The Brightest Islam

Sayed Abdul Rehman Bafakhy Thangal (popularly known as Bafakhy Thangal or Qaid al Qawm, Malayalam: സെയ്ദ് അബ്‌ദുൾ റഹ്‌മാൻ ബാഫഖി തങ്ങൾ (19 February 1906 - 19 January 1973 ) was born at Koyilandy (now in Kozhikode District) Puthiya Maliyekkal house as the son of Sayed Abdul Qadir Bafakhy Thangal and Fathima Mulla Beevi on 19 February 1906. Abdul Qadir Bafakhy was a trader who exchanged goods between different countries. Abdul Qadir had six sons and three daughters.[citation needed] Bafakhy Thangal was the one of the founder leaders of Indian Union Muslim League and the Leader of Samastha Kerala Jam'iyyathul Ulama

Ibn Battuta (/ˌɪbənbætˈtuːtɑː/; Arabic: محمد ابن بطوطة‎; fully ʾAbū ʿAbd al-Lāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Lāh l-Lawātī ṭ-Ṭanǧī ibn Baṭūṭah; Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد بن عبد الله اللواتي الطنجي بن بطوطة) (February 25, 1304 – 1368 or 1369) was a Muslim Moroccan scholar, and explorer who widely travelled the medieval world.[1][2] Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of the Islamic world and many non-Muslim lands, including Central Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and China. Near the end of his life, he dictated an account of his journeys, titled A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Traveling.

Avicenna (/ˌævɪˈsɛnə/; also Ibn Sīnā or Abu Ali Sina; Persian: ابن سینا‎; c. 980 – June 1037) was a Persian[4][5][6] polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age.[7] He has been described as the father of early modern medicine.[8][9][10] Of the 450 works he is known to have written, around 240 have survived, including 150 on philosophy and 40 on medicine.[11] His most famous works are The Book of Healing, a philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, and The Canon of Medicine, a medical encyclopedia[12][13][14] which became a standard medical text at many medieval universities[15] and remained in use as late as 1650.[16] In 1973, Avicenna's Canon Of Medicine was reprinted in New York.[17] Besides philosophy and medicine, Avicenna's corpus includes writings on astronomy, alchemy, geography and geology, psychology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics and works of poetry.[18]

Alija Izetbegović (Bosnian pronunciation: [ǎlija ǐzedbeɡoʋitɕ]; 8 August 1925 – 19 October 2003) was a Bosnian politician, activist, lawyer, author, and philosopher who in 1992 became the first President of the Presidency of the newly-independent Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He served in this role until 1996, when he became a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, serving until 2000. He was also the author of several books, most notably Islam Between East and West and the Islamic Declaration.

Ghalib (Urdu: غاؔلِب‎), born Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan (Urdu: مِرزااسَدُاللہ بیگ خان), 27 December 1797 – 15 February 1869),[1] was a prominent[2] Urdu and Persian-language poet during the last years of the Mughal Empire. He used his pen-names of Ghalib (Urdu: غالِب, ġhālib means "dominant") and Asad (Urdu: اسَد, Asad means "lion"). His honorific was Dabir-ul-Mulk, Najm-ud-Daula. During his lifetime the Mughals were eclipsed and displaced by the British and finally deposed following the defeat of the Indian rebellion of 1857, events that he described.[3] Most notably, he wrote several ghazals during his life, which have since been interpreted and sung in many different ways by different people. Ghalib, the last great poet of the Mughal Era, is considered to be one of the most famous and influential poet of the Urdu and Persian languages. Today Ghalib remains popular not only in India and Pakistan but also among the Hindustani diaspora around the world.[4]

