Gratitude from a Place of Grace
from Zaytuna’s permaculture orchard
Pomegranate
“If you are grateful, I will certainly give you more.”
Qur’an 14:7
Zaytuna fosters an environment of true friendship and comradery.
Zaytuna’s beautiful and serene outdoors is conducive to learning.
Introduction n
the arabic word barakah means growth and increase arising from submission to and mindfulness of God’s command. “God will find a way for those who are mindful of Him and will provide for them from an unexpected source; God will be enough for those who put their trust in Him” (65:3). Since its inception, Zaytuna has been driven by a sincere intention to serve God and His Messenger s. Its vision remains rooted in the prophetic tradition, and its many supporters throughout the years have placed their trust in God to guide this project forward, well beyond their own lifetime. Year after year, despite the challenges, the immense blessings of God rain down on this nascent yet growing institution: the acquisition of a serene hilltop campus conducive to study and worship, and now, with the gift of a supporter, seventeen stunning acres close to the campus for a sunnah sports complex, a retreat center, and more. Other blessings are exquisitely subtle: a chef who pours love into the meals she serves in the dining hall, staff who seek ways to save precious resources, a graduate inspired by the study of Imam al-Ghazālī’s works to practice medicine, and an academic community practicing the adab of prayer together. And only God knows the weight of each blessing, as even seemingly small, hidden deeds may be dearer to God than large outwardly ones.
No financial statement can indicate the innumerable blessings this College has received, and no words or images can contain or capture its beauty and light. Tehmina Masud, a longtime supporter of Zaytuna who resides in Houston says: “Don’t take our word for it — come experience Zaytuna for yourself!” Brick by brick, this College has been built by the grace of God and the prayers and generosity of its wellwishers. Our Prophet s said, “Whoever has not thanked people has not thanked
God.” We at Zaytuna College thank you for your continued trust and faith in us. We hope this small book gives you some solace and hope in these troubling times. May God accept our efforts and guide us to build an institution that reflects the greatness of our tradition and illuminates the path, not just for Muslims but for all of humanity.
Associate Professor Faraz Khan delivers the Friday sermon at Zaytuna’s prayer hall.
Zaytuna’s academic community joining in congregational prayer at its campus muṣallā.
Tehmina Masud and her husband, Dr. Faisal Masud, with some members of her family at the recent engagement of their daughter, Madiha Masud (not shown)
Preparing for Success in Dīn and Dunyā
Tehmina Masud’s Dreams for Zaytuna
tehmina masud grew up surrounded by Muslims in Pakistan—and it was her grandmother who was most instrumental in showing her the beauty of Islam. “She did everything with iĥsān,” Tehmina recalls—including tending to her paralyzed husband with devotion and unfailing positivity. “She taught me that in addition to education, human dignity was essential in Islam.” How we speak and tend to our elders and spouses, interact with our siblings, engage our neighbors—all this is Islam, her grandmother explained. Tehmina never forgot this lesson.
Ten years ago, Tehmina hosted Imam Zaid Shakir in Houston for a fundraiser, and to her surprise, he was fasting. When she asked him why he was fasting while traveling, he said he was doing so in hopes that it might increase the amount of money raised at the event for a college that was deeply grounded in the pillars of Islam. Two years later, she hosted Shaykh Hamza Yusuf for a meal when he came to town. He told her after the meal that the secret to a delicious meal is “the love poured into it by the cook.” The devotion and gentleness that Tehmina saw in Imam Zaid and Shaykh Hamza reminded her of her beloved grandmother, as they both taught by example how to strive towards attaining a virtuous character.
“At Zaytuna, adab is not confined to textbooks — it is embodied in the community.”
Zaytuna College’s vision is to help students achieve not only academic excellence but also excellence in their humanity. Since discovering that, Tehmina has been a dedicated supporter. Her fundraisers have been extraordinarily successful—and her contagious enthusiasm makes it easy to see why.
“Why shouldn’t Zaytuna become greater than Harvard, Stanford, or any other American university? What other institution equips students with the tools to succeed in their dīn and dunyā?” Tehmina points out, quoting the Qur’an: “O Sustainer! Grant us good in this world and good in the life to come and protect us from the suffering of the fire” (2:201). She adds, “At Zaytuna, students don’t have to choose between material and spiritual success; their education prepares them for both.”
