Zaytuna College Spring/Ramadan Newsletter 2019

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Zaytuna College Newsletter T U 1430 | 2009 L E NA COL

Issue: Spring/Ramadan 2019/1440

This Ramadan, Strive for Knowledge Ham za Yusuf, Pr e si de n t Zaytuna College Abū Hurayrah reported that the Prophet Muhammad s said, “Whoever observes the fast during the month of Ramadan with sincerity and the hope of attaining reward from Allah, then all of his past sins will be forgiven.”

Al- Bukhār ī and Mus l im

} C ultivati ng Our F u t ur e Our Prophet s was the most generous of people, especially in the month of Ramadan. By the grace of God, the seeds of Zaytuna College that were planted years ago have grown to the beautiful institution of learning we have today.

This labor of love includes the countless men and women who have tirelessly supported the College with their prayers, hardwork, and wealth. However, its growth has just begun, and we have much more to accomplish, God-willing. Please join us in cultivating our future with trees and fruits of knowledge that will nourish the minds of our future generations and communities. This Ramadan, remember Zaytuna in your prayers and kindly visit zaytuna.edu/rc19 to contribute to our Zakat Fund and College Fund (śadaqah).

May God bless you and your families, and may He accept your fasts and worship in this month of mercy.

De spite all of the trials and tribulations, we are living in a time of immense blessings and providence. The hallmark of Muslims has always been patience in trials of hardship and gratitude in trials of ease. Too many of us forget that God created us to be tried and that those trials come in two forms: hardship and ease. Trials of hardship are easier to discern as trials, but ease too often lulls us to sleep, and we fail to recognize that ease can actually be a far more dangerous trial than hardship. Many people who are blessed with great health, wealth, and education fail to use these blessings for what they were meant— instead of using the health we have to serve creation and worship the Creator, we expend our health in vain pursuits, amusements, and pleasure. We waste wealth, either hard earned or inherited, in pursuit of more or striving for things not worth having. Finally, many of us who acquired our education with great effort and expenditure of time fail to use what we have learned to increase our knowledge. A man who can’t read is as impoverished as a man who can but doesn’t. We should expend our health for the sake of knowledge, our wealth in its furtherance, and our education in pursuit of more knowledge.

Our Prophet s said, “I was sent only as a teacher.” In the Qur’an, the only thing the Prophet s was commanded to ask for more of is knowledge: “Say, O my Lord, increase me in knowledge” (20:114). Also, the first revelation was “Read!” Ramadan is for reading the most important book in the world: the Qur’an. That Book, the Book of God, contains principles to live our lives by: “Speak beautifully to people,” “Eat and drink but not to excess—surely God loves not the excessive ones.” “Do not be spendthrift and prodigal; surely the spendthrifts are brothers of demons.” “No affliction will strike you except

by God’s permission, and whoever believes in God, God will guide his heart [to accept the trial with quietude and ease].” “Let not one people mock another people.” “Do not backbite: would one of you wish to consume the flesh of his dead brother.” And many, many other pearls of wisdom are in the Qur’an.

The Qur’an also contains news of the previous prophets (such as Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus) and of the ancients like Pharaoh, recounting what became of them. It also tells us of what is to come. The scholars never tire of its marvels, and the devotees never weary of its recitation. This month is God’s special month that has divine facilitation to read and practice more, adhere closer to the Sunnah, and avoid all the things that waste our time and ultimately our lives. My advice for this month is this: give up all tablets and screens. Use your phone solely to receive important calls or to make them; serve your community somehow in your own capacity; restore kinship bonds, and maintain good ones; visit the sick, the elderly, and the poor; and give as much charity as you can every day, even if it is a small amount.

Read the Qur’an in its entirety at least once, preferably three times if you are able (which includes the one in the tarawih prayer). Have family over for breaking the fast, and invite friends too. Restore your relationship with your local mosque, and help your local organizations that are doing good work. Pray sincerely for our Ummah that God remove these conflicts and trials and restore our collective dignity in the eyes of others.S

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Thankfulness: A Ramadan Lesson Im am Za i d Shak ir Senior Faculty Member and Co-Founder, Zaytuna College Tha nkfulne ss is men t ioned in the middle of the Qur’anic verses dealing with the fast of Ramadan (2:185).

