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Cohort at TILI hq 2026

FOUNDED IN THE BELLY OF A HIGH SECURITY PRISON

​TILI was born in 2006 out of two realities: 

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  • Muslim men accepting Islam without confronting personal trauma and emotional wounds that still needed healing.

 

  • Muslim men returning home from prison, struggling to apply Islamic teachings to everyday life with their families and communitities.

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They memorized Quran. They practiced fiqh. They still fell.

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Imam taymullah with the first TILI cohort in 2006 in the belly of a high security prison

FOUNDER

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Imam Dr. Taymullah Abdur-Rahman is an educator, restorationist, and the founder of The Institute for Lived Islam. He holds degrees in Islamic Studies, Interreligious Leadership and Transformational Leadership as well as ijaza (classical license) to teach aqeedah (Islamic creed). Imam Taymullah created Restorative Islamic Pedagogy as a methodology that gives access and representation for system-affected Muslims. Restorative Islamic Pedagogy isn't a new fiqh. It's a sequence of restoration based on 39:53 "O My servants...do not despair of the mercy of Allah.  

FROM INSIDE TO OUTSIDE

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TILI members celebrating Eid 2024 

TILI serves system-affected Muslims; brothers negatively affected by the welfare, educational, criminal justice systems - who are ready to build real moral leadership. 

 

We don't do self-help. We do practice. Week after week, we explore life topics then commit to a weekly life task, hold our word and get direct feedback from the brotherhood.

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The result is a life of aspiration and integrity. That's what our two-year program is built on - and why it works.

THE TABLE WE CREATED

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Monthly brunch at TILI hq 2026

The Institute for Lived Islam started inside a high-security prison 20 years ago. Today it's a brotherhood that meets at the table - every month, every week, every time someone needs to be held up in safety or held to their word in accountability.

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This is where we eat. This is where we talk. This is where we keep vigil over one another. The work continues...

Ready to sit with us?

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