Dear Seekers,
We look forward to seeing you all at 9:30 PM EST/6:30 PST.
🕌 The Deep Sunnah Course - A Study of 101 Divine Sayings on Spirituality
📖 This Week's Topic: Hadith 42 “What Is This Deep Stirring in Your Heart?”
📘 Text:
The Niche of Spiritual Lights (Mishkat al-Anwar)
by Shaykh Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi
👨🏾🏫 Teacher: Shaykh Muhammad Adeyinka Mendes
🗓️ Wednesdays
🔗 Join us:
Register Here: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/deep-sunnah
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88651644303?pwd=ZGh4eDJZdVhOaDRya1ZMOEJhYktzZz09
🌊 Come Dive into the Ocean of Prophetic Wisdom and Spirituality 🕊️
Shaykh Adeyinka Muhammad Mendes is an imam, educator, translator, author, and community builder with more than two decades of experience in Islamic scholarship, spiritual formation, pastoral leadership, youth mentorship, and community development. He serves as Senior Scholar and Religious Affairs Advisor for Wasat and as Imam and Resident Scholar at the River Oaks Islamic Center in Houston, Texas.
He is the founder and president of Marhama Village International, an initiative dedicated to contemplative spiritual formation, ethical leadership, social healing, ecological stewardship, and prophetic community building. He is also a co-founder of the AHAD Collective, which works toward the spiritual, cultural, familial, and material flourishing of African American Muslim communities, and the Muslim-Indigenous Circle, which cultivates relationships, learning, and solidarity between Muslim and Indigenous communities. He is also the founder of Hero’s Journey Umrah and Rites of Passage, a spiritual mentorship and leadership-development experience for fathers and sons.
Shaykh Adeyinka earned his BA in Arabic Language and Culture from The Ohio State University, graduating magna cum laude. His traditional Islamic education has taken him across the Muslim world, with extended studies in Syria, Mauritania, and Nigeria, as well as learning experiences throughout West and North Africa and the Middle East. Among the scholars with whom he has studied are Shaykh Murabit al-Hajj, Shaykh Muhammad al-Ya‘qoubi, Shaykh Muhammad an-Ninowy, Shaykh Alfa Ibrahim Maiduka, Shaykh Bashir Niasse, Shaykh Aly N'Daw, and Shaykh Zo Ahmad Abdullah. His studies have included Qur’an, Arabic language, theology, Maliki jurisprudence, Hadith methodology, logic, prophetic biography, spiritual purification, and other sciences from the classical Islamic intellectual tradition.
A significant dimension of his scholarly work has focused on recovering and transmitting the intellectual and spiritual heritage of African Muslims. Through manuscript research, translation, teaching, and public scholarship, he has worked to make classical West African Islamic texts and traditions accessible to contemporary audiences. He is a translator and contributor to The Spirits of Black Folk: Sages Through the Ages and has translated a number of classical Arabic works from the West African Islamic tradition. His teaching and research interests include Qur’anic spirituality, Islamic ethics, contemplative practice, Black Muslim intellectual traditions, human formation, family and youth development, community healing, and the cultivation of spiritually grounded leadership.
Drawing upon the Islamic scholarly and spiritual tradition, West African wisdom, and longstanding relationships with Indigenous communities, Shaykh Adeyinka teaches and mentors individuals and communities in the pursuit of healing, justice, spiritual maturity, and service. His larger vocation is centered on cultivating human beings, families, institutions, and communities rooted in faith, prophetic character, mercy, civic responsibility, intrafaith and interfaith collaboration, and service to the common good.
He teaches nationally and internationally through mosques, universities, retreats, conferences, online programs, and community initiatives. He lives in Houston, Texas, with his wife and seven children.