Official Bios

Imam Zaid Shakir is a cofounder and senior faculty member of Zaytuna College. He has taught courses in Arabic, Islamic spirituality, contemporary Muslim thought, Shafi’i fiqh, Islamic history and politics. 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. Imam Zaid is a signatory along with religious and spiritual leaders from around the world who presented the UN Secretary General with a declaration in support of the Paris Climate Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, marking the largest number of nations ever signing an international agreement. In 2018, CNN listed Imam Zaid among 25 influential American Muslims.