Ni?mat Shaheed

Ni’mat Shaheed is an author, educator, Islamic chaplain, restorative justice practitioner, and community leader whose work centers on healing, spiritual reflection, education, and the restoration of human dignity.

Raised in East Oakland, California, she has spent more than a decade working with youth, families, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals, and communities affected by violence, displacement, inequality, and social exclusion. Her service has included restorative justice facilitation, education, mentorship, spiritual care, community dialogue, counseling, and reentry support in schools, community organizations, juvenile facilities, and correctional institutions.

Shaheed holds a Master of Divinity in Islamic Chaplaincy from Bayan Islamic Graduate School, a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies from California State University, East Bay, and completed studies in the social sciences at Laney College. She was also a fellow in Spiritual Practices at Columbia University.

Her writing brings together faith, history, geography, women’s narratives, poetry, interfaith inquiry, community memory, and the human search for meaning. She is especially interested in recovering overlooked stories, exploring the wisdom carried through women’s lives, and examining how struggle, place, movement, and memory shape personal and collective identity.

Her recent book, Hājar: Footsteps in Sacred Geography, reflects this interdisciplinary vision by examining faith, sacred place, survival, ritual, and the enduring legacy of Hājar across religious and historical traditions.

Through her writing, teaching, and public speaking, Shaheed seeks to create spaces where history can be reconsidered, faith can be explored with reverence and intellectual curiosity, and individuals can better understand the meaning of their own journeys. Her future endeavors include producing a series of books, poetry, educational programs, public conversations, and intergenerational initiatives that strengthen voices, preserve memory, encourage healing, and inspire people to walk more consciously along their own sacred paths.