Zaytuna Institute

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Zaytuna Institute is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) educational institute located in Hayward, California, in the United States. It was founded by Hamza Yusuf and Hesham Alalusi in 1996, inspired by a commitment to revive the time-tested methods of traditional Islamic scholarship and provide education to Muslim Americans in a contemporary context.

1 Program Summary
2 Methodology
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Program Summary

The Institute offers a variety of programs, including:

Quarterly Courses - Zaytuna Institute offers a variety of courses throughout the year at its Hayward location. Approximately 250 individual students register for 10-14 courses each quarter, with an average total attendance of 25 students per class.

Full-Time Seminary, in development - This program is designed to develop indigenous scholars conversant with Islam and western thought. As the North American Muslim community grows, their spiritual and intellectual needs demand homegrown scholars who understand the cultural nuances of western society.

Knowledge Resources - Zaytuna Institute's Knowledge Resources (ZIKR) program enables broad-range dissemination of sacred knowledge to people all around the world in myriad formats.

To serve Muslims searching for knowledge while grappling with the arduous scheduling demands of the modern world, Zaytuna offers intensive weekend workshops in cities throughout the United States. These workshops are structured as concentrated sessions with student exercises and measurable, attianable goals to facilitate learning.

[edit] Methodology

Zaytuna draws upon sacred knowledge from the rudimentary sources of Islam, Qur'an and Sunnah, as they have been understood and explained by the masters of Muslim exegetical tradition in order to provide time-honored insight into the meaning of God's message to humanity.

Zaytuna is a text-based community, and does not deviate from the collective wisdom of its recognized scholars. The Zaytuna community seeks a belief structure that has been transmitted from over a millennium of legal scholarship, reflection, and inner peace in the great legacy of spiritually uplifiting meanings and practices initiated by the Prophet Muhammad that were handed down by successive generations of noble and refined scholars.