Why Me? Understanding One's Worldly Fate

Dr. Omar Suleiman is a Palestinian-American imam, scholar, civil rights activist, and the founding president of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research — one of the most prolific Islamic research and outreach institutions in the contemporary West. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1986 to a Palestinian Muslim family with roots in Nablus, he began his Islamic studies in 2000 and pursued traditional training across the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Malaysia.

Suleiman holds bachelor's degrees in Islamic Law and Accounting, master's degrees in Islamic Finance and Political History, and a PhD in Islamic Thought and Civilization from the International Islamic University Malaysia, completed in 2020. He served as imam of the Jefferson Muslim Association in his hometown for six years before relocating to Dallas in 2013, where he became Resident Scholar of the Valley Ranch Islamic Center. In 2016 he founded the Yaqeen Institute, which produces accessible scholarship across creed, spirituality, fiqh, and contemporary social questions. He also serves as adjunct professor of Islamic Studies at Southern Methodist University and is the founding director of MUHSEN, a nonprofit advocating for Muslims with disabilities and their families.

Suleiman has been notably active in interfaith and social justice work, leading the invocation at the 2016 memorial service for the slain Dallas police officers attended by Presidents Obama and Bush, and organizing around issues including immigration, racial justice, and Palestinian rights. He has appeared in CNN, USA Today, The Guardian, HuffPost, and The Dallas Morning News, and is consistently included in the Muslim 500 list of the world's most influential Muslims.