As Zaytuna has grown, Tehmina says, so has she, through belonging to this community. She’s deepened her personal commitment to study Islam, which has strengthened her friendships. She’s motivated to serve not just Muslims but all members of the greater community. “In a time when technology is usurping our humanity,” Tehmina says, “we need Zaytuna College. We need a premier academic institution that revives my grandmother’s values — dignity, respect, compassion, and service. At Zaytuna, adab is not confined to textbooks — it is embodied in the community. Don’t take my word for it — come and experience it yourself!”
Islam at Home in America
Shaimaa Elk and Ryan Witmer’s Pursuit of Truth Leads to Zaytuna
nshaimaa elk’s early encounters with Islam were defined more by prescriptive norms and cultural practices than by the richness of theological inquiry. She noticed a tendency in religion to confine truth within small boxes and elevate only some people by lineage or title as the rightful heirs to the faith. Zaytuna offered her something profoundly different: a vast landscape of faith and scholarship, grounded in centuries of the Islamic intellectual tradition, and infused with a relentless pursuit of truth that invited all to probe to the best of their ability. For Shaimaa, Zaytuna represents an Islam that is entirely at home in America.
“Islam isn’t owned by anyone,” she says. “It belongs in America as much as anywhere.”
Shaimaa Elk and Ryan Witmer find a home for American Islam in Zaytuna
As an engineer, Shaimaa is inspired by Zaytuna graduates who begin with a foundation in liberal arts, ethics, and theology before moving on to professional fields such as law and medicine. They move with ease between rigorous academic pursuits and the ethical and philosophical dimensions of their faith, embodying a balance that resonates with her own values. She also appreciates Zaytuna’s commitment to interfaith dialogue.
Her husband Ryan Witmer was raised in a close-knit religious community and studied at a traditional college, yet he continued to wrestle with unanswered questions. It was the guidance of his Muslim friends that ultimately helped him navigate his metaphysical questions. Through their insights, he encountered the profound simplicity of Islam, and then Zaytuna College opened an intellectual pathway to deeper understanding.
“Zaytuna challenges ignorance and reframes the conversation while offering inclusive, ethical leadership that transcends race, origin, and religious background.”
For Ryan, supporting Zaytuna is a way to promote thoughtful discourse in a polarized time. “Zaytuna has been an intellectual fountain for me, broadening my understanding of Islam,” he says. He appreciates that the College challenges narrow perceptions, and that its liberal arts curriculum is designed to produce not only critical thinkers but also well-rounded individuals—a refreshing departure from the narrowly specialized focus common in modern education.
“Many Americans rely solely on the media for their understanding of Islam, and that’s a poor resource for comprehending such a rich faith,” Ryan says. “Zaytuna challenges ignorance and reframes the conversation while offering inclusive, ethical leadership that transcends race, origin, and religious background.”
The Subtle Spice of Love
Head Chef Laila Abdellaoui Shares Her Secret Ingredients
laila abdellaoui , the head chef at Zaytuna’s Sophia Dining Hall, began her training as a child in her mother’s kitchen in Morocco. By the age of nine, she cooked family meals; a few years later, she helped prepare feasts for hundreds of guests at a family wedding. “Your eye is your scale,” her mother said. She learned to feed a crowd without measuring tools, recipes, or waste. What she didn’t learn back then was how to create efficient systems, handle industrial equipment, ensure nutritional balance, manage staff, and maintain sanitary conditions. All this she learned in her culinary studies, earning two certificates along the way. All along, she’s been studying her chosen profession even as she practices it. She googles new recipes and studies special dietary needs. With proper and natural
Head Chef Laila Abdellaoui (left) with cook Mina Chiki (right)
nourishment, she knows, students will have sharp minds and think more clearly. That’s why she begins with ingredients that are organic and seasonal, the best of which come from Zaytuna’s own permaculture garden. Her menus follow the seasons. Last week, she harvested carrots, lemons, and grapes. Next week, she’ll add fresh radishes and lettuce to the menu.
