Broken Promises and Poor Management at Seekers Guidance
Unaccountability can be a flat circle.
Why A Review of Seekers Guidance?
Seekers Guidance is a “Global Islamic Seminary.” It offers about 400 prerecorded online courses in Islamic Studies and Arabic, all for free. According to claims made in the organization’s 2022 annual report (the last one available as of this writing)- the organization had 380,000 students registered for at least one of its courses and 13 million website visitors (the time period is unclear). The organization is founded and run by Sh. Faraz Rabbani, who teaches a little under half of the classes available on the platform.
The organization, based on its public IRS filings, consistently raises millions of dollars, posts huge losses and has been accumulating debt (and is technically insolvent as it has far more in debt than assets) despite claiming to have no employees or significant contractors. It’s advertised claims of what it spends, particularly on the “Zakat-eligible” “Islamic Scholars Fund” don’t match government filings.
Something seems off. Let’s take a look.
The Islamic Scholars Fund
For the past decade, founder, executive director and board chairman Sh. Faraz Rabbani has been raising zakat funds for the cause of funding Islamic Scholars and students of knowledge. Since at least 2019, the management of the Islamic Scholars Fund, raising millions through that time, has been subject to controversy. Some of this has to do with whistleblowing by his own board of directors in (Seekers Hub) Canada, which was independent of Faraz Rabbani’s management. Currently, the organization, which is a Washington State nonprofit corporation, appears to be under the consolidated management of Sh. Faraz Rabbani, who lives in Canada.
This article about Seekers Guidance comes in the context of controversies demonstrating a troubling pattern I will get to below. The principle subject of this report is the “Islamic Scholars Fund.”
A note for readers who may be interested in Sh. Faraz Rabbani’s perspective: I have been in touch with Sh. Faraz Rabbani to request information and seek clarification regarding Seekers Guidance since at least 2021. While he has always promised to provide information and answer questions, he has never actually done so. I separately reached out to the consultant that prepares Seekers Guidance 990 forms. He requested written questions (which I provided) but needs Sh. Faraz Rabbani’s permission before answering them. As of this writing, I have not seen any answers to my questions. If I receive more information from Sh. Faraz Rabbani or his agents, particularly mitigating facts I will be sure to update this page.
Islamic Scholars Fund has discrepancies
The stated purpose of the “Islamic Scholars Fund” (according to the most recent midyear 2023 report) is “to provide financial support to brilliant students of knowledge, both male and female-located worldwide-who would otherwise been forced to abandon their studies due to financial constraints.” The 2023 midyear report claimed that in only half a year, Seekers Guidance raised 1.8 million dollars. However, there was no subsequent reporting for 2023 or 2024 available. So we will assess the most recent complete reporting for which Seekers Guidance has provided both annual reports as well as federal 990s.
The “Seekers Guidance” non-profit of the same name registered in Canada does not appear to have any role in the Islamic Scholars Fund I am writing about (a separate Canadian Islamic Scholars Fund appears to be a different thing, small and sparsely documented) and so that is left out of the analysis.
The graph above is a screenshot from the annual report covering the Islamic Scholars Fund for the year 2022, Seekers Guidance claims to have disbursed $2.1 million for the fund. I am starting my analysis from the year 2020; that is the year where there was a scandal associated with oversight of the Islamic Scholars Fund, followed by promises of further accountability and oversight.
In the 990 forms for all years being discussed (2020-2022, and 2023 below), there are two areas of disbursements that deal with the Islamic Scholarship Fund: “ISF Students” and “Onetime ISF Payments.” There is a third category that may not be related to ISF, but I accounted for it separately in case it is, called “Teachers and Scholars.” You can find that in the category of “Total All Categories” and “Total Difference” below.
What this shows is that there were discrepancies between what Seekers Guidance claims to have disbursed in zakat in its marketing materials and in its 990 forms (though it’s minor in 2021 if you were to assume that the “teachers and scholars” category was also an ISF project). The problem becomes quite large in 2022, with a gap exceeding $1 million dollars regardless of how you count it. I was not able to include 2023 on the above table because Seekers Guidance did not provide an annual report for the period. However, Seekers Guidance does have a 990 for 2023 and it continues to show lower disbursements. Because the “teachers and scholars” spending category almost completely ends by 2023, there is really no difference between the total with “teachers and scholars” and the amounts claimed to be spent for ISF without that category.
