Futuwwa (Spiritual Chivalry)

After having embraced Islam at the age of 19 in California and thereafter spending nearly two decades in some of the most prestigious learning institutions in the Muslim and Western worlds, Shaykh Yahya Rhodus returned to the United States with the singular purpose of creating an institution that would focus on immersion in the Prophetic Inheritance, which encompasses all aspects of Islam through the perspective of the knowledge bequeathed from the Prophet Muhammad ‎ﷺ to the scholars of the religion. The result is al-Maqasid, a non-profit organization located in the scenic hills of the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, with the vision of facilitating the realization of Islam, Iman and Ihsan through immersion in the Prophetic Inheritance. In order to achieve its mission, Al-Maqasid offers a diverse set of programs (full-time, part-time, online, and community) that allow for various levels of formal learning, as well as regular opportunities to increase one’s religious knowledge and practice, with the goal of cultivating holistic learning environments rooted in knowledge, devotion and service. Al-Maqasid’s most ambitious goal is to move towards establishing a seminary. For Shaykh Yahya, the idea of Al-Maqasid was conceived through his own journey in which he began his study of the Islamic sciences immediately after his conversion to Islam with scholars such as Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and visiting Mauritanian scholars such as Shaykh Khatri Wuld Bayba, and Shaykh Abd Allah Wuld Ahmadna. Shortly thereafter, he traveled to Mauritania to pursue a full­-time course of study where he was able to learn from one of Mauritania’s greatest scholars, Murabit al-­Hajj. Following an interim period of study in Damascus, Syria, Shaykh Yahya went on to spend the best part of seven years in Tarim, in the Hadramawt Valley of Yemen. There, he studied at the reputable school, Dar al­-Mustafa, with the renowned scholars Habib Umar bin Hafiz and Habib Ali al­-Jifri. He holds a B.A. in Near Eastern Studies from UC Berkeley, an M.A. in Islamic Studies from the Graduate Theological Union, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Cambridge, England, in collaboration with Dr. Tim Winter (Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad). Shaykh Yahya is the Founding Director of al-Maqasid.