“Life is not easy, but this campus is a healing place for me. It’s where I find family, and answers to my prayers.”
To Laila, cooking feels more like creating art than earning a living. Making money, she says, is one thing; nourishing people and relationships, and building community, is another. She embraces Zaytuna students as family and strives to serve them better all the time. Laila also hopes to soon offer cooking classes to undergraduates; mastering the ability to nourish themselves and others well, she knows, is learning that will serve them for a lifetime.
An immigrant herself, Laila feels for students who are far from family. Ensuring that her menus reflect the diversity of the student body, she cooks dishes from Afghanistan, India, and Morocco, among other nations. A delicious meal can be a remedy for homesickness—and so can a visit to her kitchen. Sometimes students stop by to keep her company and watch her cook. One student recently told her she missed her mother, then asked: “May I hug you, Khālah Laila?” Of course, the wish was granted with open arms. As proud as she feels when students graduate, it’s also hard to say goodbye.
The most rewarding aspect of her job? “Simply being at Zaytuna College,” Laila says with a radiant smile. “Life is not easy, but this campus is a healing place for me. It’s where I find family.”
Of all she’s learned in a lifetime of cooking, Laila says that her most important lesson came from her grandmother, who shared that niyyah (intention) is the secret ingredient in the best meals. She taught Laila to always begin her kitchen work with a prayer, to ask God to put barakah in the food and make the work easy. The subtle spice of love flavors every meal served in the Sophia Dining Hall.
Scott Doolin, a BA and MA Zaytuna graduate, currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago
Synergy and Possibility Between Islam and the West
Scott Doolin on Learning and Thriving as an American Muslim
nscott doolin began his freshman year at Zaytuna College in 2014, having converted to Islam the prior year. Already a college graduate at the time, he was unsatisfied with his previous undergraduate experience. It was fine with Scott that Zaytuna was not yet accredited (it received accreditation in 2015). He didn’t need another degree; he needed a better education. His intention was to study foundational philosophy, understand the classic scholars who influenced contemporary thinkers, and learn to read and think deeply.
After earning his BA from Zaytuna in 2018, he went on to earn an MA in Theology
and Philosophy from Zaytuna in 2020. Now pursuing his PhD in Islamic Studies at the University of Chicago, Scott is writing his dissertation on conceptions of free will across religious traditions, and how those conceptions shape contemporary American debates.
Where others might perceive tension between Islam and the West, he finds synergy and possibility. Reading the work of a famed historian and philosopher at Zaytuna, he realized how much of American culture—democratic process, critiques of capitalism and materialism, and care for the environment, for example—can be illuminated and informed by a religious perspective. He hopes to teach in a small liberal arts college, or a community college—any institution where he can find students who are ready and eager to learn.
“If my life were contained in an hourglass, with a narrow middle through which everything flowed from before into after, that middle is Zaytuna College.”
“I want to be a teacher,” he says, “I want to make students, not research, my priority.”
It’s impossible for Scott to pinpoint the impact Zaytuna College has had on his life. “If my life were contained in an hourglass, with a narrow middle through which everything flowed from before into after, that middle is Zaytuna College,” he said. It laid the foundation for his current scholarship, and it’s where he met his wife and became grounded in his Muslim identity. Before Zaytuna, he worried his conversion to Islam might be a kind of escapism. At Zaytuna, encouraged in his explorations and buffered from the identity conflicts many new converts experience, he learned and thrived as an American Muslim.
Hanna Kim, Zaytuna BA class of 2019, currently studying at UC College of the Law, San Francisco
Becoming Intentional
Hanna Kim on the Greatest Gift of Her Education
nhanna kim, class of 2019, vividly recalls a moment during her freshman year at Zaytuna College that changed her life. She was sitting in Logic class when it dawned on her that she had the capacity to think deeply, reflect, and consider consequences in ways she never had before.
“Zaytuna College truly teaches students how to think,” she said. Studying the tools of thinking—grammar, logic, and rhetoric—embedded within the trivium that is part of the qualitative liberal arts, and their interplay with philosophy and ethics, changed the way she understands the world.
