In The Name Of Allah Most Gracious Most Merciful
Board of Directors
Mary El-khatib
Mary El-khatib
Mary El-khatib
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Mary received her training in Montessori curriculum and pedagogy at the Barrie Institute of Advanced Montessori Studies. Mary has held teaching positions at The George Washington University, The College of Science in Jerusalem, Arlington County Public Schools, Henson Valley Montessori School and the Islamic Saudi Academy in VA where sh
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Mary received her training in Montessori curriculum and pedagogy at the Barrie Institute of Advanced Montessori Studies. Mary has held teaching positions at The George Washington University, The College of Science in Jerusalem, Arlington County Public Schools, Henson Valley Montessori School and the Islamic Saudi Academy in VA where she also served in the capacity of Assistant Principal, Chair of the Elementary ESL Department and Chair of Philosophy and Goals Committee for school accreditation. She was awarded a teaching Fellowship by The George Washington University where she earned a Master of Arts Degree in Classical Iberian Spanish Literature. She has also been published in the Journal of Religion and Teaching on issues relating to the acquisition of English for Muslim students. Mary offers yearly workshops on the topic of Montessori and Islam, which she has presented at the annual convention for the Islamic Schools League of America.
Rima Kharuf
Mary El-khatib
Mary El-khatib
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Rima has a Masters in Education from the George Washington University with a focus on children with emotional and behavioral disorders in addition to a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy . Her passion for wholistic education came from her experience working with special needs children. While working with children on the autism
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Rima has a Masters in Education from the George Washington University with a focus on children with emotional and behavioral disorders in addition to a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy . Her passion for wholistic education came from her experience working with special needs children. While working with children on the autism spectrum as a therapist, and children with emotional and developmental delays, she found that modern education systems did not address the whole child, and many times what the children needed to grow and thrive were lacking. Rima is passionate about encouraging wholistic educational models within the Islamic community. She currently works as the administrative director at Medina Montessori.
Sara Ibrahim
Mary El-khatib
Sara Ibrahim
Sara Jane Ibrahim is a supporter of wholistic education. She is a public policy advocate and speaker on international human rights, refugee rights, and immigrant rights with over 10 years of experience at the nation's leading nonprofit organizations. Sara teaches women her proven strategies to advance in their careers and personal growth
Sara Jane Ibrahim is a supporter of wholistic education. She is a public policy advocate and speaker on international human rights, refugee rights, and immigrant rights with over 10 years of experience at the nation's leading nonprofit organizations. Sara teaches women her proven strategies to advance in their careers and personal growth. Sara earned her J.D. from American University Washington College Law and graduate diploma in Forced Migration and Refugee Studies from the American University in Cairo. She received her B.A. from The George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs. Sara has completed the Medina Montessori Toddler Teacher Training Program.
Advisory Board
Imam Fode Drame
Jeanette L’amour Hablullah, ND
Imam Fode Drame
Born in the early 70’s in the interior of Gambia, Imam Fode Drame was the second surviving child of Oummou Sylla and Al-Hadj Ousman Drame. Oummou, a young and protective mother, was not only known for her striking beauty but also for her exceptional devotion. Al-Hadj Ousman was an esteemed scholar and healer whom countless individuals fro
Born in the early 70’s in the interior of Gambia, Imam Fode Drame was the second surviving child of Oummou Sylla and Al-Hadj Ousman Drame. Oummou, a young and protective mother, was not only known for her striking beauty but also for her exceptional devotion. Al-Hadj Ousman was an esteemed scholar and healer whom countless individuals from diverse regions of West Africa flocked towards throughout the year. By the age of two, Oummou was called back to her Creator and young Imam Fode prematurely parted from the tenderness of his mother’s arms and watchful sight. Having the role of both mother and father, in addition to his teaching and leadership duties, Al-Hadj unconventionally brought his son to accompany him while he taught. Little by little, the spirited boy had not only memorized his father’s Islamic teachings, but the entire Quran. As a surprise to many, young Imam Fode soon surpassed his father’s own students and could no longer study with his age mates.
A Budding Scholar
Young Imam Fode’s love of learning soon took him away from his father’s wing and brought him to Dakar where his maternal uncle, Shaykh Soubki Sylla, a notable scholar, arranged for him private schooling to prepare him for university. There, he mastered French and English, and also took it upon himself to study Hebrew, Latin, Greek and German, and perhaps most importantly, ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics.
By his early 20s, he was no longer under the aegis of his father or uncle, but in a world completely different to that which he knew: Montreal. By his third year of university, however, God had different plan for him. He was offered an imam position in a small suburban mosque, and despite his initial reason for coming to Canada, he took on the position.
Being of a different cultural background and unusually younger than most of the mosque’s congregants, Imam Fode’s deep insight of the Quran and good nature won him over to the hearts of the community. His mother’s saintly devotion and his father’s spiritual training had now come to life in a different context three thousand miles away, and had produced profound realizations which would not only shape his teachings, but change the lives of those around him.
The Far West
Imam Fode's new trajectory soon brought him the far West -- British Columbia -- and by 2005, he founded his own non-profit organization, Zawiyah Foundation. This charity not only grew into a school and full-fledge platform to distribute his knowledge, but as an international community. By 2015, his lectures began to be aired live; and today they are viewed in all continents on a weekly basis.
