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Samiha Rahman

@_rahmansamiha_

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Scholar of religion, race, and education. Author of Black Muslim Freedom Dreams & director of @icametogetyoufilm

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I CAME TO GET YOU is a documentary short film about Black American & West African Sufis sparking a new chapter in their shared story as Muslims of African descent #teaser #documentary #film

I Came to Get You chronicles the journeys and dreams of a Senegalese Sufi sage named Shaykh Hassan Aliou Cisse (1945-2008) and his community of Black American disciples. Told through the memories of mothers, doctors, community organizers, and other ordinary spiritual seekers who joined in its earliest years, the film traces the origins and evolution of what has become the largest Black Sufi movement in the United States. These elders recall the unexpected turns of events and profound experiences that inspired them to help build an international school, a medical clinic, and an enduring partnership that reshaped the lives of Black Muslims in the United States and Senegal.

Trailer coming soon! ✨

Directed & written by @_rahmansamiha_
Narrated by @villageauntie
Edited by @abiyoichi
Animation by @beebs_creates & @artsy.a.f.owler
Music by @iammoyah, @thetarusmateen, @anaiahmuhammad
Sound editor & re-recording mixer: @benhuff by @_rahmansamiha_

My book Black Muslim Freedom Dreams: Islamic Education, Pan-Africanism, and Collective Care is coming out on April 14, 2026 insha’Allah! Preorder link in my bio (use the code NYUAU30 for 30% off!)

Since the 1970s, hundreds of Black American Muslims in the Tijani Sufi tariqa have sought refuge in a new world that would nurture their racial, religious, and gendered identities away from anti-Black and anti-Muslim racism in the U.S. This new world is in Medina Baye, a city in Senegal that is the headquarters of a pan-African Sufi movement with tens of millions of members in Africa alone. Black Muslim Freedom Dreams explores the Islamic educational opportunities created for and by Black American Muslims in Medina Baye, chronicling the dreams, sacrifices, struggles, and joys of young people and parents who live, learn, and strive for liberation between the U.S. and Senegal.

I argue that Black Muslims’ experiences of Islamic education and pan-African exchange are oriented towards collective care – an Islamic and Black radical way of being and belonging through which believers journey on the path towards Allah’s love by caring for others and addressing the material inequities that constrain their communities. This notion of collective care disrupts narratives that strip religion and spirituality of their emancipatory potential by limiting them to systems of personal beliefs and practices that are divorced from societal transformation. by @_rahmansamiha_

My article “Living and Learning Islam in Black America: Education and Self-Determination in the Dar-ul-Islam Movement” just dropped! It examines the role of education in fueling Black American Muslims’ efforts to achieve self-determination. It focuses on the Dar—the largest national network of Black Sunni Muslims in the U.S. before 1975. The Dar aimed to carve out sacred geographies within the urban US where Muslims could live out their faith openly and without interference from the state. The Dar’s praxis challenges scholarship that silos Black and Muslim intellectual discourses, as well as those that separate religious ideologies from political visions. Instead, through a focus on the movement’s educational efforts during the Black Power era, I show how the Dar fused theological, moral, material, and sociopolitical concerns to actualize collective liberation for Black Muslims in the urban U.S.

Click the link in my bio to read the full article and view the stunning photographs by Khalil Abdulkhabir, a member of the Dar who documented the movement in real time. To see more of his work and learn more about the Dar, check out the incredible online archive created by his daughter Kamila Barbour: thedarulislamcollection.com by @_rahmansamiha_

ATLANTA fam! I’ll be giving a talk about my book this Thursday October 22 at Spelman College insha’Allah. The event is open to the public, so please come through! by @_rahmansamiha_

A powerful inaugural I.D.E.A.S. Lecture delivered tonight by Dr. Samiha Rahman! A packed audience, and high level attendance by Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Dr. Jenn Brandt, Dr. Y Nguyen, from the University Ethnic Studies Committee, Interim associate dean of the @csudheducation, I.D.E.A.S faculty affiliates, Dr. Jimmy Kirby from Africana Studies, and the @csudh.msu. Till next week. by @_rahmansamiha_