Tajmahal The Taj Mahal (/ˌtɑːdʒ məˈhɑːl, ˌtɑːʒ-/;[4] Hindi: ताज महल [taːdʒ ˈmɛːɦ(ə)l], meaning "Crown of the Palaces")[5] is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the south bank of the Yamuna river in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan (reigned from 1628 to 1658), to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It also houses the tomb of Shah Jahan, the builder. The tomb is the centerpiece of a 17-hectare (42-acre) complex, which includes a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded on three sides by a crenellated wall. Interior view of the vaulted dome over the tombs of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Construction of the mausoleum was essentially completed in 1643 but work continued on other phases of the project for another 10 years. The Taj Mahal complex is believed to have been completed in its entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time to be around 32 million rupees, which in 2015 would

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (/ˈɛərdəwæn/;[2] Turkish: [ɾeˈdʒep tajˈjip ˈæɾdoan] (About this soundlisten); born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the 12th and current President of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as Prime Minister from 2003 to 2014 and as Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He founded the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2001, leading it to general election victories in 2002, 2007 and 2011 before standing down upon his election as President in 2014. Coming from an Islamist political background and as a self-described conservative democrat, he has promoted socially conservative and liberal economic policies in his administration.[3] Under his administration, Turkey has experienced democratic backsliding.[4] Erdoğan played football for Kasımpaşa before being elected in 1994 as the Mayor of Istanbul from the Islamist Welfare Party. He was stripped of his position, banned from political office, and imprisoned for four months, for reciting a

The Muqaddimah, also known as the Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun (Arabic: مقدّمة ابن خلدون‎) or Ibn Khaldun's Prolegomena (Ancient Greek: Προλεγόμενα), is a book written by the Arab historian Ibn Khaldun in 1377 which records an early view of universal history. Some modern thinkers view it as the first work dealing with the social sciences of sociology,[1][2][3] demography,[2] and cultural history.[4] The Muqaddimah also deals with Islamic theology, historiography,[5] social Darwinism,[6] Darwinism,[clarification needed][7] the philosophy of history,[1] economics,[8][9] political theory, ecology,[10][11] and the natural sciences of biology and chemistry. Ibn Khaldun wrote the work in 1377 as the introduction chapter and the first book of his planned work of world history, the Kitābu l-ʻibar ("Book of Lessons"; full title: Kitābu l-ʻibari wa Dīwāni l-Mubtada' wal-Ḥabar fī ayāmi l-ʻarab wal-ʿajam wal-barbar, waman ʻĀsarahum min Dhawī sh-Shalṭāni l-Akbār, i.e.: "Bo

Ibn Khaldun (/ˈɪbən kælˈduːn/; Arabic: أبو زيد عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن خلدون الحضرمي‎, Abū Zayd ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Khaldūn al-Ḥaḍramī; 27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406) was a leading Arab historiographer and historian.[7] He is widely considered as a forerunner of the modern disciplines of historiography, sociology, economics, and demography.[n 1][8][n 2] He is best known for his book, the Muqaddimah or Prolegomena ("Introduction"). The book influenced 17th-century Ottoman historians like Kâtip Çelebi, Ahmed Cevdet Pasha and Mustafa Naima, who used the theories in the book to analyze the growth and decline of the Ottoman Empire.[9] 19th-century European scholars acknowledged the significance of the book and considered Ibn Khaldun to be one of the greatest philosophers of the Middle Ages

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf (born 1958)[5] is an American Islamic scholar[3][6][7][8][9] and co-founder of Zaytuna College.[2][10] He is a proponent of classical learning in Islam and has promoted Islamic sciences and classical teaching methodologies throughout the world.[11] He is an advisor to the Center for Islamic Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.[12] In addition, he serves as vice-president for the Global Center for Guidance and Renewal, which was founded and is currently presided over by Abdallah bin Bayyah.[13][14] He also serves as the vice-president of the UAE-based Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies, where Abdullah bin Bayyah also serves as president.[15] He is one of the signatories[16] of A Common Word Between Us and You, an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders calling for peace and understanding. The Guardian has referred to Yusuf as "arguably the West's most influential Islamic scholar,"[17] and The New Yorker

Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad (Jawi: محضير بن محمد; IPA: [maˈhaðɪr bɪn moˈhamad]; born 10 July 1925)[1] is a Malaysian physician, author, and politician who is currently the Prime Minister of Malaysia. He previously served as Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003, making him the office's longest-serving holder. He is the chairman of the Pakatan Harapan coalition,[2] as well as a member of the Parliament of Malaysia for the Langkawi constituency in the state of Kedah. Mahathir's political career has spanned more than 70 years since he first joined a newly formed United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) in 1946; he formed his own party, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Malaysian United Indigenous Party), in 2016.[3][4] Born and raised in Alor Setar, Kedah, Mahathir excelled at school and became a medical doctor. He became active in the UMNO before entering Parliament in 1964. He served one term before losing his seat, subsequently falling out with Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman

The University of al-Qarawiyyin, also written Al Quaraouiyine or Al-Karaouine (Arabic: جامعة القرويين‎; Berber languages: ⵜⵉⵎⵣⴳⵉⴷⴰ ⵏ ⵍⵇⴰⵕⴰⵡⵉⵢⵢⵉⵏ; French: Université Al Quaraouiyine), is a university located in Fez, Morocco. It is the oldest existing, continually operating higher educational institution in the world according to UNESCO and Guinness World Records[5][6] and is occasionally referred to as the oldest university by scholars.[7] It was founded by Fatima al-Fihri in 859 with an associated madrasa, which subsequently became one of the leading spiritual and educational centers of the historic Muslim world. It was incorporated into Morocco's modern state university system in 1963. Education at Al Quaraouiyine University concentrates on the Islamic religious and legal sciences with a heavy emphasis on, and particular strengths in, Classical Arabic grammar/linguistics and Maliki law, although a few lessons on other non-Islamic subjects such as French, English are also o

Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Karman (Arabic: توكل عبد السلام خالد كرمان‎ Tawakkul 'Abd us-Salām Khalid Karmān; also Romanized Tawakul,[3] Tawakel[4][5][6]) (born 7 February 1979[6]) is a Yemeni journalist, politician, and human rights activist. She leads the group "Women Journalists Without Chains," which she co-founded in 2005.[3] She became the international public face of the 2011 Yemeni uprising that is part of the Arab Spring uprisings. In 2011, she was reportedly called the "Iron Woman" and "Mother of the Revolution" by some Yemenis.[7][8] She is a co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize,[9] becoming the first Yemeni, the first Arab woman,[10] and the second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Prize and the second youngest Nobel Peace Laureate to date.[11] Karman gained prominence in her country after 2005 in her roles as a Yemeni journalist and an advocate for a mobile phone news service denied a license in 2007, after which she led protests for pres

Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) is an Indian public central university. It was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College in 1875. The College became Aligarh Muslim University in 1920.The main campus of AMU is located in the city of Aligarh. It has its three off-campus centres at Malappuram (Kerala), Murshidabad (West Bengal) and Kishanganj (Bihar). The university is an Institute of National Importance provided under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution at its commencement.

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) (Arabic: جامعة الملك عبد الله للعلوم و التقنية‎ jāmiʿat al-malik ʿabd al-Lāh li-l-ʿulūm wa-t-teqniyya) is a private research university located in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. Founded in 2009, the University provides research and graduate training programs in English as the official language of instruction. KAUST is the first mixed-gender university campus in Saudi Arabia.[3] In 2013, the University was among the 500 fastest growing research and citation records in the world.[4] In the 2016 Nature Index Rising Stars, the University ranked #19 in the world of the fastest rising universities for high quality research output.[5] In 2019 and in the framework of achieving Saudi Vision 2030, KAUST signed an agreement with Elm, a degetal solution company, to establish collaboration between the two parties the field of research and education.[6]

Muhammad Yunus (Bengali: মুহাম্মদ ইউনূস; born 28 June 1940) is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist, and civil society leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance. These loans are given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. In 2006, Yunus and the Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts through microcredit to create economic and social development from below". The Norwegian Nobel Committee said that "lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty" and that "across cultures and civilizations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development".[1] Yunus has received several other national and international honours. He received the United States Presidential Medal of F

