Adeyinka "Muhammad" Mendes
About Adéyínká "Muhammad" Mendes
Adéyínká "Muhammad" Mendes (Adé) is an Imam, scholar, institution builder, and translator whose life's work is the formation of spiritually grounded people, flourishing families, and enduring communities. For more than two decades, he has developed practical models of leadership, rites of passage, ecological stewardship, and community renewal by integrating the Qur'an, the Prophetic tradition, the Muslim scholarly tradition, Black Muslim intellectual heritage, and Indigenous American and West African wisdom traditions.
Born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1975 to an African American mother and a Nigerian father, Adé was raised in a home where intellectual curiosity, public service, and respect for diverse cultures and faiths were woven into everyday life. His mother, a retired attorney, dedicated her career to combating workplace discrimination, while his late father, a physician, modeled a life of compassion through the care of the sick.
In 1982, his family relocated to Lagos, Nigeria, where seven formative years immersed him in Yoruba culture, traditional African lifeways, and the rhythms of a vibrant multireligious society. Those years instilled a lasting appreciation for hospitality, reverence for elders, communal responsibility, and the inseparability of spiritual life, family, work, and the natural world.
After returning to Houston in 1989, a life-changing journey to Jerusalem in 1993 awakened in him a lifelong pursuit of Islam, the Way of Love and the path of the Prophets. He later studied Arabic at The Ohio State University before pursuing more than three decades of study with scholars across the United States, England, Syria, Sudan, Morocco, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, The Gambia, Egypt, Yemen, and Haiti. His scholarship spans Qur'anic studies, Hadith, Arabic, Maliki jurisprudence, theology, spirituality, contemplative practice, and the rich intellectual traditions of West Africa. Since 2001, he has devoted himself to teaching, translating, mentoring, and community leadership.
Adé is the founder of Marhama Village International, the Hero's Journey Umrah & Rites of Passage Leadership Program, and a co-founder of the African-American Healing, Ancestry, and Development (AHAD) Collective and the Muslim-Indigenous Circle. Through these initiatives, he is creating innovative pathways for spiritual formation, family renewal, youth leadership, ecological stewardship, economic resilience, and community flourishing.
Central to this vision is Marhama Village—a land-based educational and leadership campus envisioned as a living model of faith-centered community. Imagined as a multi-generational institution, Marhama Village will integrate spiritual formation, ecological restoration, vocational training, scholarship, entrepreneurship, retreat, and the arts to cultivate resilient individuals, flourishing families, and enduring institutions for generations to come.
An accomplished translator of Arabic Islamic scholarship, Adé is the English co-translator of Imam Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti's Rafʿ Sha'n al-Ḥubshān, published by CelebrateMercy as The Spirits of Black Folk (2021), and continues translating important works by West African Muslim scholars for contemporary audiences.
His scholarship explores Qur'anic spirituality, contemplative practice (tafakkur and muraqabah), leadership formation, Black Muslim social and intellectual history, rites of passage, sacred ecology, and the contributions of African Muslims to world civilization. A central theme of his work is recovering neglected intellectual traditions and translating them into practical models for contemporary life.
Throughout his career, Adé has served as Imam and resident scholar in Georgia, New Jersey, and Texas, and has taught at mosques, universities, retreats, and conferences throughout the United States and around the world. He currently serves as Resident Imam of the River Oaks Islamic Center in Houston while continuing to teach internationally through organizations including CelebrateMercy, Wasat, Good Tree Institute, and other educational institutions.
Adé is currently pursuing the Doctor of Ministry in Islamic Leadership through Bayan Islamic Graduate School and Claremont School of Theology. He and his wife, Ustadha Rukayat Yakub—a Montessori educator, award-winning children's author, and educational leader—are raising seven children. Together, they are committed to cultivating spiritually grounded leaders, flourishing families, and enduring institutions rooted in faith, beauty, service, and human flourishing for generations to come.