“Logic tells me how something will work. Philosophy tells me why. And ethics
tells me if it should work that way. I use these tools to approach every issue— personal, professional, and spiritual—I face in life.” She’s discovered that many people never acquired these skills as part of their undergraduate education.
Hanna intends to specialize in Islamic estate planning, which she first studied in her fiqh class at Zaytuna College. At UC Law San Francisco, where she is now in her third year, she discovered the need for more Muslim attorneys who can offer this service.
“In American law, people have complete freedom to decide how their money will be distributed after their death,” she said. “Their choices often cause conflict among surviving family members. Islamic estate planning, on the other hand, follows the maqāśid (aims or objectives) of shariah to preserve lineage and family. Distribution follows divine law instead of human impulses, and it’s very clear, so it protects family relations.”
“Before Zaytuna I practiced Islam because that’s how I was raised—but at Zaytuna I became intentional about faith.”
Because there is a shortage of qualified Muslim lawyers who also have a scholarly education in Islamic estate planning, Muslim lawyers often consult a religious leader on behalf of their clients. Introducing a third party increases the likelihood of mistakes being made and meaning being lost in translation. This is where Hanna sees an opportunity to serve her community, which is something else she learned at Zaytuna: to use the gifts God has given her to help and serve others.
Prior to Zaytuna College, Hanna’s schooling was at ILM Tree, a Muslim homeschooling cooperative in the Bay Area that emphasizes classical Islamic education and an appreciation for nature. Though she was raised with a strong sense of Muslim identity, she says Zaytuna College is where she chose to be Muslim.
“Before Zaytuna I practiced Islam because that’s how I was raised—but at Zaytuna I became intentional about faith.” Then, after a pause, she adds: “At Zaytuna I became intentional not only about Islam, but about everything. And that may be the greatest gift of my undergraduate education.”
Necva Solak steers the College’s fundraising efforts in the northeastern US
A Historical Endeavor
Regional Director of Development Necva Solak on Reviving the Muslim Legacy
nthe daughter of a Turkish physics teacher and an Azerbaijani opera singer, Necva Solak considers herself a native New Yorker. Her parents taught her the fundamentals of her faith, but it wasn’t until she was a sophomore at Columbia University that she had an intellectual awakening in Islam. It happened one night when she tagged along with friends headed to Madison Square Garden to hear two Islamic scholars she knew nothing about: Imam Zaid Shakir and Shaykh Hamza Yusuf.
That night, as she learned about her own religious tradition’s great intellectual contribution to world history, Necva felt validated and empowered as an American Muslim for the first time. As a member of a minority religion, she had always felt the need to prove herself and to challenge misconceptions about her faith, and she had
done so. But the talks by Zaytuna scholars, reasoned yet poetic, factual yet moving, sparked a new level of enthusiasm in Necva, a lover of learning, and inspired her to pursue law with the goal of one day teaching both Western and Islamic legal traditions together.
“I give this College my all,” Necva says, “and it gives everything to me.”
For the next ten years, she learned all she could from Zaytuna scholars. As she worked as a lawyer, served on boards, studied in Turkey, fell in love, raised young children, and cared for sick parents, their teachings deepened her understanding and embodiment of Islam. When she secured a position as Regional Director of Development (Northeast) at Zaytuna, it was the fulfillment of her longtime dream.
To work at Zaytuna, Necva says, is to be a part of making history. “America is shaped by its great institutions—Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and others—whose values permeated culture as they became established. Zaytuna College is rooting Islam in America by producing American Muslim scholars.”
What Necva loves most about Zaytuna is that this singular institution aims to shape critical narratives, restore a commitment to excellence (in all things), and elevate the intellectual discourse in our challenging times. All of this, she says, revives the legacy imparted by Islamic scholars over the centuries.
Necva has always had a gift for building relationships and connecting people—and now she is grateful to be able to apply those gifts in service to humanity. Her position requires her to introduce herself to new communities and, at times, to organize events locally with Zaytuna faculty—work which yields blessed rewards for her as much as for the College. Whether in sharing opportunities for spiritual development or internships for youth, uniting families, or guiding high schoolers to expert resources for college and career success, Necva says she has experienced the barakah of building and belonging to a beautiful community.
