Mission & Vision

Our Vision

Connecting people to their Lord and the Prophetic tradition by cultivating an engaged campus community.

Our Mission

Berkeley Muslim Life strives to meet the complex needs of a vibrant spiritual life in the contemporary context. We aim to embody the Prophetic tradition in the service of our broad campus community. We will do this through the provision of pastoral care and religious leadership, as well as the development of a strong, engaged Muslim community. Ultimately, we seek to support personal spiritual transformation and positive social change.

The Prophetic Statement Guiding our Work

The Prophet Muhammad (May God’s Peace and Blessings be upon him) informs us - “Seek out your vulnerable on my behalf. Verily, you are only given provision and support from God due to the weak among you.” [Tirmidhi]

Through a critical engagement of God’s Word - the Qur’an - and the Prophetic tradition, our goal is to sharpen the hearts and minds of our students and community members to view their education, networks and skills as trusts (amānāt) given by God to be wielded for the benefit of those most overlooked.

Our Core Values

Spiritual Striving

We embody the best version of ourselves when we are grounded in an awe of and longing for Our Divine Sustainer. In this state, we are able to conduct all our affairs - from our prayers to our relationships to how we make a living - as if we see Our Beloved Lord. This requires continuously seeking knowledge of God Almighty and the way of His Messenger (peace be upon him) and refining our hearts to incorporate what we learn into practice. Through striving for spiritual excellence in our lives, we hope to meet our Creator with a sound heart [26:89].

Collective Care

We pray to be a community of hearts brought together by God Almighty [8:63] where markers of class, race or social status never define one’s worth in our space. In our community, we build bonds by embracing and understanding the lived experiences of all people. In learning about who they are, we cultivate love for one another and we honor this love by both caring for their unmet needs and accepting care for our own needs.

Advancing Societal Wellbeing

We seek to struggle against our internal spiritual diseases and the systemic diseases that benefit the few at the expense of the many. Individual acts of righteousness are essential, but personal piety is not enough. We must take collective responsibility for dismantling the structural roots of poverty, racism, misogyny, militarism, and all other forms of oppression. Whereas blind hearts [22:46] fail to recognize transgression as a call to action, perceptive hearts lead with God consciousness: they uphold the communal obligation of challenging injustice and building alternative systems of wellbeing in harmony with Divine guidance.