Imam Adéyínká Mendes

Imam Adéyínká Mendes is the founder of the Bilal Spiritual Center for Peace and the Arts and co-founder of the African-American Healing, Ancestry and Development (AHAD) Collective. He is an educator, author, translator of sacred literature, and spiritual activist who has traveled the world studying Quranic Exegesis, Prophetic Narrations, Classical Arabic, Theology, Sacred Jurisprudence, Contemplative Arts, and the Science of Spiritual Illumination with living masters. He has been teaching these and other sacred sciences since 2001, and speaks internationally on Quranic Spirituality, Youth and Adult Rites of Passage, peace-building, and the healing wisdom of Black Muslim cultures and civilizations. Adéyínká is a recipient of the Center for Global Muslim Life "2020 Spiritual Impact Award" and his latest work, "The Spirits of Black Folk: Sages Through the Ages" is due to be released in February 2021. He lives with his wife, Rukayat Yakub, an author and educator, and their children in Gambia.

Shaykh Yasir Fahmy

graduated from Rutgers Business School. After working for a number of years in finance, he then moved to Egypt where he studied for eight years at Al-Azhar University. In his time at Al-Azhar, he attained numerous 'ijazas (independent certifications) and studied under many notable teachers including Shaykh Ahmad Taha Rayyan. In 2013, Shaykh Yasir Fahmy became the first American Azhari to teach in the renowned Al-Azhar Mosque.

Currently, Shaykh Yasir is the Muslim instructor at Harvard Divinity school as well as the founder of the Prophetic Living Initiative. Shaykh Yasir also acts as the religious advisor for al-Falah Center.

Shaykha Ieasha Prime

Shaykha Ieasha Prime converted to Islam more than 20 years ago. She studied at the Fajr Institute in Egypt, and later moved to Yemen and enrolled in an Islamic university for women. She is most passionate about combining Islamic studies, cultural art, activism and service for the purpose of training leaders. She has served as the Director of Women's Affairs at Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Virginia and is co-founder and Executive Director of Barakah INC, an organization committed to training Muslim women in traditional Islamic sciences. She now serves as a Scholar-in-Residence and Associate Chaplain at ICNYU. Sh Ieasha is a proud wife and mother of three children.

Ustadha Zaynab Ansari

has served the Muslim Community of Knoxville since 2014 and is currently a scholar-in-residence at Tayseer Seminary. She has over ten years of experience as a student and teacher of traditional Islam in various settings, having spent her formative years studying in Damascus, Syria with both male and female scholars of Qur’an, Islamic law, theology, and spirituality. Prior to settling in Knoxville, Ustadha Zaynab was based in Atlanta, where she earned degrees in World History and Middle Eastern Studies from Georgia State University. In addition to her work at Tayseer Seminary, she is part of the teaching faculty of the Ribaat Program, an online Islamic Studies curriculum led by Dr. Tamara Gray.

Imam Dawud Walid

Imam Dawud Walid is currently the Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI). He has studied under qualified scholars the disciplines of Arabic grammar and morphology, foundations of Islamic jurisprudence, sciences of the exegesis of the Qur’an, and Islamic history. He has also lectured at over 50 institutions of higher learning about Islam, interfaith dialogue and social justice including at Harvard University, DePaul University and the University of the Virgin Islands. He previously served as an imam at Masjid Wali Muhammad in Detroit and the Bosnian American Islamic Center in Hamtramck, Michigan, and continues to deliver sermons and lectures at Islamic centers across the U.S. and Canada.

Shaykh Ubaydullah Evans

Shaykh Ubaydullah Evans is the first Scholar-in-Residence at American Learning Institute for Muslims. He converted to Islam while in high school. Upon conversion, Ustadh Ubaydullah began studying some of the foundational books of Islam under the private tutelage of local scholars while simultaneously pursuing a degree in journalism from Columbia. Since then he has studied at Chicagoland’s Institute of Islamic Education (IIE), in Tarim,Yemen, and at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, where he became the first African American to graduate from its Shari’a program. Shaykh Ubaydullah also teaches with the Ta’leef Collective and the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN).

Imam Omar Suleiman

is the Founder and President of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, fand an Adjunct Professor of Islamic Studies in the Graduate Liberal Studies Program at SMU (Southern Methodist University). He is also the Resident Scholar at Valley Ranch Islamic Center and Co-Chair Emeritus of Faith Forward Dallas at Thanks-Giving Square. He holds a Bachelors in Accounting, a Bachelors in Islamic Law, a Masters in Islamic Finance, a Masters in Political History, and a PhD in Islamic Thought and Civilization from the International Islamic University of Malaysia.