“I give this College my all,” Necva says, “and it gives everything to me.”
Dr. Munir Jiwa serves as Director of Academic Initiatives and Partnerships and Associate Professor at Zaytuna College
A Holistic Education in a Fractured World
Dr. Munir Jiwa on Why the World Needs Zaytuna College
nmany years ago , Dr. Munir Jiwa attended lectures and events at Zaytuna Institute, the precursor of Zaytuna College, for intellectual and spiritual nourishment. In exploratory conversations with Zaytuna’s founders about forming a Muslim liberal arts college, he was captivated by their vision. With his background in theological education and seminary settings, he sensed the singular contribution such a college might make to Muslims, to academia, and to broader society.
Trained as a scholar of anthropology and religious studies, Dr. Jiwa brings a wealth of experience to his new position as Zaytuna’s Director of Academic Initiatives and Partnerships and Associate Professor. For seventeen years, he served as the founding
director of the Center for Islamic Studies at the Graduate Theological Union, a neighbor of Zaytuna’s lower campus in Berkeley, California. There, he advised graduate students in religion from around the world and served as associate professor of Islamic studies and anthropology; he has also held visiting positions at Stanford University and UC Berkeley and worked with the UN-affiliated organization Religions for Peace to establish inter-religious councils around the world.
“Bringing together the intellectual and the spiritual with civic engagement, as we do at Zaytuna College, is urgently needed in our time of environmental, economic, sociopolitical, and spiritual crises.”
Never had he experienced the vibrant culture of purposeful learning he finds at Zaytuna, he says—and never has it been so necessary. “Bringing together the intellectual and the spiritual with civic engagement, as we do at Zaytuna College, is urgently needed in our time of environmental, economic, sociopolitical, and spiritual crises,” says Dr. Jiwa.
He is also inspired by the College’s holistic approach to scholarship. A Muslim liberal arts education at Zaytuna College, rooted in the Arabic language, is fundamentally interdisciplinary and concerned with the formation of the whole person. It is categorically different from the fragmentation of secular Euro-American education, which isolates its disciplines and treats the mind as separate from the spirit and body. In his new role, he intends to extend the beauty, excellence, and benefits of such an educational approach in academia and beyond. “At Zaytuna, great work is being done by Muslims for the benefit of everyone,” he said.
Teaching Muslims to Think and Lead
Drs. Smeena and Naveed Khan on Building a Future for American Muslims
nwhen patients at her medical practice in Virginia ask Dr. Smeena Khan where she is from, they seem surprised by her answer: Kentucky. She and her husband, Dr. Naveed Khan, were both born in the West and raised Muslim by immigrant parents. “It was very tough to be raised Muslim here,” Smeena recalls. “It felt like walking a tightrope over a canyon . . . just one misstep might have landed me in a very different place.”
Smeena’s father often worried that his choice to leave a Muslim country for better opportunities might cause his children to leave Islam. “How would my soul bear that?” he wondered. When she and Naveed started their own family, they were haunted by this question, too. Determined to raise their children in an environment
Drs. Smeena and Naveed Khan are proud parents of a Zaytuna student
that fostered Islamic identity, the two doctors relocated to the DC area so that they could be near relatives and send their children to an Islamic school. When it came time for their son, Adam, to go to college, he narrowed his choices to the Ivy League schools. Then he discovered Zaytuna. “This is where I want to be,” he told them. “Only at Zaytuna can I experience the intensity of a secular education along with an Islamic education that teaches critical thinking.”
Smeena was thrilled. She also wishes she’d had access to such an education herself.
“The American Muslim community needs to produce not only religious leadership, but leadership and role models in all realms.”
As a young Muslim, she had not been taught to think and read deeply; she’d been raised to do what she was told. Smeena and Naveed are inspired by young American Muslims who learn about the rich Intellectual tradition of Islam, who separate culture from religion, and who find ways to integrate Islamic and American thought. These are the kinds of leaders, they say, who will not leave their religion at home when they go to work; they’ll become role models and bring Islamic values into work and culture so they may serve the common good.
