Imam Ahmad Derrick converted to Islam in 2003. He then graduated from high school in 2005 and went on to study at the University of Florida, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in Arabic language and literature. In 2010, he was awarded the opportunity to further his study of Arabic and the Islamic sciences in Cairo, Egypt along with a rigorous curriculum of Arabic grammar, morphology and rhetoric in addition to Islamic jurisprudence, Islamic creed and Quranic exegesis at al-Azhar. In 2012, he moved to Amman, Jordan, to complete his Islamic studies. His primary focus in private classes was Hanafi fiqh, Arabic grammar, morphology and Islamic creed. In 2017, he was awarded an Ijaaza in Qur’anic rendition of Hafs. In this same year, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the World Islamic Science Education University in Amman, Jordan.
While in Amman, he was able to study with local scholars, teachers from Syria and many shuyukh from Yemen. He maintains that his life was transformed in those sittings, and he is driven by a passion to bring the transformative effects from those lessons to Muslims of the Treasure Coast. The Imam does his best to be a hard working imam, caring husband, compassionate father. He puts great value in family values, love and togetherness.