Towards Unity: Understanding Shia Islam With Sheikkh Sayyid Sulayman

Please join the UW Muslim Students Association & WUD Society and Politics for our discussion and Q&A session, "A Journey Towards Unity: Understanding Shia Islam". Shia Muslims (followers of the Jafari school of thought) are the largest minority group in Islam. And the discussion surrounding differences between Sunni and Shi'ite (Shia) ideologies has recently entered the spotlight. As a religious minority group within Islam, there is often a great deal of mystery surrounding Shia Islam for non-Muslims and Muslims alike. In this session, we will be getting an introduction to Shia Islam from Seyed Sulayman Abidi, a classically trained scholar in Shi'ite Islam. We will follow the presentation with a Question and Answer session.
Seyed Sulayman Abidi was born and raised in Western New York. After completing his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Buffalo, he went on to study at the preeminent center for Shi'ite scholarship, the Islamic Seminary in Qum, Iran. There he completed his studies in the disciplines of Arabic language and literature, formal logic, jurisprudence, Islamic history, theology, and philosophy. Seyed Sulayman currently resides in Chicago , where he is completing his PhD from the University of Chicago in Near Eastern Civilizations and serving as the religious director of the Baitul Ilm Islamic Center.