Friday Imam and speaker (Khatib) at the age of 17 and was appointed as a teacher of Islamic studies at the age of 20. In the mid-2000s, al-Yaqoubi returned to Syria and began preaching and teaching the Islamic sciences such as Aqidah (Islamic theology), Tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis), Hadith (Prophetic tradition), Tasawwuf (Sciences of the heart), Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), Usul (origins and fundamentals), Mustalah (hadith terminology), and Nahw (Arabic grammar). Al-Yaqoubi previously resided in Damascus and was a public teacher at institutions there. He taught Islamic theology at the Umayyad Mosque; and he held the position of Jumu'ah Khatib (Friday speaker) at the Jami' al-Hasan Mosque; at the Mosque of Ibn Arabi, he taught from al-Risalah of Abd al-Karīm ibn Hawāzin Qushayri and Shamaail Tirmidhi of Tirmidhi. He was a public speaker in both Arabic and English. In June 2011, al-Yaqoubi was forced into exile by the Assad government and moved to Morocco. Al-Yaqoubi is currently writing, publishing new works and continuing to teach under Sacred Knowledge, an initiative dedicated to the spreading of orthodox Islam. Involvement in the Syrian Civil War 2011–present In April 2011, al-Yaqoubi was one of the first Sunni clerics to express his support for the Syrian uprising and condemn the Syrian government's response to peaceful demonstrations. In August 2011, the BBC reported that al-Yaqoubi had called for more international pressure on the government of Syria after Government forces renewed their crackdown on protesters. He was forced into exile in 2011. Despite other leading scholars initially calling for minor reforms, al-Yaqoubi was early to demand the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad. Al-Yaqoubi initially fully supported Kofi Annan's "Six-point plan" urging for "international pressure on Russia and China" to force the end of the conflict in Syria. He advocates the establishment of a democratic free state in Syria alongside championing the "vital role" of the Islamic scholar in preventing the break-up of Syrian society after the fall of Assad. As the conflict has protracted, al-Yaqoubi publicly urged Jordan and Turkey to intervene militarily in Syria "to save the Syrian people", voicing frustration at the failure of the international community to intervene. In addition, he believes that any intervention will be undertaken by the United Nations, NATO, or the United States because it's "more realistic". Al-Yaqoubi has been an active participant in the political process to form a credible political alternative to the Assad government. However, due to political