The inaugural Indigenous, Diaspora, Ethnic, and Area Studies (IDEAS) CoLab Lecture will be delivered by Dr. @_rahmansamiha_ from Cal State - Long Beach, tomorrow October 13, 2026 in the University Library 5th Floor Commons at 4pm. The IDEAS CoLab is sponsored by the Dean of Undergraduate Studies, the University Ethnic Studies Committee, @asianpacificstudies, @chs.de.csudh and @csudhistory. Join us. by @_rahmansamiha_

I never had the opportunity to meet Shaykh Hassan Cisse, but for more than 15 years, I have had the immense honor of learning from his Black American and West African students in the Tijani Sufi tariqa. These women and men volunteered their time, energy, and money to support Shaykh Hassan’s work of guiding, unifying, and empowering Muslims in Africa and beyond.

In I CAME TO GET YOU, these women and men take us on a journey from the 1970s to the present day, from urban centers in the U.S. to a sacred city across the Atlantic Ocean. They recall their travels to Shaykh Hassan’s hometown of Medina Baye, Senegal, and how their time there made them realize the cultural similarities and differences between Black American and West African Muslims. They describe the unexpected experiences that prompted them to help Shaykh Hassan open an international school and medical clinic in Medina Baye, and how they tried their best to collaborate in ways that would not reproduce a “savior” narrative that often dominates international humanitarian projects on the African continent.

Read the full story behind I CAME TO GET YOU at Spirit House, an online platform that celebrates the richness and abundance of Black religions as they manifest through artistic expression, community building, and scholarly research. (Link in my bio!) by @_rahmansamiha_

We are excited to be hosting a series of public programs in Istanbul, Türkiye on July 21 and July 22. Come join us!

🎤 Keynote lecture: “Freedom is a Place” by Tasneem Siddiqui
📚New Books in Africana Islamic Studies panel discussions with Wendell Marsh, Rhea Rahman, Samiha Rahman, and Youssef Carter
🎥 Palestine 101 Screening & Community Conversation with @abbas_muntaqim, @rasulmiller, and @drt_siddiqui (moderated by @aamerrahman) by @_rahmansamiha_

Freedom School is over but we’re still freedom dreaming! Our Creative Director, Ambata Kazi @ambatakazi , is hosting a Black August (and Beyond) Book Club. ⁠
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We’ll read and discuss Black Muslim Freedom Dreams by Samiha Rahman @_rahmansamiha_ ⁠
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This will be a slow read book club. We’ll start first week in August (day and time TBD) and meet every other week till we finish. Insha’Allah the author will join us at our last session for a Q&A.⁠
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Register at the link in our bio.⁠ by @_rahmansamiha_

I CAME TO GET YOU: a documentary short film about a Senegalese Tijani Sufi sage named Shaykh Hassan Aliou Cisse & his community of Black American disciples, who he invited to his hometown of Medina Baye, Senegal 🇸🇳. Beginning in the 1980s, many Black American parents sent their children to live and learn in Medina Baye under Shaykh Hassan’s care. These Black American youth (like the young woman pictured here!) studied the Qur’an at the African American Islamic Institute. Since 1983, the school has educated hundreds of Black American youth, alongside thousands of youth from across Africa. Today, some of the Black Americans are the second generation in their family to study in Medina Baye. At least 25 of them — 14 young men and 11 young women — have memorized the entire Qur’an in Arabic.

🎥I CAME TO GET YOU features the stories of the mothers, spiritual luminaries, and students who helped bring this sacred educational experience to life. ✨

Full trailer coming soon!

Poster by @abiyoichi by @_rahmansamiha_

I CAME TO GET YOU: a documentary short film about a Senegalese Sufi sage named Shaykh Hassan Aliou Cisse & his community of Black American disciples, who he invited to his hometown of Medina Baye, Senegal (🕌 pictured here!) - the sacred city that his grandfather Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse founded in 🇸🇳 as a spiritual refuge for Muslims in the Tijani Tariqa

Full trailer coming soon!

Poster by @abiyoichi
Artwork by @beebs_creates & @artsy.a.f.owler by @_rahmansamiha_