Abul Layth ibn ‘Ataa’ (The Administrator of SeekingIlm and Co-Admin With Abu Usaamah for MuslimChronicles.com)
Place of Birth: Louisiana USA
Parents and Family: Abul Layth’s mother is a Protestant Christian American from southern Indiana. His father is originally from Hamaamah, Palestine and raised with refugee status in the Eastern Province of Saudia Arabia. His parents met at Vincennes University, married, and had three boys. They divorced and his mother won custody of the children. Abul Layth was thus raised Christian. His two younger brothers are both Christian. One is stationed in South Korea with the US Army. The other is married with two children living in southern Indiana. (May Allah 
guide his family to Islam) Abul Layth eventually married a Mexican convert (Umm Layth, her site is www.themuslimah.com) and has two VERY (masha’Allah ) energized children. The oldest is Layth, 4 years old, and the youngest is Zakariya, born in May of 2007.
Current Residence: Indiana, USA
How He Came to Islam: At one point in his life he wanted to be a youth minister. Later he came upon some Muslims who gave him da’wah to Islam. After first rejecting Islam, he later realized everything he believed was “ridiculous” and made no sense at all. He recalls that in his freshman year in High School, after reading Raheeq Al-Makhtoum (the sealed nectar) and listening to a lecture by Khalid Yasin, he decided he would accept Islam.
Upon accepting Islam, his family became violent and abusive. After several months of being forced to go to church, mentally and physically harassed, he called his Muslim father who he rarely, if ever, saw or spoke too. Eventually they agreed that he would move in with his father. Abul Layth finished his High School years in an Islamic Private School where he studied Islamic Studies and fell in love with Fiqh and Tafsir. May Allah bless all of his teachers for their patience with their newly converted Muslim student.
He later became a pseudo-salafi wahhabi after having been given da’wah by infiltrators of Jama’at At-Tableegh. It has only been within the past year that Allah guided him to traditionalism and the love of following the scholars of this Ummah, abandoning the deviances of the najdi-wahhabi pseudo-salafi clique.
What he loves most about Islam: Obviously Tawheed (Islamic Monotheism). He also loves the science of hadeeth as well as fiqh & Tafsir. He says that he is addicted to reading every book he can find on the subjects.
Favorite Hobby: Reading and researching any issue of Islam that interests him.
Major/Minor in College: He attends Indiana University school of Liberal Arts. He is majoring in English and
seeking a minor in Religious Studies.
Goals/Aspirations other than entering Jannah: Study in the East, Make Hijrah with Family, Continue to Benefit Himself and others on SeekingIlm, Increase his Knowledge, finish the Shaadhili Muraaqaba lessons insha’Allah .
Studies: Currently working on completing a BA in English with a
concentration in Linguistics. Working on a minor in Religious Studies.
Madh-hab in Fiqh: He says that he feels safest in the Shafi’i Madh-hab. The Scholarship is much stronger than the Hanbali Madh-hab, and the resources are more thorough, although he highly loves the madh-hab of Imam Ahmad.
To see all of Abul Layth’s articles click here .