Zaid Shakir – Mercy: The Distinguishing Trait of Islam

Zaid ShakirDecember 11, 20110 comments

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American Muslim Experience Interfaith Relations Seerah Mercy Social Justice Quran Dua Character & Virtue

About this lecture

In this powerful lecture delivered in Washington, D.C., Imam Zaid Shakir explores mercy as the defining characteristic of Islam and connects it inseparably to heroism, sacrifice, and the giving of preference to others. Drawing on Quranic verses, the words of Abigail Adams, and the real-life stories of figures like Rais Bhuiyan and Simon Kennedy, he calls on Muslims to rise above the challenges of the time by embodying compassion in their politics, economics, and daily lives. The lecture concludes with a moving communal prayer for light, urging every believer to become a source of mercy and goodness in the world.

Imam Zaid Shakir is an American scholar and co-founder of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, the first accredited Muslim liberal arts college in the United States. Born in Berkeley and raised in housing projects in Georgia and Connecticut, he embraced Islam in 1977 while serving in the United States Air Force. He earned degrees in international relations and political science, then studied Arabic and the Islamic sciences for years in Egypt, Syria, and Morocco. A former imam of Masjid Al-Islam in New Haven, he teaches at Zaytuna and lectures nationally on Islamic spirituality, social justice, and the Black American Muslim experience. He is regularly listed among the most influential Muslims in the world.

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