This is not surprising, for thankfulness is one of the principal lessons of this exceptional month. To understand this we must understand the true meaning of thankfulness, which is recompensing a little with a lot. The Arabic word corresponding to this meaning is shukr. One possessing this quality is called shakūr.

Ordinarily, our Lord, Al-Shakūr, recompenses us greatly for a small amount of worship. Our Prophet s stated, “Good deeds are multiplied ten times, seven hundred times, many times over and beyond that.” Ramadan is a time when God multiples the reward of our deeds to the maximum extent.

Ibrahim Al-Nakha¢i, a great early scholar, said, “Fasting a day in Ramadan is better than fasting a thousand days outside of Ramadan. Glorifying God once in Ramadan is better than glorifying God a thousand times [outside of Ramadan].

A unit of prayer in Ramadan is better than a thousand units performed any other time.”

Our Lord, however, has not confined His Shukr to multiplying the reward of our devotional acts. He has blessed us with the opportunity to work for His religion and to

serve the community of believers and humanity at large. Work in these realms also holds the promise of immense reward as it requires great patience; and as the Qur’an reminds us, the reward for patience is unlimited (39:10). Such an immense reward is a gift from God. For those of us here at Zaytuna College, God has given us the chance to be a part of this miraculous project, and He has sustained us for the past ten years by His Grace and the support of innumerable blessed and wonderful people.

The approach of Ramadan serves as a reminder of how truly thankful we should be for these blessings. Although our words could never truly convey the depth of our appreciation, we thank God for affording us this opportunity, and we thank all of you for supporting Zaytuna over the course of the past decade.

This Ramadan, let us endeavor to truly appreciate the magnitude of the gifts our Lord has conferred upon us and to sincerely thank Him for those gifts. Among the greatest of those gifts is Ramadan itself. The small number of prayers we undertake, the few days spent fasting, and the small percentage of our wealth we spend in charity are all rewarded immensely by God. Let each and every one of us strive to express our gratitude for the many blessings we have received by being “shakūr” – giving far more than we take.S

Renovatio Welcomes Scholars of Many Faiths Why d on ’ t Jews proselytize? How has Islam influenced the American blues tradition? How does the experience of wonder animate our spiritual lives? The Spring 2019 issue of Renovatio, to be published in May, will be the fifth—and the publication’s most variegated—issue to date.

Reuven Firestone, a rabbi and scholar at Hebrew Union College, contributes an essay on why Jews choose to secure, not spread, their faith. The award-winning social historian Sylviane Diouf connects the emotional and musical style of the blues to the Islamic belt of West Africa. Sophia Vasalou, a scholar of Muslim philosophy and theology, explores our sense of wonder and whether religious traditions can help us see what is most mysterious in what is most ordinary.

The issue also includes new work by Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Roger Scruton, essays by

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Zaytuna’s own Omar Qureshi and Hamza Yusuf, and welcomes work by another new writer, Shabbir Akhtar, a Muslim philosopher at the University of Oxford. “We have Muslim writers of varied backgrounds and perspectives, as well as prominent Christian and Jewish scholars,” says Safir Ahmed, editor of Renovatio. “We feel honored that these accomplished writers are looking at Renovatio—and, by extension, Zaytuna College—as a forum for exploring their ideas.”

In February, Renovatio organized a public conversation about the legacy of colonialism in today’s educational system. The event, entitled “Reading Aristotle in Islamabad,” featured Zaid Shakir and Francisco Nahoe of Zaytuna and Oludamini Ogunnaike, of the College of William and Mary and was inspired by an essay on the same topic by Ogunnaike from the Fall 2018 issue of Renovatio.S

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Dr . Ma rk Delp Former Dean of Faculty and Professor Emeritus, Zaytuna College Wh en I fir st came to Zaytuna, beneath all the initial strangeness of the new environment and my self-conscious inadequacy at fitting in, I felt compelled to engage in a sort of personal exegesis that promised to reveal the moving principle behind the new forms of life and faith in which I had become so suddenly immersed. There are formidable names that go with Zaytuna: Muslim, Liberal Arts, Great Books, and College, each of which became like a veil concealing its core meaning against any facile attempt at definition but also revealing that meaning as the first green sprouts of a tree reveal its species. Who can say even now what Zaytuna is—even the ones who conceived the Idea?

