DAWUD WHARNSBY
Born and raised in Canada, Dawud began writing poetry, composing music and performing on stage while in his mid-teens.

Two decades later, his recording career yields a string of over fifteen albums, including the internationally popular CD's "A Whisper of Peace", "The Poets and the Prophet" and "Out Seeing the Fields".

Dawud’s writings of English language nasheed (spiritual hymns drawn from Qur’anic ideology) were among the first of their kind written and distributed professionally around the world. His anthology, "For Whom The Troubadour Sings" includes the lyrics to all of his songs written between 1998 and 2008.

As a voice for the socially-conscious and spiritually-minded, Dawud’s work has inspired a generation of educators, artists, poets and musicians. Often traveling worldwide to share his poetry and songs with audiences of all ages, Dawud also frequently accepts invitations to lecture at schools, conferences and universities.

Though he continues to write, record and perform live, in recent years Dawud has become a strong advocate of Simple Living and more actively involved with educational initiatives promoting artistic expression as a means to achieve positive social change.  Since June of 2010, he has also served as an official ambassador to Scouts UK.

Dawud and his family reside seasonally between their homes in Pakistan, Canada and the United States.  

 

AMAN ALI
Aman Ali is a standup comedian that is not afraid to speak his mind. His jokes cross age, cultural and religious barriers with the intention of bringing people together with his humor. Gently wrapped behind every one of his slapstick jokes are deeper messages of understanding that leave his audience thinking.
Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, he draws much of his material from living in a household with four other brothers . . . and only two controllers on the family Nintendo.
Only 23 years old, Ali is a regular standup comic in comedy clubs all over the New York City area and performs in comedy clubs and college campuses all across the country. He’s opened for Dave Chappelle and a handful of other acclaimed comics working in the industry today.
His comedic edge comes from his strong background in journalism. Ali started off his career as a Capitol Hill reporter in Washington D.C. and has traveled across the country covering presidential races, New Orleans to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Hawaii of all places to cover hula festivals. He continues to write for a handful of newspapers and magazines in the greater New York City area and is an on-air personality for WRNN-TV in New York.
He's been featured in national media like the New York Times, PBS and MTV for his view points and humor. In 2005, his column, “My so-called moderate life,” about Muslims condemning terrorist attacks they aren’t responsible for, won a national award from the Hearst Journalism Foundation in editorial writing.

 

 

AL-HIDAYA NASHEED GROUP
Ammar Charaf, Ali Charaf, Tarek Charaf - Born and raised in America from a Syrian, Bosnian, and American background part of a multicultural family. Performed at different Islamic conferences (ICNA, ISNA), Universities (Drew, NJIT, Rutgers Newark, Rutgers New Brunswick, Farleigh Dickinson University Teaneck…..), Mosques (ICPC, ISCJ, Al-Huda, Dar-ul-Islah, Minhaj Al Quran, ICCH, ….) for different religious celebrations and occasions including weddings and aqeeqas. We utilize traditional Islamic songs in both English and Arabic. We target all audiences from all backgrounds and recently we began including parts in other languages in our songs. From our love of renowned munshids like Sami Yusuf, Mesut Kurtis, Maher Zain, Native Deen, Dawud Wharnsby, and more, we have performed some of their songs at events and we teach nasheed at our local weekend Islamic schools.

 

 

 

 

Khalid Mehmoud

Khalid Mehmood is Pakistani Muslim who was born in Karachi in 1970.  He completed his schooling from PAF School Malir Cantt Karachi then came to USA in 1990.   Khalid holds a Masters degree in Information System and MBA in Finance from Rutgers University, NJ.    He received his undergraduate degree in Marketing from Kean University of New Jersey.

His father, Mohammad Fazil is residing in Karachi and spends most of his time in preaching Islam.  Khalid has been focusing on Islam and concentrated on reciting Nasheeds since his early childhood while he was in Pakistan.  He has won numerous awards for reciting Nashees during his school years.

Professionally, he is working for UnitedHealth Group as a certified Process Improvement Six Sigma Black Belt who has been partnering with leadership to drive quality and inspire process excellence throughout the organization.  Khalid has over fifteen years of successful senior-level project management, business planning, risk management, strategic management, operations, finance and marketing experience in information technology, telecommunication, healthcare and insurance business.