Hub Talks
Before King and Gandhi, there was Shaykh Ahmadu Bamba (d. 1927), a Senegalese Muslim scholar, visionary and social reformer who nonviolently resisted French colonial rule. In his youth, Bamba studied with leading scholars of his time and specialized in Quran and Hadith studies, jurisprudence, theology, spirituality and poetry. Despite numerous assassination attempts, being exiled, imprisoned and placed under house arrest by the French colonial authorities, Bamba remained nonviolent and committed to serving God and humanity through establishing schools, farms and a city—Touba, Senegal—that remains a beacon of peace in the world and a place of pilgrimage for millions of people every year. In our Hub Talks, Dr. Rudolph Bilal Ware will speak about Bamba’s dreams, visions and nonviolent covenant with the Prophet Muhammad. Shaykh Muhammad Adeyinka Mendes will also speak about Bamba’s pedagogy of peaceful individual, communal and socioeconomic transformation. As a nonviolent visionary and social reformer, Bamba challenges our preconceived notions about Islam as a religion of the sword. As a leading Muslim scholar and prolific author from West Africa, he also compels us to recognize knowledge beyond the Arab, Turkish, Persian and Indian contexts. Join us and learn about a Muslim peacemaker of the 20thcentury and the relevance of his vision and teachings in our own time and place.
Dinner
Dinner will be served at 6:30pm. For every meal served at our events, we donate a meal to someone in need.
Children’s Event
Children ages 2-10 are welcome for storytime, games and a movie from 6:30-9:00pm. Please reserve free children’s tickets with your purchase. Space is limited. Presented by Zair Zabr Play.
The children’s event is now full and unfortunately we cannot accept any more reservations. Thank you.
Biographies
Dr. Rudolph Bilal Ware is a historian of Africa and Islam. He earned his PhD in history in 2004 from the University of Pennsylvania where he was trained in African History, African-American History, and Islamic Intellectual History. He is currently an associate professor in the department of History at the University of California-Santa Barbara, and the founder and director of the Initiative for the Study of Race, Religion, and Revolution (ISRRAR). His first book, The Walking Qur’an: Islamic Education, Embodied Knowledge, and History in West Africa, explores the history of a thousand years of Quran schooling in the region. He is the author of multiple articles on Muslim anti-slavery movements in Africa and the Atlantic World, and his most recent book, Jihad of the Pen, explores Sufi thought in West Africa.
Shaykh Muhammad Adeyinka Mendes is the Resident Scholar and Imam at the Muslim Center of Greater Princeton, New Jersey, and co-founder of the Garden of Knowledge Academy for Arabic and Sacred Sciences. He is a native Ohioan of Yoruba, Brazilian and African-American ancestry who also spent his formative years in Lagos, Nigeria and Houston, Texas. Shaykh Adeyinka embraced Islam at the age of seventeen after a life changing journey to Jerusalem. He studied History at Morehouse College and Arabic and Cultural Studies at the Ohio State University. He then went on to learn the science of sacred mindfulness and meditation within the Muslim tradition and has been trained for over two decades in the spiritual and scholastic disciplines of Muslim civilization by classical Muslim scholars and academics from around the world. Shaykh Adeyinka is particularly passionate about helping men rediscover their sacred masculinity, inspiring youth, empowering women and uplifting African-Americans with knowledge of their vast spiritual, intellectual and sociocultural legacy. He is committed to building bridges of peace, hope and healing between diverse peoples in order to establish a more compassionate, just and sacred world that our hearts and minds yearn for. He currently resides in New Jersey with his wife and children.
Purchase tickets
A limited number of tickets will be provided for free for guests who otherwise could not attend. Hub925 members can also receive a discount code. Please contact us at [email protected].