But that ignorance is actually a wonderful thing, for Zaytuna’s stubborn resistance to being defined makes it like one of God’s creatures, the natures of which were meant to be known by the human creature, but not in their intimate particularity, not transparently. What Thomas Aquinas said

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a prolegomenon to islamic theolog y Im¥m N‰r Al-DÏn Al-ߥb‰nÏ’s Al-Bid¥yah fÏ u|‰l Al-DÏn anyone interested in Islamic theology owes a debt of gratitude to Faraz Khan for this translation of a significant text from the Māturīdī tradition. Nūr al-Dīn al-Śābūnī summarizes concisely yet acutely what he takes to be the main principles of correct Islamic theology and its alternatives and provides a lively account of the main principles of Māturīdīsm. Al-Śābūnī is particularly strong on epistemology, and anyone seeking to understand the range of the Māturīdī school of thought will find this translation very helpful.” oliver leaman, University of Kentucky “This text in Māturīdī theology displays the sophistication of Islamic theology at this time, with fair-minded summaries together with a masterful use of philosophical strategies [elucidating] the position of the “people of truth” (Sunni orthodoxy). Faraz Khan’s lucid translation conveys the clarity with which the author presents numerous positions of the Māturīdī school along with concise yet thorough discussions of reasoning characteristic of other theological schools, both inside and outside Islam.” david burrell, University of Notre Dame Faraz A. Khan is on the faculty at Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California. His research interests center on the engagement of philosophical theology and ethics with the contemporary age.

This book is part of the Zaytuna Curriculum Series, which seeks to help reestablish the primacy of both reason and revelation in Islam’s legacy of scholarship, and also to cultivate a welcoming and curious intellectual climate, by publishing texts from the Islamic and Western traditions that reflect their richness.

zaytuna

a prolegomenon to islamic theology

dallateef Whiteman

Zaytuna: The Olive Tree of Knowledge

curriculum series

hundreds of years ago seems still to be true, namely that “our manner of knowing is so weak that no philosopher could perfectly investigate the nature of even one little fly.”

But many of the ancient philosophers, even as they strove to discover the secrets of reality, prized their own ignorance, which they saw as an immanent sign of the untraversable and yet perpetually attractive infinitude at the heart of all things. My favorite books are those to which I can continue to return and harvest secret fragments of Reality—to think that I would come to live in such a book and participate in its revelatory power! To return to the metaphor of the plant, so appropriate to Zaytuna, the olive tree of knowledge, I would like to bid all who participate in this College to treat it as the delicate living thing it is; to ponder its mystery even while assisting in its growth; and to presume that it has a God-given nature that has yet to be revealed in its glory as a mature tree.S

Zaytuna College Revives Curriculum Series

The li be r a l a rts of language—grammar, logic, and rhetoric—remain fundamental to a liberal education. Even so, although there are innumerable good introductions to the first two arts, there are fewer ones to rhetoric.

Zaytuna College is helping to remedy that by publishing The Art of Persuasion: Aristotle’s Rhetoric for Everybody, written by Scott F. Crider, as part of the Zaytuna Curriculum Series. The text offers a simple, clear introduction to the art of rhetoric that explains the nature and parts of the art to the student and general reader who may not yet be ready to read Aristotle’s treatise itself.

In his introduction to the book, Hamza Yusuf, president of Zaytuna College, writes that he hopes the work inspires readers to preserve “something precious from the best of our neglected past.” Author and Pulitzer Prize-winner Chris Hedges, says the book “resurrects, when we need it most, the importance of the mastery of rhetoric which, along with grammar and logic, is the foundation of civil discourse in a democracy.”

Looking ahead, Zaytuna plans to publish A Prolegomenon to Islamic Theology, translated and annotated by faculty member Faraz A. Khan, later this year. The Prolegomenon is an intermediate text in Maturidi theology, and Khan’s extensive commentary provides a unique window in English into the Sunni theological tradition.

The publication of these books revives the Zaytuna Curriculum Series, which earlier published The Creed of Imam al-Tahawi, a translation and commentary by Hamza Yusuf of a beginning theological text.S $22.95 ISBN 978-0-9855659-8-5

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a prolegomenon to islamic theolog y Im¥m N‰r Al-DÏn Al-ߥb‰nÏ’s Al-Bid¥yah fÏ u|‰l Al-DÏn

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t r a n s l at i o n , n o t e s , a n d a p p e n d i c e s b y fa r a z a . k h a n

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Read and Rise!

