Dr. Arif Abdullah is a specialist in Arabic and Islamic studies (Islamic theology and Quranic Studies), and graduated from the University of Jordan, and received his PhD from the University of Aberdeen, UK. He also specialised in religious pluralism at Temple University, U.S.

He is currently the director of the Research Center at the Higher Islamic Institute in Sofia, Bulgaria and lecturer at New Bulgarian University, Sofia.

His academic interests lie in classical and modern approaches to Qur’anic exegesis, philosophy of Quranic hermeneutics, history of the Qur’an, philosophy of Islamic law and religious pluralism.

He is the author of the book The Quran and Normative Religious Pluralism and has also delivered conference papers in different academic events including Doha interfaith dialogue conference.

His motto is: "Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of another, always as an end and never as a means only".