• About
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    In 2009, Zaytuna College was founded in Berkeley, California, with a mission that called for grounding students in the Islamic scholarly tradition as well as in the cultural currents and critical ideas shaping modern society.

  • Academics
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    As a Muslim liberal arts college in the West, Zaytuna offers a curriculum that provides its students with a foundation in the intellectual heritage of two major world civilizations: the Islamic and the Western.

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  • Admissions & Aid
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    Our mission is to educate students to become morally, intellectually, and spiritually accomplished individuals ready to contribute to our contemporary world in ways that are proportionate to their gifts and to the needs of human society.

     

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  • Campus Life
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    Zaytuna’s campus is on Holy Hill and students enter the College as part of a cohort, a community of learners that travel together through the curriculum.

Zaid Shakir

Professor Emeritus; Board Observer

Zaid Shakir

Biography

Email: zaid.shakir@zaytuna.edu

Zaid Shakir is a prominent American Muslim scholar and a professor emeritus and board observer of Zaytuna College. He has taught courses in Arabic, Islamic spirituality, contemporary Muslim thought, Islamic history and politics, and Shafi’i fiqh at the College. He speaks and writes on a wide range of topics, and he travels frequently across the United States to support institution-building projects in the Muslim community. In 2007, he was a signatory of the 2007 letter “A Common Word Between Us and You,” an appeal for peace and cooperation between Christians and Muslims, and in 2016, he presided over the public memorial for Muhammad Ali.

Education
Publications
Professional Activities

Education



  • B.A., Islamic Law and Arabic Language, Abu Nour University, Damascus, 2001 M.A.

  • Political Science, Rutgers University, New Jersey, 1985 B.A.

  • (summa cum laude), International Relations, American University, Washington, DC, 1983.

  • Computer Support Specialist, United States Air Force, Logistical Support Training School, Denver, Colorado,

  • 1976 United States Air Force – Accommodation Medal – 1981 Diplomas (ijazahs) from Shaykh Abdul Rahman al-Shaghuri (non-philosophy Tasawwuf texts), Shaykh Mustafa al-Turkmani (Islamic Sciences) and Shaykh Muhammad al-Ya'qubi (Islamic Sciences).

Selected Works




  • Where I'm Coming From: The Year In Review, NID Publishers, 2010.




  • Treatise for the Seekers of Guidance, NID Publishers, 2008 (translated with commentary has been awarded as a finalist in the category of general spirituality by USA Book News).




  • “The Zaytuna Ruku Tree”, Holy Ground: A Gathering of Voices on Caring and Creation, 2008.




  • A Sierra Club landmark book collection. Scattered Pictures: Reflections of An American Muslim, Zaytuna Institute, 2005, and reprint NID Publishers, 2007.




  • Agenda to Change our Condition (2007).




  • The Heirs of the Prophets, Starlatch Press, 2001 (translated).




  • Muslims and The Climate Crisis: Responding To A Higher Call, Creation At The Crossroads, 2016. A faith-sharing resource created in collaboration by RENEW International, GreenFaith, and the Catholic Climate Covenant.



Prior to Zaytuna College


He speaks and writes on a wide range of topics and has become a voice of conscience for American Muslims as well as people of other faiths. He is regularly included as one of the Western world’s most influential Muslim scholars in The Muslim 500, an annual ranking edited by John Esposito and Ibrahim Kalin. He is also one of the signatories of "A Common Word Between Us and You," an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders that calls for peace and mutual understanding. He holds an M.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University.