“The American Muslim community needs to produce not only religious leadership but leadership and role models in all realms,” Smeena says. “We support Zaytuna not just for our own Muslim family, but for the benefit of everyone,” adds Naveed.
Looking back, Smeena recognizes the surprising gift in the difficulty of raising Muslims kids in the United States. “Being Muslim in America forces us to hold tight to our faith,” Smeena says. “How much easier it would be to choose to not be Muslim in America. . . . I choose Islam every day, and America gives me that opportunity.”
Spreading Beauty and Peace
Associate Professor Dr. Fadi Elhin Evolves Alongside His Students
nwhen dr. fadi elhin was hired at Zaytuna in 2013, the College was renting two classrooms—one without windows—and a small office which, in a pinch, doubled as a third classroom. He’ll never forget the day in 2015 when President Hamza Yusuf announced the College was moving to its own campus in Berkeley on the top of Holy Hill. A stunned silence fell over the room as faculty took in this amazing news.
Now, with the nine-acre upper campus added, the outer beauty of the College matches its inner beauty, he says. “Zaytuna is a sanctuary of learning where the pursuit of knowledge is a spiritual and intellectual path,” Dr. Fadi said. And he says this is true not only for students but for everyone in the community. For the past twelve years, as he has strived to support his students’ personal and intellectual
Dr. Fadi Elhin previously served as Director of the BA Arabic Program
growth, Zaytuna College has nurtured his own growth as well. He’s especially thankful for the mentorship of President Hamza Yusuf, who emphasizes the importance of humility and dedication in the pursuit of knowledge and inspires faculty with his words of wisdom. Formerly the Arabic Program Director, Dr. Fadi is now Associate Professor in the MA program, where he teaches Islamic Law.
Zaytuna College, Dr. Fadi says, is unlike any other academic institution—and he believes the campus muśallā is the reason. “To worship, reflect, and celebrate with students and colleagues makes this more than a workplace; it’s my spiritual home,” Dr. Fadi says. Practicing the adab of prayer together, he adds, leads to adab throughout campus. He’s never once had conflict with colleagues.
“Ma sha Allah,” a Turkish colleague commented after a campus visit. “It seems everyone’s hearts are aligned at Zaytuna.” “It’s true,” Dr. Fadi says. He adds that faculty genuinely care about one another’s wellbeing, and they share a motivation that goes beyond educating their students to spreading the beauty and peace of Islam in the world. For Dr. Fadi, working in such an environment is a dream come true. The most rewarding aspect of his work, he says, is to witness students’ growth as they engage deeply with Islamic Law, apply it thoughtfully, and develop their own relationships with the values they learn at Zaytuna. He prays one day his own children might study there.
“To worship, reflect, and celebrate with students and colleagues makes this more than a workplace; it’s my spiritual home.”
“I love Zaytuna so much that if someone placed Yale in my right hand and Harvard in my left, I wouldn’t trade Zaytuna for either of them,” Dr. Fadi says. What better work could there possibly be, he wonders, than striving to support students to harmonize the Islamic tradition with contemporary life and contribute meaningfully to the greater good?
Fatima
An Awakening that Changes Everything
Fatima Alemam on How a Liberal Arts Education
Prepared Her for Medical School
fatima alemam smiles when she hears her father proudly tell friends she made a “180-degree change” at Zaytuna College. At first her parents—both physicians—were opposed to her studying there. She’d earned enough college credits to graduate in less than three years; they didn’t want her to waste time or limit her options. But having been the only Muslim in her high school in North Dakota, Fatima knew she needed to become articulate about her faith and try to be a good role model so she could counter widespread ignorance about Islam.
She also longed for community. In high school, she’d yearned to belong among her American classmates. At Zaytuna, she discovered a profound sense of belonging and
Alemam, BA class of 2023, is pursuing a medical career
lifelong friendships. Such a diverse community also challenged her own perceptions about Muslims; she realized that within her own religion were different perspectives on shared principles and different manifestations of shared values.
