaykh Naeem Abdul Wali is an American convert to Islam who has studied the Islamic sciences in Madina and Istanbul for over ten years full-time at the feet of some of the finest scholars including Shaykh Mahmud Effendi and Shaykh Ihsan Khoja. He has focussed his efforts exclusively in the traditional methodology studying the classical texts in aqeedah, (Hanafi) fiqh, and other subjects to an advanced level. Born in Tennessee, USA 1964 but subsequently grew up in Indiana, Gary Edwards graduated from high school in 1982 and attended Purdue University. During his first year of university he embraced Islam and he later graduated from university in 1987 with a Bachelor of Entomology. In 1991 he left the USA to attend the Arabic language program at the University of Medina, Saudi Arabia. During his stay in Medina he met a teacher, Mahmud Ustadh of Istanbul and moved there to continue his Islamic studies. Sheikh Naeem spent 8 years in Turkey studying various traditional Islamic disciplines in Arabic language, fiqh, usul-fiqh, aqeeda and Islamic spirituality. During his studies, he obtained numerous ijaazas, certifications to teach, in various Islamic disciplines. He is a scholar of Hanafi fiqh and has taught at the Deen Intensives, Rihlas, alongside Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir.  Currently Shaykh Naeem is the Imam of Al-Kawthar Institute in Tucson, Arizona.