Better than the entire world, is our Hindustan, We are its nightingales, and it (is) our garden abode If we are in an alien place, the heart remains in the homeland, Know us to be only there where our heart is. That tallest mountain, that shade-sharer of the sky, It (is) our sentry, it (is) our watchman In its lap frolic those thousands of rivers, Whose vitality makes our garden the envy of Paradise. O the flowing waters of the Ganges, do you remember that day When our caravan first disembarked on your waterfront? Religion does not teach us to bear ill-will among ourselves We are of Hind, our homeland is Hindustan. In a world in which ancient Greece, Egypt, and Rome have all vanished without trace Our own attributes (name and sign) live on today. Such is our existence that it cannot be erased Even though, for centuries, the cycle of time has been our enemy. Iqbal! We have no confidant in this world What does any one know of our hidden pain?

Saare Jahaan Se Achcha Hindostaan Hamaraa Hamaraa Saare Jahaan Se Achcha Hindostaan Hamaraa Hamaraa Hum BulBulain Hai Iss Ki, Ye Gulsitan Hamaraa Hamaraa Parbat Ho Sabse Unchaa Hum saya aasman kaa Parbat Ho Sabse Unchaa Hum saya aasman kaa Vo Santaree Hamaraa, vo Paaswaan hamaraa hamaraa Godee mein kheltee Hain Is kee hazaaron nadiya Gulshan Hai Jinke dam se, Rashk-e-janna hamaraa hamaraa Mazhab nahin Sikhataa Apas Mein Bayr Rakhnaa Hindee Hai Hum Hindee Hai Hum Hindee Hai Hum Vatan hai hindostaan hamaraa Saare Jahaan Se Achcha Hindostaan Hamaraa Hamaraa Hum BulBulain Hai Iss Ki, Ye Gulsitan Hamaraa Hamaraa Saare Jahaan Se Achcha Hindostaan Hamaraa Hamaraa Saare Jahaan Se Achcha

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (/ˈæbdəl kəˈlɑːm/ (About this soundlisten); 15 October 1931 – 27 July 2015) was an Indian politician and aerospace scientist who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. He was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu and studied physics and aerospace engineering. He spent the next four decades as a scientist and science administrator, mainly at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and was intimately involved in India's civilian space programme and military missile development efforts.[1] He thus came to be known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology.[2][3][4] He also played a pivotal organisational, technical, and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974.[5] Kalam was elected as the 11th President of Ind

Tipu Sultan (born Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu,[2] 20 November 1750 – 4 May 1799), also known as the Tipu sahab[3] was a ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. He was the eldest son of Sultan Hyder Ali of Mysore.[4] Tipu Sultan introduced a number of administrative innovations during his rule,[5] including his coinage, a new Mauludi lunisolar calendar,[6] and a new land revenue system which initiated the growth of the Mysore silk industry.[7] He expanded the iron-cased Mysorean rockets and commissioned the military manual Fathul Mujahidin, and is considered a pioneer in the use of rocket artillery.[8] He deployed the rockets against advances of British forces and their allies during the Anglo-Mysore Wars, including the Battle of Pollilur and Siege of Seringapatam. He also embarked on an ambitious economic development program that established Mysore as a major economic power, with some of the world's highest real wages and living standards in the late 18th century.[9] Napoleon Bonap

Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall (born Marmaduke William Pickthall; 7 April 1875 – 19 May 1936) was a Western Islamic scholar noted for his English translation of the Qur'an (1930). A convert from Christianity, Pickthall was a novelist, esteemed by D. H. Lawrence, H. G. Wells, and E. M. Forster, as well as a journalist, headmaster, and political and religious leader. He declared his conversion to Islam in dramatic fashion after delivering a talk on 'Islam and Progress' on 29 November 1917, to the Muslim Literary Society in Notting Hill, West London.

