The Purpose of Praising the Praised One
with Dr. Oludamini Ogunnaike.

Join Wasat for an evening with our special guest, Dr. Oludamini Ogunnaike. We will experience praise of the the Praised One (peace and blessings be upon him) and then deepen our understanding of the value of this practice through a talk with Dr. Ogunnaike. The evening will conclude with evening prayer in congregation for those who wish to participate, and social time with food and refreshments.

Oludamini Ogunnaike is an Associate Professor of African Religious Thought at the University of Virginia specializing in the intellectual and aesthetic dimensions of West and North African Sufism and Yoruba oriṣa traditions. He is the author of D eep Knowledge: Ways of Knowing in Sufism and Ifa, Two West African Intellectual Traditions (Penn State University Press, 2020)  winner of the ASWAD's (Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora) Outstanding First Book Prize and  Poetry in Praise of Prophetic Perfection: West African Madīḥ Poetry and its Precedents (Islamic Texts Society, 2020). He is currently working on two book projects,  The Logic of the Birds: An Introduction to Sufi Poetry and Poetics and a book on Yoruba Mythology. He received his PhD in African and African American studies and Religion at Harvard University and his A.B. in African Studies and Cognitive Neuroscience from Harvard College.