Shaykh Jamaal Diwan was born and raised in Southern California to parents from Newfoundland, Canada and Pakistan. He grew up playing basketball and listening to Hip Hop before accepting Islam in 2003 while at University of California San Diego. After completing his degree in Third World Studies from UCSD, he moved to Egypt with his wife to study Arabic and Islamic Studies. He completed his undergraduate degree in Sharia from Al-Azhar University and two years of graduate work in Islamic Studies from the American University in Cairo. He has also obtained ijazat (traditional licenses to transmit and teach) in various branches of Islamic Studies such as aqidah, fiqh, tazkiyah, and hadith.

Upon returning from Egypt in 2011 he served as a religious teacher and instructor in Southern California and later served as the Resident Scholar at the Islamic Center of Irvine from 2012-2014. In 2014 both the OC Register and OC Weekly included him in their lists of most influential people in Orange County.

In 2015 he helped start the IOK Chaplaincy program which began at UCLA and USC and eventually grew to cover seven college campuses in Southern California. He directly served student bodies at UCLA, USC and UCI. From 2019 to 2021 he served as teacher of Islamic Studies at New Horizon Irvine, while also working on The Majlis which he co-founded with his wife in 2017.

Source: The Majlis