A tribute from the Islamic Circle of North America to a teacher, author, and quiet servant of the American Muslim community.
Short-form version. See the companion long-form article for the full biography, source discussion, and verification appendix.
Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un.
The Islamic Circle of North America mourns the passing of Br. Yahiya Emerick (1971–2026), rahimahullah, who returned to his Lord on July 11, 2026, at the age of fifty-five.9 A Muslim American educator, author, and publisher, he shaped the Islamic literacy of a generation of North American Muslims.
Br. Yahiya John Emerick was born in 1971 and raised in Lake Orion, Michigan,11, 12 in a Baptist Christian family. He accepted Islam at the end of 1988 during his freshman year at Michigan State University.2 A bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s in education followed, and he would spend the rest of his working life in Islamic classrooms and English-language Islamic literature.
He joined ICNA in the early 1990s,2 guided into community work by his mentors, the late Br. Naeem Saroya and the late Br. Ahmed Hussaini, may Allah have mercy on them.11 Under their encouragement, he helped start a youth group at the Muslim Community of Western Suburbs (MCWS) in Canton, Michigan, and shepherded it into a program whose alumni later took leading roles at Muslim community organizations across the country. In 1992, Dr. Dawud Tawhidi, principal of the newly opened Islamic school in Canton, invited him to teach full-time, the beginning of a lifelong classroom career.2 His ICNA service, meanwhile, deepened over the following years, and he was elected to the ICNA Central Shura for the 1994–1995 term.10 Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Ex-ICNA President, recalls his time on the body: “He was well prepared about the items on the agenda. His suggestions and proposals were based on great insight and desire for sincere implementation for the best outcome for the organization, especially American youth.”
The middle of the decade also brought a move east. In 1995, Br. Yahiya relocated to New York for another Islamic school teaching position,2 married Sr. Reshma Baig from an ICNA New York family,11 and eventually rose to vice-principal of a full-time Islamic school in Westbury on Long Island.3 Alongside teaching, he led the Islamic Foundation of North America (IFNA) and ran Amirah Publishing, the press he had founded in 1992 to produce what he called “American-oriented literature on Islam.”1 Over three decades, he authored, edited, or translated more than twenty-five books.1 His Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Islam (Alpha Books) brought a major American publisher to bear on an accessible, sympathetic introduction to the faith;4 his textbooks What Islam Is All About and Learning About Islam became standard-issue in Islamic schools across North America;5 and his Ahmad Deen and Layla Deen novels gave Muslim youth adventure fiction with heroes who looked like them. ICNA itself published his revised editions of Mawdudi’s Towards Understanding Islam in 20026 and 2005.7
Br. Amin Jibril, a longtime ICNA-Michigan member who worked closely with him from those earliest years, remembered Br. Yahiya as soft-spoken, friendly, and utterly without airs.11 In the classroom, he met even the goofiest middle-school question with the care he would offer a curious adult. Whole cohorts of American Muslim children learned their aqidah from books with his name on the cover, and he once signed a copy to a former student with a two-word inscription that stands as a fair summary of his life’s work: “Thinking long term.”8
Br. Saad Kazmi, President of the Islamic Circle of North America, issued the following statement on Br. Yahiya’s passing:
The Islamic Circle of North America received the news of Br. Yahiya Emerick’s passing with deep sadness. In him we have lost a pioneering American Muslim who understood, perhaps better than most of his contemporaries, what indigenous da’wah in this land would require. Long before the conversation about serving new Muslims and second-generation American Muslims became widespread in our community, Br. Yahiya saw the gap and stepped into it – not to write about it or convene panels on it, but to fill it. He committed his time, his resources, and the labor of decades to producing the books, translations, and curricula that a growing community desperately needed and could find nowhere else.
Br. Yahiya was, in the truest sense of the term, an Islamic worker. He embodied what it means to live a life in service of this deen: quietly, consistently, without waiting to be asked, and without waiting for recognition. ICNA is indebted to him – for his early service on our Central Shura, for the generation of American Muslims he helped raise through his writings, and for the standard he set for what one committed believer can accomplish for the ummah in a single lifetime.
On behalf of the entire ICNA family, I extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and to all who loved and learned from him. We ask Allah (SWT) to accept his lifelong efforts, to forgive his shortcomings, to grant him the highest ranks of Jannat al-Firdaws, and to grant his family sabr al-jameel in the days ahead. Ameen.
Br. Yahiya’s janazah prayer was held on July 12, 2026 at 8:30 AM at the Muslim Center of New York in Flushing, followed by burial at Washington Memorial Cemetery. Those who wish to support his family may do so through the memorial fundraising campaign at launchgood.com/YahyaEmerick.
May Allah forgive Br. Yahiya, elevate his rank to Jannat al-Firdaws, and grant his family a beautiful patience. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un. Ameen.
His Books
The Prophet ﷺ taught that a person’s deeds continue after their passing through three channels, one of which is beneficial knowledge that continues to benefit others. Br. Yahiya’s books are a paradigmatic example of such knowledge, still in active use in Islamic schools, halaqas, and family libraries across North America. Readers who wish to share in the ongoing reward for his work may purchase and read them through the links below.
Browse the full catalog: Amirah Publishing (his own press) or Amazon author page for the widest availability.
Introductions to Islam
- The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Islam (3rd Edition, 2011) – Amazon
- How to Tell Others About Islam – Amazon
Biography of the Prophet ﷺ
- Critical Lives: Muhammad – Amazon
Qur’anic works
- The Holy Qur’an in Today’s English – Amazon
- The Meaning of the Holy Qur’an in Today’s English – Amazon
- The Holy Qur’an for School Children (Juz ’Amma) – Amazon
Islamic school textbooks
Books for younger children
Fiction for young readers — the Deen Family Adventures
- Ahmad Deen and the Curse of the Aztec Warrior – Amazon
- Ahmad Deen and the Jinn at Shaolin – Amazon
- Layla Deen and the Case of the Ramadan Rogue – Amazon
- Layla Deen and the Popularity Contest – Amazon
Other fiction
Revised editions of classic works
- Towards Understanding Islam: Updated for a Modern World (Mawdudi, revised by Y. Emerick, 2010) – Amazon
May Allah reward every reader who benefits from these books and may that reward continue to reach Br. Yahiya.
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