Ahmed Hoosen Deedat (Gujarati: અહમદ હુસેન દીદત) (1 July 1918 – 8 August 2005) was a South African writer and public speaker of Indian descent. He was best known as a Muslim missionary, who held numerous inter-religious public debates with evangelical Christians, as well as video lectures on Islam, Christianity, and the Bible. Deedat established the IPCI, an international Islamic missionary organisation, and wrote several widely distributed booklets on Islam and Christianity. He was awarded the King Faisal International Prize in 1986 for his fifty years of missionary work. He wrote and lectured in English.

Yusuf Estes (born Joseph Estes, 1944) is an American preacher from Texas who converted from Christianity to Islam in 1991. He claims to have been a Muslim Chaplain for the United States Bureau of Prisons through the 1990s, and to have served a delegate to the United Nations World Peace Conference for Religious Leaders held at the U.N. in September 2000. Estes has served as a guest presenter and a keynote speaker at various Islamic events. Estes was named as the Islamic Personality of the Year at the Dubai International Holy Quran Award ceremony on 8 August 2012. Estes's Islamic background is Salafi. Estes is the founder and president of Guide US TV, a free-to-air Internet and satellite TV channel, which broadcasts programs about Islam.

Maurice Bucaille (French pronunciation: ​[moris bykaj]; 19 July 1920 in Pont-l'Évêque, Calvados – 17 February 1998) was a French medical doctor and author. In 1973, Bucaille was appointed family physician to King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. His patients included the members of the family of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

Murad Wilfried Hofmann (born 1931 in Aschaffenburg, Germany) is a German diplomat and author. He has authored several books on Islam, including Journey to Makkah (ISBN 0-915957-85-X) and Islam: The Alternative (ISBN 0-915957-71-X). Many of his books and essays focus on Islam's place in the West and, after 11 September, in particular, in the United States. He is one of the signatories of A Common Word Between Us and You, an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders, calling for peace and understanding. Hofmann was born a Catholic, but converted to Islam in 1980. He studied at Harvard University. His conversion was met with some controversy due to his high profile in the German government. He converted to Islam as a result of what he witnessed in the Algerian War of Independence, his fondness for Islamic art, and what he saw as contradictions in Paulist Christian doctrine. Hofmann served in the German Foreign Service from 1961 to 1994. He first served in Algeri

The Road to Mecca, also known as Road to Mecca or Road to Makkah, is the autobiography of Muslim scholar, intellectual, political theorist and spiritual writer Muhammad Asad. The book received critical acclaim upon publication, including reviews in prestigious New York City periodicals. One reviewer, writing in New York Herald Tribune Book Review, called it an “intensely interesting and moving book.

Muhammad Asad (pronounced [ˈmoʊ̯hämæd ˈæsæd] (About this soundlisten), Arabic: محمد أسد‎ /muħammad ʔasad/, Urdu: محمد أسد‎, born Leopold Weiss; 12 July 1900– 20 February 1992) was a Jewish-born Austro-Hungarian, Pakistani Ambassador, Muslim journalist, traveler, writer, linguist, thinker, political theorist, diplomat and Islamic scholar.Asad was one of the most influential European Muslims of the 20th century. By the age of thirteen, young Weiss had acquired a passing fluency in Hebrew and Aramaic, other than his native languages German and Polish. By his mid-twenties, he could read and write in English, French, Persian and Arabic. In Mandatory Palestine, Weiss engaged in arguments with Zionist leaders like Chaim Weizmann, voicing his reservations about some aspects of the Zionist Movement.After traveling across the Arab World as a journalist, he converted to Sunni Islam in 1926 and chose for himself the Muslim name "Muhammad Asad"—Asad being the Arabic rendition of h

lhan Abdullahi Omar (born October 4, 1981) is a Somali-American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district since 2019. The district includes all of Minneapolis and some of its suburbs. Omar was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2016 on the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party line, which made her the first Somali American elected to legislative office in the United States.[1] On November 6, 2018, she became the first naturalized citizen from Africa and first Somali-American elected to the United States Congress. Along with Rashida Tlaib, she was one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress and the first minority woman to serve as a U.S. representative from Minnesota. A member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Omar has advocated for a living wage, affordable housing and healthcare, student loan debt forgiveness, the protection of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and the abolition of ICE. She

