Born on April 10, 1966 in the city of Kankan in the Republic of Guinea in West Africa, H.E. Prof. Koutoub bin Moustapha bin Ibrahim bin Sano received his foundational education at the Noor al-Islam School and at the hands of the sheikhs of Kankan city. His Excellency then studied the sciences of grammar, morphology, hadith and tafsir under several sheikhs of the Grand Mosque of Makkah. His Excellency obtained a higher diploma of mastery of the French language from the Ministry of National Education in France, and also obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Jurisprudence and its fundamentals with highest honors from Saudi Arabia’s King Saud University, where he was the valedictorian. His Excellency then obtained a master’s degree in comparative fiqh and its foundations from the same university and a postgraduate diploma in Islamic banking and finance from the International Islamic University of Malaysia. His Excellency then obtained a PhD in Law with a specialization in Fundamentals of Fiqh from the same university with a recommendation to print the thesis. His Excellency also obtained a State Doctorate in Islamic Finance with very high honors (excellent) from the Higher Institute of the Foundations of Religion at Al- Zaytoonah University in the Tunisian Republic. His Excellency was appointed as a representative member of the Republic of Guinea to the Council of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy in 2001. His Excellency has held important academic, administrative and political positions, including Professor of Comparative Jurisprudence and its principles, Islamic Finance and Maqasid for sixteen years (1993-2009) at the International Islamic University Malaysia. His Excellency was the Founding Director of the International Institute for the Unity of the Islamic Ummah in Malaysia and had also been Deputy Director of the International Islamic University Malaysia for External Relations and Innovation. His Excellency then served as Minister of Religious Affairs of the Republic of Guinea (2009-2011), Minister of International Cooperation (2011- 2016), Minister of Diplomatic Affairs at the Presidency of the Republic and Diplomatic Advisor to the President of the Republic (2016- 2020), and was then appointed Secretary General of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy. His Excellency is the author of books and research papers published in Arabic, English and French, including the following titles: a glossary on fiqh terminology and its foundations, the making of fatwa, Ijtihad in understanding the text: Benchmarks and rules, The Collective Ijtihad Desired For This, unrestricted public interests and their contemporary applications, there is no denial in the issues of Ijtihad, the encyclopedia of Hajj and Umrah, investment of savings according to Islamic jurisprudence, investment according to Islamic jurisprudence: Its provisions and rules, how we deal with the schools of Islamic law, the Muslim woman’s rights and duties, and the work of the woman inside and outside the home.