; Pennsylvania, US){kind=link}
Shaykh Yahya Rhodus (al-Maqasid); Pennsylvania, US
Al-Maqasid believes that the highest priority of their community is to build sound educational institutions and communities that effectively root the realities of Islam in our lives. Only then, are we able to make the unique and beneficial contributions of which we are capable.
This principled engagement they are striving for cannot take place without immersing ourselves in the Prophetic Inheritance. For this reason, they are dedicated to facilitating the realization of Islam, Iman, and Ihsan through immersion in the prophetic inheritance.
Their mission is cultivate holistic learning environments rooted in knowledge, devotion, and service by providing full-time, part-time, online, and community programs.
Just as certain conditions must be present in the physical environment for growth, likewise there are conditions that must exist for religious and spiritual growth. Al-Maqasid envisions a space that is welcoming to all seekers, a space where people of varying degrees of practice can assemble and benefit regardless of their background.
Shaykh Yahya Rhodus, the founder and director of Al-Maqasid, was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He embraced Islam at the age of 19 in Santa Clara, California, where he began his study of Islam with Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and visiting Mauritanian scholars. In 1998, Shaykh Yahya traveled to Mauritania to pursue a full-time course of study, where he learned from some of Mauritania’s greatest scholars, including the distinguished, Murabit al-Hajj. He also spent an interim period in Damascus, Syria where he received formal education in the Arabic language, grammar, and Qur’anic recitation. In 2000, Shaykh Yahya moved to Tarim, Yemen to continue his studies at the prestigious learning institute, Dar al-Mustafa. There, he spent his formative years studying foundational Islamic sciences with Habib ‘Umar bin Hafiz, Habib ‘Ali al-Jifri, and other scholars of Tarim.
In the latter part of 2005, Shaykh Yahya returned to the U.S. Since then, he has dedicated himself to calling people to Allah Most High, teaching and lecturing all over the world. He lives in Allentown, Pennsylvania with his wife and three children, where he is invested in al-Maqasid.