Professor Auda is the Chairman of the Maqasid Institute, a global think tank based in London, UK, with educational and research projects in a dozen other countries. He is a Professor and Al-Shatibi Chair of Maqasid Studies at the International Peace College South Africa, and a Visiting Professor for the Study of Islam at Carleton University in Canada. He is a Founding and Board Member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, Member of the Executive Board of the Fiqh Council of North America, Member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, and Fellow of the Islamic Fiqh Academy of India. He has a PhD in the philosophy of Islamic law from University of Wales in the UK, and a PhD in systems analysis from University of Waterloo in Canada. Early in his life, he memorized the Quran and studied Fiqh, Usul and Hadith in the halaqas of Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo.
