about me
I'm an abolitionist and faith-teacher who helps system-affected people find peace and purpose in whatever path they choose.
My name is Taymullah, I'm an imam who specializes in restorative Islamic theology. I'm author of, '44 Ways to Manhood' and the memoir, 'American Imam' and host of the podcast, 'All Restorative Everything.'
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Serving at Harvard University and several maximum security prisons has taught me one valuable lesson over the past twenty years: most people are in pain for the same reasons, and religious dogma and rote ritual have compounded their trauma.
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Restorative Islamic theology centers people within their social / emotional context and escorts them into a new transformative approach to faith.
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I love to lift people up and watch them evolve into who they were meant to be.
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Start with this free assessment on measuring your faith
about american imam
Imam Taymullah Abdur-Rahman's incredible life story weaves the contemporary Black American experience with the Black Muslim American experience and emphasizes the role of interreligious dialogue in the fight for abolition and justice.
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By the time he was twelve, Taymullah Abdur-Rahman (born Tyrone Sutton) was a rising pop star, recruited as part of the R&B group Perfect Gentlemen, with a top-ten hit, national teen magazine covers, and an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. However, after his music career peaked, Abdur-Rahman found himself back home, with little to show for his success. He quickly became a teen father struggling to survive in Roxbury, MA. Seeing Islam as a way out of his hard-scrabble environment, he happily converted. Soon he was working in a maximum-security prison as a Muslim chaplain, where he became zealously focused on saving souls instead of understanding the outside forces that bring men to prison.
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Later, in his work as the first paid Muslim chaplain at Harvard, Abdur-Rahman began to seek counsel outside of Islam, engaging with Jewish and Christian mentors who opened his eyes to the gifts of interreligious dialogue and helped lead him to what he was truly seeking: enlightenment. With this new framework, he returned to working with prisoners and clearly saw the cyclical effects of systemic racism that keep Black and brown people locked up and without support in America today.
A sweeping narrative, American Imam voices the contemporary concerns of Black Muslim Americans in the shadow of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, in the aftermath of 9/11, and in light of the fights for social justice and prison abolition. Abdur-Rahman's story sounds an indelible rallying cry for understanding across race, religion, and cultural divides.
Celene Ibrahim, PhD, author of Women and Gender in the Quran
"From his encounters mentoring men 'warehoused like cattle in American prisons' to his stories of Harvard students navigating ideological differences in the midst of wider American culture wars, Abdur-Rahman offers readers honest and perceptive commentary on the social issues of our time."
Dr. Terrence J. Roberts, one of the Little Rock Nine and author of Lessons from Little Rock
"In the telling of his story, he invites his readers to take a long, hard look at their own lives, to go naked to the mirror and spend time in honest conversation with the person they see there; to ask difficult questions and stay there for the answers."
Irvin L. Scott, EdD, Harvard Graduate School of Education
"This text by Imam Taymullah should be read by leaders in all social, political, educational and religious sectors. This book provides guidance and inspiration on how we must work together to ensure that all of us are thriving in support of one another."