Thi s R a ma da n, honor our tradition of reading and reflection, and visit the Zaytuna College bookstore. In keeping with the core mission of the College, the bookstore features a diverse collection of books and texts that reflect the best of the Western and Islamic classical tradition. Visitors will also find an array of unique hand-made crafts and apparel, showcasing Islamic sacred art, that serve as perfect gift items for family and friends. The Zaytuna College bookstore is pleased to offer a 10% discount on all purchases during the blessed month of Ramadan. Please visit us on campus or online at: bookstore/zaytuna.edu. Enter RAMADAN2019 during the check-out process. Please note the new bookstore hours:Thursday to Sunday, 9am-2pm.S

Welcome from the New Dean of Faculty Dr . Oma r Qure s h i Dean of Faculty, Zaytuna College I t i s an honor for me to assume the position of Dean of Faculty after Dr. Mark Delp entered the retirement phase of his illustrious academic career of distinguished service and excellence. Despite it being in the middle of the academic year, my transition to this position has been made seamless due to the generous and humbling support of the entire administration, staff, faculty, and students.

One of my immediate projects, as the dean of a liberal arts college, is to ensure the tools of learning are acquired by our students and utilized in all disciplines of knowledge.

At Zaytuna College, the tools of learning, such as grammar, morphology, logic, and rhetoric provide the student with all the necessary skills and habits to pursue the substantial sciences such as theology, law, legal theory, and metaphysics. Dialectics and disputation (ādāb al-baĥth wa-l munāżra) is a science which provides a methodology utilized in all Islamic sciences. It incorporates all the tools of learning and enables the student to apply these tools to the inquiries when studying the substantial sciences. As part of our faculty teaching initiative, Zaytuna faculty members will be taken through formal training in dialectics and disputation in a series of lectures delivered by their fellow faculty member. This will ensure, God willing, that this method will be employed across the College and become part of the its signature pedagogy.

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Additionally, I am working with our various constituents of the College to prepare us all for the October visit by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). The purpose of this visit is to ensure the reaffirmation of the College’s accreditation with WASC. This is an important stage in the overall accreditation process with the goal to improve student learning, student success, and institutional effectiveness.

On April 4th, Nirav Bhardwaj, one of the College’s M.A. students, presented a paper at Institute of Islamic Studies Student Council Graduate Student Symposium being held at McGill University (Montreal, Québec). His paper is entitled, “Maintaining Congruence Between Islamic Legal Theory (uśūl al-fiqh) and Islamic Theology (kalām): Revisiting Islam’s Proscription of Ribā and the Dilemma of Contemporary Islamic Finance.” It is great to see our students participating in such programs. We hope to, God-willing, offer such symposiums at Zaytuna in the future.

Please continue to pray for the College’s success.S

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Zaytuna’s New M.A. Program: Reflections on the Inaugural Year Jawa d Qure sh i Director of the M.A. Program, Zaytuna College A l ha m dul il l ah, we are about to finish the inaugural year of Zaytuna College’s Master of Arts degree in Islamic Texts. This two-year program provides students with access to the Islamic tradition through guided courses in Islam’s primary sources. Our program has two areas of focus: Islamic Law and Philosophy-Theology. In this past year, our students have taken classes in Arabic grammar, logic, dialectics, philosophy, theology, laws of financial transactions, legal theory, and research methods. Our classes emphasize reading the primary texts in the original Arabic, while also reading relevant material in English.

Students are assessed not only in their comprehension of these classical texts, but they also must write research papers. One of the unique features of our program is the option for students to take preceptorials—reading classes with Zaytuna’s distinguished faculty in books of their choice. This past year, students have taken preceptorials on a variety of subjects, including the objectives of the law (maqāśid al-sharia), Islamic heresiography, scholastic philosophy, and readings on human nature.

As we are finishing our first year, we have a lot to look forward to in the coming year. Students from our first cohort will begin writing their M.A. thesis while completing their course requirements towards graduation. We are looking forward to welcoming a new cohort of students to join our program this fall. Finally, we will also be welcoming a new faculty member, Dr. Sonia Lotfi, to teach in our Philosophy-Theology track.