Malcolm X (1925–1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist. Some saw him as a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans; others accused him of preaching racism and violence. He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history. His father was killed when he was six and his mother was placed in a mental hospital when he was thirteen, after which he lived in a series of foster homes. In 1946, at age 20, he went to prison for larceny and breaking and entering. While in prison, he became a member of the Nation of Islam (NOI), changing his birth name Malcolm Little to Malcolm X because, he later wrote, Little was the name that "the white slavemaster ... had imposed upon [his] paternal forebears". After his parole in 1952, he quickly rose to become one of the organization's most influential leaders, serving as the pub

Allahrakka Rahman (About this soundpronunciation (help·info); born A. S. Dileep Kumar) known professionally as A. R. Rahman, is an Indian Tamil music director, composer, musician, singer and music producer. A. R. Rahman's works are noted for integrating Indian classical music with electronic music, world music and traditional orchestral arrangements. Among his awards are six National Film Awards, two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, fifteen Filmfare Awards and seventeen Filmfare Awards South. He has been awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award, in 2010 by the Government of India. In 2009, Rahman was included on the Time 100 list of the world's most influential people. The UK-based world-music magazine Songlines named him one of "Tomorrow's World Music Icons" in August 2011. South Indian fans of Rahman refer him with the nickname of "The Mozart of Madras", and "Isai Puyal" (English:

Kamala Surayya (born Kamala; 31 March 1934 – 31 May 2009), popularly known by her one-time pen name Madhavikutty and Kamala Das, was an Indian English poet as well as a leading Malayalam author from Kerala, India. Her popularity in Kerala is based chiefly on her short stories and autobiography, while her oeuvre in English, written under the name Kamala Das, is noted for the poems and explicit autobiography. She was also a widely read columnist and wrote on diverse topics including women's issues, child care, politics among others. She was born in a conservative Hindu Nair (Nalapat) family having royal ancestry, She converted to Islam on December 11, 1999, at the age of 65 and assumed the name Kamala Surayya. Her open and honest treatment of female sexuality, free from any sense of guilt, infused her writing with power and she got hope after freedom, but also marked her as an iconoclast in her generation.On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died at a hospital in Pune. On 1 Febru

Zaytuna College (formerly known as Zaytuna Institute) is a Muslim liberal arts college located in Berkeley, California. Zaytuna is the first accredited Muslim undergraduate college in the United States and was founded in 2008[1] by Hamza Yusuf, Zaid Shakir and Hatem Bazian.Prior to becoming a college, Zaytuna was an institute, founded in 1996 by Hamza Yusuf, Zaid Shakir and Hesham Alalusi. Zaytuna College seeks to incorporate the importance of the liberal arts and humanities into a traditional Islamic education curriculum. In the academic year 2014-2015, Zaytuna College had an undergraduate student body of about fifty students, most of whom live on campus. Zaytuna College offers one major, in Islamic Law and Theology, with courses ranging from Arabic grammar and Islamic jurisprudence, to American history and literature.Zaytuna College also conducts an intensive Arabic language summer course.

Sami Yusuf is a British singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, and humanitarian from London.Yusuf gained international attention with the release of his debut album, Al-Mu’allim, in 2003. Now with over 34 million albums sold, he performs at packed venues around the world.The BBC, CNN,ARTE,FRANCE 24,Reuters, Time,Rolling Stone, and Music Week are among the media outlets that have covered him and his work. His seventh studio album, Barakah, was released in 2016. In recognition of his humanitarian work, in 2014 Yusuf was appointed United Nations Global Ambassador for the World Food Programme.