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Rabi'a Keeble founder of Qalbu Maryam Women's Mosque Rabi'a Keeble was born in St. Louis Missouri to Bertha Hinton and Josephus Keeble. She was one of five siblings, all but three now deceased. Her parents divorced early in her life and her mother moved her and her siblings to Chicago, and then to Dayton Ohio. Rabi'a attended Julienne High School as a freshman, transferred to Colonel White High School and graduated from there. She attended the Dayton Art Institute as a Fine Arts Major, and transferred to Wright State University as a Fine Arts Major. She moved to Berkeley evenutally following many other kids from her town exploring the country, and settled there with her boyfriend, Paul Kaufman. For the most part Rabi'a devoted life to earning a living. At some juncture she entered nursing school at Contra Costa School of Nursing, made the Dean's list, did well on her State Board Licensing exam, and went on to have a 30 year career as an RN, working at many Bay area hospitals and even the Attormey Generals Office of the State of California. After much searching Rabi'a converted to Islam in 2004, and lived and operated in the confines of that religious community as it existed in Oakland and Berkeley primarily, Masjid Al Iman under Shaykh Yassir Chadly. It was during this time that Rabi'a started to formulate but not yet act on her desire to "reform' aspects of how the mosque operated, and she was concerned about how she saw women treated. Rabi'a eventually went back to school at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and earned a Masters degree in Social Justice, and Religous Leadership, through the MASC program designed for students who did not seek ordination. Rabi'a also earn a Graduate certificate in the Black Africana Church through GTU, and a Graduate Certificate through the Center for Islamic Studies at GTU. She took Ancient Greek and Ancient Hebrew, and studied Arabic at Middlebury Institute at Mills College. After finishing her education at GTU, Rabia became one of Oakland California's foremost and most well know activist. She moved from generalized activism to focusing on changing the Mosque structure to make it more friendly to women and others. She created the first Inclusive Mosque in the United States in April 2017. The creation of the mosque was met with great news coverage and fanfare, quite a few people came to check the mosque out. The khutbhas were delivered in a traditional fashion, and women often led prayer but not always it was a shared task between men and women. The mosque was open to all people, and many Gay and Trans folk came. The mosque had a rigorous Friday prayer routine, speakers would be invited from any of the Abrahamic groups, to do a teaching and tie their teaching into Quran passages. The attendees enjoyed the casual format of question and answer, and tea and conversation following to allow further learning after the khutbah and prayer. Rabi'a Keeble is the titular "Imam" of the mosque, which means she takes over almost everything that concerns the mosque in terms of governance, and day to day upkeep. Qalbu Maryam operated out of Starr King School of the Ministry for one year and then was asked to move. They found temporary places but no true home until May of 2019 at First Congregational Church of Oakland. Now the mosque meets once a month on the last Friday, rather than every Friday as it once did.