Your continued support is sincerely appreciated and crucial to our success as we educate morally committed professional, intellectual, and spiritual leaders grounded in our tradition. May God bless you.S

M.A. Program Students

Shaykh Mahsuk Yamac, Director of Studies, M.A. Program

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Student Reflections K a s ha f Za ma n Freshman Class, Zaytuna College

“Is your name ​k a s h f​ or ​k a s ha fa ​? ” the substi-

tute teacher at the Zaytuna Summer Arabic Intensive asked me only a few weeks after Ramadan. I looked at him in bewilderment. “Neither,” I replied. “My name is Kashaf, with a​ fatĥa​on the ​shīn​ and a ​sukūn​on the ​fā​.” He urged me to search for the definition of my name in a dictionary. There was no entry for “​kashaf​.” This became a recurring theme throughout the semester. Teachers and peers alike tried to grapple with my stubborn insistence that the epithet on my birth certificate was both a grammatically appropriate name and had​ bona fide​signification as such.

Kāf​, ​shīn​, and ​fā.​ T​ogether, these three letters mean “to reveal”. Plug these letters into the eighth verbal pattern, and they create a word which means “to discover.” Taking inspiration from my name, I sought out God in every aspect of Zaytuna’s curriculum. Aiming to imitate the great exegetes of the past, I critically examined every text without knowing what exactly I was trying to reveal. It was not until my first creedal theology class that I truly understood the magnitude of the search. After the three-hour lecture, I was humbled to realize the only information not new to me was the declaration that there was only One God. When visiting lecturer Ustadh Feraidoon addressed the student body, my path to discovery was further illuminated. He drew a diagram, with “Allah” at the top, followed by “Rasūlullah,” and concluding with “Nafs.” He

claimed the journey to Allah did not begin by knowing the Creator but by knowing oneself first.

I thought Zaytuna College would be the end of a journey that began eighteen years ago when the ​adhān w​as whispered into the ears of an unconventionally-named infant.

I realize now that it is only the beginning of a search that will continue. From Ramadan to Ramadan, a year at Zaytuna College has shown me that I know less than I originally thought I did. I am still searching, but I now look for ​Wājib al-Wujūd (The Necessarily Existent) in the crisp pages lining the ​kāf​ of ​kutub​ from Zaytuna’s Great Books curriculum; I attempt to find Al-Laţīf (The Subtle) in the touch of the ​shīn​of this intense California ​shams​ (sun) that is thousands of miles from home, and I search for A ​ r-Rahīm​(the Most Merciful) in the unlocked fā​of each f​ atĥ (opening) granted to me – Kashaf.​ Kāf. Shīn. Fā. S

Ibr ahim Qure s h i Senior Class, Zaytuna College By t h e gr a ce of G od, I will graduate from this illuminating institution this year, Alhamdulillah. This world can oft en be a troubling place, and I came to this college four years ago troubled by the senselessness that I saw all too prevalent around me, in search of answers for both myself and my community. My academic journey here began with a rigorous study of the liberal arts – grammar, logic, and rhetoric – in both the English and Arabic languages to master real literacy. Literacy is not merely the ability to read and write but the skill of abstracting meaning, organizing and comprehending it, and communicating it clearly. Inculcating this skill proved invaluable in discussions of politics, economics, theology, and Islamic law. As I delved into the works of Aristotle, Imam al-Ghazali, and Adam Smith, I found myself developing another kind of literacy, a cosmic literacy, by which I could make sense of myself, the world, and their relationship to the Divine. The senselessness that had impelled me towards Zaytuna now recedes, as I begin to understand the

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times and places in which we live. Just as learning the Arabic language revealed the profound meaning behind what had been mere marks and scribbles on sheets of papers, cosmic literacy enables one to read the signs that God places in His creation. My teachers, my classmates, and the supporters of Zaytuna College – who are my supporters too – have my unceasing gratitude and prayers. This precious gift is not to be squandered, and I hope, God willing, to serve those who have served me.S

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Zaytuna in Your Community

pose to our communities. He also joined Imam John Federer in a candid discussion on the American Muslim identity.

Dr. Qureshi visited the Arizona Cultural Academy in Phoenix earlier this year where he taught the “Book of Knowledge” from Imam al-Ghazali’s infamous Iĥyā’¢ulūm ad-dīn. He also shared his personal journey as a student of knowledge and his extensive travels throughout the Muslim world to learn the sacred sciences. Last but not least, Dr. Ataie, a foremost scholar in comparative religious studies, visited Chicago where he lectured on the “The Crucifixion and the Qur’an.”