This graph shows the trend line related to disbursements claimed on the 990 for the Islamic Scholars Fund, including 2023 which is the last year for which we have any reporting. Remember, in the midyear 2023 report, Seekers Guidance claimed to have raised $1.8 Million dollars, which is far more than the $654,000 disbursed in the entire year per the 990. Seekers Guidance never issued a 2023 annual report for the Islamic Scholars Fund. None of these annual reports tell us how much Seekers Guidance collected for the Islamic Scholars Fund. Seekers Guidance does not tell us how much zakat they collected, which is an odd thing to exclude when going through the trouble of reporting how much zakat is disbursed.
Other Red Flags
The most recent available form 990 (and others, but we should focus somewhere) is chock-full of red flags that should make potential donors and supporters take notice:
Seekers Guidance has no independent board members per their federal filing.
The organization appears to be the alter ego of Sh. Faraz Rabbani. This is poor practice that should invite regulatory and donor scrutiny under normal circumstances, however, this becomes a more serious issue given the historical record, which I will get to below.
The organization is insolvent and has been increasing its unsecured debt.
The balance sheet is a mess and the organization (based on its most recent available filing) is technically insolvent despite taking in $3.2 million from donors. This is because it spends far more than it takes in and has more debt than resources. Seekers Guidance appears to have been loading up on unsecured debt with unknown third parties and unknown terms. The organization has negative net assets and has been operating at a loss. This is a remarkable case study in abysmal management.
Information on salaries and providers is not credible
Sh. Faraz Rabbani reports no salary according to the most recent 990 reporting. He was unable to confirm with me if this is actually true. Not only is Sh. Faraz Rabbani not a paid employee, but in 2023, Seekers Guidance had zero employees, the entire year:
Yet, somehow in the same year, the organization also had a payroll of $881,420.
If there are alternative arrangements for payroll, like use of contractors, this should have been explained in the 990 form. It was not.
Noted As The Worst By Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator gives Seeker’s Guidance a rating of 1 out of five stars. It is not possible to rate worse than this.
Charity Navigator Key findings:
A lack of independent directors
No financial statements and the 990 was not posted on the website.
A liability to asset ratio of 542.49%.
A working capital ratio of only 0.12 years.
As you might imagine, any independent Board of Directors that actually cared about the organization’s mission and wanted to keep faith with donors would regard it as an extreme breach of fiduciary duty to allow such an executive director to hold any position of trust at all. As it happens, Sh. Faraz Rabbani has a history with an independent board. It did not go well.
A History of Alleged Poor Management
This comes in the context of a history of prior alleged mismanagement and poor conduct by the founder of Seekers Guidance, Sh. Faraz Rabbani. Adil Khan first wrote about this in 2022. There are essentially two steps to this, starting in 2019 when an Independent Board of “Seekers Hub,” which was the primarily operating nonprofit Sh. Faraz Rabbani worked out of and through which he collected donations for the Islamic Scholars Fund (he has had several organizations over the years). The second was a credible allegation of fraud in claiming oversight that did not exist (I will get to that).
In a Facebook post in July of 2019, Seekers Hub advised they would no longer accept zakat for the Islamic Scholars Fund taking into account regulatory and fiqh requirements:
History of Abusing Zakat
Along with a posting, the board issued a report where they functioned as a whistleblower for bad practices by Sh. Faraz Rabbani. It included things like “funds being borrowed from the zakat account” for “non-zakat eligible purposes when there was a shortfall in the operating fund.” Zakat was also being used for “exchanging services for payment”- basically paying employees to work for him. This would surprise many zakat donors.
Sh. Faraz Rabbani justified this (according to the report) by stating it is okay to do this because the organization is a nonprofit. Scholars who were paid with zakat funds were not told of the source of funds. The report identified cases of scholars finding out about the zakat-sourced funds, and returning the money.
