Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood Biography

Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood (born 1942) is a British Muslim author who served as Head of Religious Studies at various tough UK inner-city secondary schools for over 30 years before retiring in 1996. Born Rosalyn Rushbrook, she was a devout Christian who earned a degree in Christian Theology in 1963 at Hull University, and the Post-Graduate Certificate in Education in 1964 with distinction in both theory and practice. She married poet George Morris Kendrick in 1964 and had a son Daniel and daughter Frances, but after his acceptance of Scientology they divorced in 1986. She converted to Islam later that year. In 1990, on her travels, she met and married Waris Ali Maqsood in Pakistan, but they divorced in 1999.