The ZIYC programming team intends to roll out a new series of seminars, workshops, and lecture topics that allows Zaytuna to give back to the extraordinary communities who are the backbone of this college.S

C o m m u n i t i e s t h r o u g h o u t the United States have been integral in the growth and success of Zaytuna College. Realizing that not all of Zaytuna’s supporters and well-wishers can visit the campus or enroll in classes, the Zaytuna in Your Community (ZIYC) programs were designed to bring a taste of the college’s core teachings and educational philosophy to the Muslim communities. The programs are typically one to two-day seminars, workshops, or lectures

by Zaytuna faculty or graduates that cover a variety of topics and subjects including the foundational Islamic sciences, For more information on ZIYC and how to bring a program to your contemporary issues, practical life lessons, and more. Since hometown, please contact: ZIYC@zaytuna.edu. its inception, the ZIYC programs have reached thousands of American Muslims, partnering with community leaders and local educators.

This year, ZIYC has hosted programs in Phoenix, Charlotte, Chicago, and Seattle, with more to come, God-willing.

Speakers have included senior faculty member and co-founder, Imam Zaid Shakir, the current dean of undergraduate studies, Omar Qureshi, and full-time faculty members, Dr. Abdullah Hamid Ali and Dr. Ali Ataie. Imam Zaid recently completed a two-day seminar on marriage in Chicago and Seattle with hundreds of community members in attendance.

His unique blend of teaching the prophetic traditions related with his own practical insights, often sprinkled with humor, Dr. Abdullah bin Hamid Ali left the audience yearning for more. Dr. Abdullah Hamid Ali, at the Islamic Society of in Charlotte, discussed the challenges and perspectives that Charlotte contemporary movements on gender and gender relations

Imam Zaid Shakir at Benedictine University

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±alal >ayyib Conference at Zaytuna College

President Hamza Yusuf at the I Heart Halal Conference

Dr. Sherman Jackson at the Bay Area 10-Year Anniversary Gala

Newsworthy & Notewort hy The Zaytuna College Center for Ethical Living & Learning hosted its inaugural academic conference from March 8-9, 2019. The conference set out to broaden the conversation within the American Muslim community with regard to ĥalāl and ţayyib, and how these two concepts, in particular, inform the ethics of food production and consumption in the industrial world. The conference was well-attended, with notable speakers and panelists who shared thoughtful insights from the Islamic tradition, scientific reasoning, and experiential wisdom that gave participants much to ponder. Many of the panelists represented prominent universities and colleges, including U.C Berkley, University of Florida, Skidmore College, and Harvard.

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In April, President Hamza Yusuf attended the 25th annual Association of Core Texts and Classics (ACTC) conference held in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The ACTC is a professional association that aims to improve liberal education through the use of core texts and world classics. The annual conference heralds educators, college administrators and leaders, students, and other supporters of the liberal arts from around the world. The conference planning committee and Chair requested President Yusuf to deliver the keynote address at the opening evening plenary session on the Pedagogy and Educational Philosophy of Zaytuna College.

Zaytuna College participated in this year’s I Heart Halal exhibition and conference from April 12-14 in Chicago’s iconic Navy Pier. Co-sponsored by the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA), this spectacular event showcases ĥalal products and initiatives from around the world.

Zaytuna displayed its own unique products and best-selling books at the exhibition. Imam Zaid Shakir opened the event with the Friday sermon and prayer, while President Hamza Yusuf joined Adnan Durrani, Chief Halal Officer of Saffron Roads in a panel discussion on “How Halal Raises the Bar for Better for You Foods.” The session was moderated by Steve Bynum, Senior Producer of Worldview, WBEZ. S

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On February 17, Zaytuna celebrated their ten-year anniversary gala with staff, faculty, students, and friends and supporters. With over 600 people in attendance, the program highlighted the extraordinary milestones the young College achieved in just the span of a decade. The evening was one of gratitude for the endless blessings of God, which include the many loyal supporters who have stood by the College from its inception. Attendees enjoyed inspiring and heartfelt talks from Zaytuna students and Founders, along with a brilliant keynote address by notable American Muslim scholar, Dr. Sherman Jackson, who emphasized the importance of Zaytuna as a project and institution of critical importance for future generations.

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