Beyond Zakat
Seeker’s Hub Toronto issued a 26-page report, with an extensive investigation into Sh. Faraz Rabbani’’s management, interviewing 20 people, including current and former staff members, with concerning behavior going back to 2011. The conclusions from his own board were quite damaging including (but not limited to):
Micromanagement and high staff turnover
Reports of Sh. Faraz Rabbani’s behavioral problems, with reports of verbal abuse, explosive anger, manipulation and inappropriate treatment of staff, students, and volunteers. This created long-term trauma for those involved. I have spoken to others who have confirmed this has been an issue throughout his career.
Governance problems, including a lack of clear policies and a resistance to oversight.
Sh. Faraz Rabbani allegedly wasted money.
For his part, Sh. Faraz Rabbani did not respond to the specific allegations, but did issue a statement about his departure and lamenting that his request for mediation was rejected (this is disputed).
Fake Process and Deceiving Donors
In 2020, Sh. Hamza Karamali essentially accused Sh. Faraz Rabbani of fraudulently appropriating his name by stating that he had no role in oversight and approving of funding requests. This was a claim made on Seeker’s Guidance’s website.
Sh. Hamza Karamali wrote:
I am surprised to see my name listed as a member of this committee because I have not worked for SeekersGuidance since early this year. Even while I worked for them, I had no role whatsoever in any financial oversight. I have never been privy to any of their financial records, and I was never asked to "approve" any disbursement of zakat or charity. And not only was I never a member of the “Islamic Scholars Fund Committee”, I wasn’t even aware that such a committee existed! I have sent a letter to the board of SeekersGuidance asking my name to be removed immediately.
Seekers Guidance (not using the name Sh. Faraz Rabbani, who apparently dodged personal responsibility) did apologize to Sh. Hamza Karamali, but not to donors for the fraudulent misrepresentation and the obvious target of the deception.
Fake oversight was not new ground for Sh. Faraz Rabbani. He had done this previously; I had spoken to a board member of Seekers Guidance who did not know he was on the board of the organization years earlier (this was not public like the Karamali disclosure).
While misrepresenting who is doing oversight in service of hoodwinking donors is not unheard of, it is not normal and should not be taken lightly in the Muslim community. Outside of the Muslim community, this kind of behavior is an indicator of more elemental fraud. For example, Greg Mortenson of “Three Cups of Tea” fame, claimed his charity had proper oversight when it did not. Indeed, much of his story was fabricated. Similar things happened at charities like “Feed the Children,” and “Cancer Fund of America.” These tend to result in a charity’s collapse and in some cases, criminal charges.
This Karamali disclosure served to corroborate the Seeker’s Hub reporting about Sh. Faraz Rabbani ’s management style. Sh. Faraz Rabbani’s record is not a new revelation and has been known for years. Adil Khan, as I mentioned above, wrote about this extensively. For the most part, pointing out abusive practices among religious leaders with overwhelming unrebutted evidence can be a bit like howling at the wind. Scholars continued to give Sh. Faraz Rabbani public votes of confidence, which continue to be flouted on the Seekers Guidance website despite what appears to be dismal management.
Promises of 2020
Sh. Faraz Rabbani dealt with the Seekers Hub report and Karamali fake oversight scandal by extolling growth of the fund and “clarifying” that it has a 100% distribution policy, without telling anyone what that meant or how this was accomplished. But Sh. Faraz Rabbani made three important promises. Below is a summary, and what became of them:
There would be an Islamic Scholars Fund Committee. At the time it included Sh. Faraz Rabbani, Dr. Asif Padela, and a Canadian CPA, Faizan Rehman. Faizan Rehman would be removed from the reporting the very next year (2021). Dr. Asif Padela’s name, as well as Sh. Faraz Rabbani’s own name would eventually be removed as well.
Seekers Guidance would provide draft and finalized mid-year financial reports and annual audited reports. They provided a “draft” once. There never were any annual audited reports. However, there were general numbers provided in annual reports up to mid-2023.
Establish a “Sharia Supervisory Board.” As best as I can tell, this never happened.
In The period after 2021, Sh. Faraz Rabbani included a veneer of “accountability” by claiming there were multiple people involved in the disbursement and oversight process, even as the names may have changed around. It is not clear if there was ever any deliberation.
