In 2004 Joe Bradford graduated with LLB in comparative Islamic Law and Legal Theory from the Islamic University of Medina, KSA. His main academic interests at this time were financial law, legal maxims, the legal thought of the Hanbali school. Then in 2005 he became the first American to be accepted to the masters of law program in the same university. Bradford’s research during this period focused on euthanasia, arbitration in minority Muslim environments, business structures in medieval Islamic law, and the use of weak hadith in the Hanbali legal school.

During this time Bradford took the opportunity to spend extensive time studying classical texts in legal theory, seerah, law, and theology. Bradford also began work in document review for several private and governmental entities, reviewing drafting and legal compliance issues. Shortly thereafter he started work as a senior consultant in Islamic banking, specializing in deal structuring, drafting review, and shariah compliance. A majority of his work focused on researching syndicated finance deals, corporate finance and investment products.

In 2009 Joe Bradford received his Master of Law on adjudication in the Shafi school of Islamic law through the work of Mamluk era polymath Badr al-Din al-Zarkashi.

After this he continued his corporate work, gaining experience in treasury products, mergers and acquisitions, syndicated loans, corporate finance, in addition to other areas. After returning to the US many questions about personal finance were posed to him. Joe Bradford began working with lawyers and financial planners to explore solutions to these issues in financial planning and estate planning. To formalize his study of the topic of personal finance Joe Bradford attended Rice University’s Financial Planning program. Some of his projects leveraging this experience include the Islamic Estate Planning tool MyWassiyah.com, the Muslim Money Guide (forthcoming), and several investment funds that he now advise on.

Based on seminars he has delivered and answers to the numerous questions he received over the years on Zakat, Joe Bradford wrote Simple Zakat Guide. Currently Joe Bradford is researching mortgages and planning a seminar at the end of October on this topic. You can see the rest of his books and courses here.
Currently Joe Bradford an adjunct at several institutions, teaching the Arabic language, Islamic law, and Quranic exegesis. In addition to teaching, he has been writing and furthering his research on financial transactions, pre-modern Islamic reform movements, and the Hanbali school. External Event Url
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