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Hamza Yusuf [Mark Hanson]

Hamza Yusuf started life as Mark Hanson in Walla Walla, Washington, USA. The son of two US academics of a Catholic and Greek Orthodox background, he seemed destined not for Islamic scholarship, but for Greek Orthodox priesthood until a near-death experience in a car accident, and reading the Quran, diverted his attentions towards Islam.

It was this sudden confrontation with his own mortality that Yusuf has described as being the defining moment that gave " someone who was introspective, perspective." And although, as he is quick to point out, conversion is a multi-dimensional situation where numerous factors interplay, the unexpected vista opened up a path of enquiry and reflection that ultimately led to his conversion to Islam in 1977, a few months before his 18th birthday. In particular his accident had sparked an intrigue into death and the afterlife, causing him to study various traditions' views on death. Islam, he found, offered the most detailed account of all.

Simultaneously, the arguments put forward in the Quran drew parallels with many of his own musings. From a young age, he was very much aware of being a product of his environment. His father, a Humanities Professor and his mother a Berkeley graduate, were fairly active in the civil rights movements enabling a strong awareness of social struggle and the inequities prevalent in society. The Quran prompted reflection on his perception of life, reality, and religion. Just as his parents