Now he does not bother with the names at all. All the names he presented in prior reports were removed. We don’t know who or how many people are allegedly “deliberating.”
Who is responsible?
Adil Khan, who blew the whistle on this issue almost three years ago (and continued to write about it since), largely laments “traditionalist sufi culture” where lots of egregious conduct is easily overlooked by an overly deferential, perhaps shockingly credulous acolytes willing to chuck their hard earned dollars (that is my characterization, not really his). His view is necessarily informed by his unique experience and I cannot quibble with it. However the tendency to be duped by nonprofits is not merely an affliction affecting Sufis. There is also nothing inherently wrong with wanting to trust shuyukh and Muslim leaders. Trust is essential to how society works. Muslim leaders should be sure to not take people’s trust for granted. There is a line between trusting people, and being a gullible mark.
The most culpability does not reside with Muslims writ large, but a narrow group of Islamic teachers and students of knowledge who provide social proof to ethically challenged shuyukh, giving donors false confidence in a leader with an astonishingly poor management track record.
Sh. Faraz Rabbani relies more than anything on a community of shuyukh that can show the rest of the community he is part of a tradition of excellence even when they know or should know he has a record of making things up, for money. Those shuyukh need to understand that their names are being used to give Sh. Faraz Rabbani credibility he may not deserve.
To most donors, credibility does not come from board investigations showing misconduct, spreadsheets showing discrepancies or articles like this. It comes from other shuyukh telling them that a nonprofit is good. This is a heavy responsibility.
Potential Risks for Shuyukh
For Shuyukh willing to hitch their wagons to Seekers Guidance and Sh. Faraz Rabbani, it is vital to consider the ethical and legal compromises and potential peril involved with going that route.
With Sh. Faraz Rabbani, you have an established record of less than truthful claims. Anyone who deals with him should act accordingly.
One minimum demand that Sh. Faraz Rabbani should agree to is the same one his former organization, Seekers Hub had advocated. Sh. Faraz Rabbani should get out of the non-profit management business and leave that to people independent of his influence better suited for the role. Donors would be foolish to trust him with their donations.
This is so disheartening to hear. I've spent nearly 2 years studying online with them and have contributed financially. I'm quite shocked to be honest and don't know what to do at this point. It's such a shame as the religious content is great and so accessible but at the same time the moment you hear of such corruption it's human nature to want to immediately dissociate with such people and organisations.
I wanted seekers guidance to succeed. From around 2015-2020 I would respond to most of their appeals and donated much sadaqa and zakaat, enrolled in online classes, and even volunteered as a TA in a shafii course. They were times when: 1) they would have appeals for electronic equipment like cameras, mics and stuff and that appeal would linger on after I contributed and I would say I'm just gonna fund it all and after I would do that they would continue appealing to that cause. 2) the same thing would happen with raising money for different shaykhs on different occassions ( at first I was gullible thinking it might have been people forgetting to take it down and some sort of automatic reach occurred requesting funds of an initiative that has been met. however, onetime i asked why are you asking for a cause already met and i got a response saying it is for him and others similar 3) They would repurpose videos, usually converted sisters, who was used to raise funds for initiatives already met sometimes even year(s) later. 4) they reached out to me privately to raise funds using individuals saying not to say anything (I'm convinced it was shenanigans). 5) they would use people who know how to raise money and take advantage of Muslims who want to do khair. You should talk to people who use to work or volunteer and get them to sing like canaries such as I might butcher the spelling: saddia queshi, Yasmin Tahir and her husband, Anton kuratnik and his wife, Erin Rutherford, Zafar, Ahmad Munawarra, fareen alam, and others. some might cooperate and some might not. They started off transparent and would raise money in a visible way (like those donate bombs if you remeber) but once they tried the marketing of a needy shaykh and showed sad pictures the response was apparent this brings results and took advantage of their donors. I benefited religiously from faraz online classes and I made relations with teachers on the platform that allowed me to participate in classes outside the platform but once this practice become apparent and the bad counseling answers on their website I shredded every last note I ever took and even ended all participation of those classes outside of seekers platform because I didn't know who was who anymore. I hope this information helps your research even further.