While at Zaytuna, to her parents’ surprise, Fatima decided to become a doctor. Previously, she’d feared becoming disillusioned by a dysfunctional healthcare system— but at Zaytuna, she learned to manage her expectations of herself as well as of dunyā. It wasn’t the prospect of wealth and prestige that motivated her to study medicine; it was reading Imam al-Ghazālī’s claim that it was one of the most noble and honorable professions of all. She realized then that her true desire was to be with patients in their most intimate and vulnerable moments. Inspired by her study of traditional Islamic medicine, she wanted to become a provider who addressed health in an integral way, honoring her patients’ humanity.
Thanks to her Zaytuna education, she says, she is now able to think critically, navigate ambiguity, shape her own philosophy as a physician, and bring more humanity to American healthcare.
Fatima read mission statements to decide which medical schools were a good fit. Reading one institution’s stated purpose—“to prevent disease and help patients live as long as possible”—raised many questions for her: What if we are forcing the patient to deal with a myriad of drugs and their side effects in a desperate effort to keep them alive? What if they are isolated, depressed, and spiritually deprived? What if disease is a gift from God? Isn’t health more than the absence of disease?
Fatima says her liberal arts education prepared her to think through tough questions like these. Thanks to her Zaytuna education, she says, she is now able to think critically, navigate ambiguity, shape her own philosophy as a physician, and bring more humanity to American healthcare.
Her father is right, she says. Her Zaytuna education was an awakening that changed everything. There’s no going back to who she was before, no turning away from seeing the world through the lens of the Islamic tradition or asking herself what truly benefits humanity.
Among the Lovers of Souls
Jacobus Botha Revives the Religion of His Childhood
n“ god brought me to Zaytuna College,” says Jacobus (JJ) Botha, Director of Facilities and Campus Support Services. ISIS also played a role in his arrival; shortly after it released a hit list with President Hamza Yusuf’s name on it, JJ was hired as security. JJ, who had formerly worked in security for the US government in Iraq, didn’t know anything about the man he was hired to protect.
In this tense time, Zaytuna College had just hosted its first ever fundraising event in the Bay Area, with SWAT officers guarding the perimeter. JJ started to travel with President Yusuf and provide security at his public events. Listening to him speak, JJ heard alignment and resonance with the values he was raised on in South Africa.
Jacobus (JJ) Botha (right), Director of Facilities and Campus Support Services, with Facilities Manager Javier Alvarez (left)
It wasn’t just listening to President Yusuf; it was also witnessing him as he moved through the world. JJ was struck that President Yusuf practiced religion the way he had been raised to practice it. “Religion should be a dedication to a way of life,” JJ said. “Your every action — and interaction—should reflect your beliefs.” The more time he spent with President Yusuf, the more appreciative he became. Protecting President Yusuf began to feel like much more than a job.
“This College is funded by the hard-earned money of donors,” he said. “If my team can help Zaytuna become more self-sustaining, we will.”
Watching him relate with so many different kinds of people, JJ recalled what his father once taught him: “We are lovers of souls. And souls have no color.” This was the ethos of the Old Apostolic Church, which his family attended—and it also permeates the Zaytuna community, JJ says. As a non-Muslim employee, he has felt nothing but respect, appreciation, and belonging.
At Zaytuna, JJ has witnessed growth beyond his ability to imagine. These days, he manages a close-knit staff of ten facilities and maintenance employees. “This team is family,” he says. “We work hard—and we also make time to know and care for one another.” What moves him most about his colleagues is their dedication to Zaytuna. Not all of them are Muslim—but each one seeks ways to do better work for lower rates than contractors and to save precious resources.
“This College is funded by the hard-earned money of donors,” he said. “If my team can help Zaytuna become more self-sustaining, we will.” JJ says Zaytuna College has been nothing but a blessing to him and his family—and he strives to also be a blessing to the College.
As he supports the amazing growth of Zaytuna College, JJ says, the College also supports his own evolution. Working at Zaytuna, he said, returned him to the core values on which he was raised. More than anything he is learning to trust that God cares for us. “It doesn’t help to worry about the future,” he says. “God decides where our lives will go.”
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Arabesque patterns adorn Zaytuna’s prayer hall.