Shaykh Bilal Ali Ansari was born in and grew up in the Chicago area. He graduated from Hinsdale Central High School and received his undergraduate education in Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois in Urbana, IL, and in the Applied Behavioral Sciences at National-Louis University in Lisle, IL. He graduated from there with a Bachelor of Arts in the field of Applied Behavioral Sciences, with a focus on adult learning theory (andragogy).
Shaykh Bilal acquired an education in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Jāmiʿat al-Ḥasanayn in Faisalabad, Pakistan, where he studied classical and modern texts in Arabic, Islamic Theology, Islamic Law, Qur’anic Studies, and Hadith. He completed his Dars Niẓāmī studies at the Jāmiʿat Dār al-ʿUlūm in Karachi, where he received certification (ijāzah) in Hadith from Mufti Muḥammad Taqī al-ʿUthmānī and Mufti Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-ʿUthmāni among other senior scholars. Mawlana Bilal performed specialization-level research in Hadith studies supervised by the critical scholar ‘Allamah Dr. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm al-Nuʿmānī (al-Chishtī).
Shaykh Bilal has a deep interest in Islamic education and has researched, written, and presented at conferences on topics such as the concept of divine unity in Islamic knowledge, the theory and foundations of knowledge in Islam, and the interplay between science and religion in Islamic education.
He is a Supervisory Board member at Masjid Uthman, with an interest in curriculum development. He is Chair of the Department of Hadith and instructor at Darul Qasim College.
The Sirat School aims to provide a classical education that blends Islamic sciences and Arabic with the rigorous study of mathematics, language arts, science, and social studies - all in an environment that builds spirituality and character.