One cannot help but notice that the study of linguistics is what brought Imam Fode to Canada; yet it was also language which God first taught Adam. Clearly, as being the first instrument taught to the First Man, language is more than a mere tool of communication, but a profound way to move and reform people and to connect individuals not only to others, but to their inner selves and essentially, to their Creator. And that is the core of Imam’s work: he teaches, unites, heals, and writes through the knowledge that God has granted from the language of the Quran.
Susan Douglass
Jeanette L’amour Hablullah, ND
Imam Fode Drame
Susan Douglass received her PhD in history from George Mason University in 2016. She holds an M.A. in Arab Studies from the Georgetown University Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, and a B.A. in History from the University of Rochester. She conducts teacher workshops locally and nationwide for the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies a
Susan Douglass received her PhD in history from George Mason University in 2016. She holds an M.A. in Arab Studies from the Georgetown University Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, and a B.A. in History from the University of Rochester. She conducts teacher workshops locally and nationwide for the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and the Alwaleed Center for Muslim Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, where she serves as K-14 Education Outreach Director.
She has served with the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, and was an Affiliated Scholar with the Council on Islamic Education for a decade, reviewing commercial textbooks in development, researching and contributing to state curricula and standards, and developing instructional resources. Publications include World Eras: Rise and Spread of Islam, 622-1500 (Thompson/Gale, 2002), teaching resources for the Council on Islamic Education and the National Center for History in the Schools, a children’s book, Ramadan (Carolrhoda Books, 2002), and many articles and book chapters on pedagogical and policy issues.
She has contributed to online teaching resources for Unity Productions Foundation, including the website and teaching resources for the documentary film Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet, Cities of Light (islamicspain.tv), The Sultan and the Saint (http://sultanandthesaintfilm.com), as well as print and online projects such as the Smithsonian Freer Gallery teaching guide Arts of Islam, Children and Youth in History (http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh) at the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, and the San Diego State University curriculum project World History for Us All (http://worldhistoryforusall.ss.ucla.edu/ ). She designed and developed the online resource The Indian Ocean in World History (http://indianoceanhistory.org/ ). She also wrote the Supplementary Social Studies Units K-6 for Muslim schools for the International Institute of Islamic Thougtht, 1996).
As researcher and author of the study Teaching About Religion in National and State Social Studies Standards (Freedom Forum First Amendment Center and Council on Islamic Education, 2000), she continues to follow changes in national and state standards. Dr. Douglass teaches in the Bayan Islamic Graduate School at the Claremont School of Theology, and at the secondary level with Legacy International Online High School program, where she is on the curriculum development team.
Jeanette L’amour Hablullah, ND
Jeanette L’amour Hablullah, ND
Shaykh Adeyinka Muhammad Mendes
Jeanette Hablullah is a Doctor of Naturopathy, Divinely guided Healer and student and instructor of Quranic Arabic. She has worked as a wholistic healer since 1992 when she entered the field as a Reflexologist. Dr. Jeanette completed her Naturopathic studies in 1995 from the Clayton College, went on to study Oriental Medicine in Chicago
Jeanette Hablullah is a Doctor of Naturopathy, Divinely guided Healer and student and instructor of Quranic Arabic. She has worked as a wholistic healer since 1992 when she entered the field as a Reflexologist. Dr. Jeanette completed her Naturopathic studies in 1995 from the Clayton College, went on to study Oriental Medicine in Chicago, Illinois at Harmony Health Center in 1996, and completed an intensive course in Botanical Medicine at Tai Sophia in Maryland (2006). She has travelled extensively to present lectures and seminars on various aspects of wholistic philosophies and techniques.
Dr. Jeanette has also been studying Quran for over 40 years, including Intensive Study with Martin University and Bayyinah Institute and has memorized seven ajzaa’a (30th sections). She currently teaches Quran Reading and Comprehension at Masjid William Salaam in Norfolk, Virginia and previously taught the same course at the Farm of Peace in Warfordsburg, Pennsylvania, for ten years (ending June 2019). She also leads an amazing group of women known as the Sisters Quran Study Group in a monthly study and discussion of topics selected from the Quran. This group formed in 1429 AH / 2008 C.E. and continues. Lessons may be viewed at the website sistersquranstudygroup.com.
Dr. Jeanette has worked for and with some of very well-known Islamic organizations in the U.S., including the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Islamic Foundation of Villa Park, Illinois and the International League of Muslim Women. She frequently leads retreats combining Quranic knowledge with her understanding of wholistic principles and also has developed original retreats such as Sacredness of Women, Lessons From the Life of Maryam Umm Eesaa and Surah tul Faatihah: Her Meanings and Messages.
She is author of “The Magnificent Organ” and “Orientation to Wholistic Thought” and for seven years produced a quarterly Wholistic Health Newsletter. She also provided service as a Spiritual Counselor and Educator for Women’s Affairs of Al Mumtahinah shelter in Baltimore, Maryland and continues to serve with them as a Consultant.
In addition, Dr. Jeanette is a member of the Reform Committee for the Muslim Community of Tidewater (MCT), Norfolk, Virginia and teaches weekly classes in Conversational Spanish.
Dr. Jeanette completed the Hajj in January of 2006. She has five children, seven grandchildren, one great grandchild and currently resides in the state of Virginia.
Shaykh Adeyinka Muhammad Mendes
Shaykh Adeyinka Muhammad Mendes
Shaykh Adeyinka Muhammad Mendes
Adeyinka Muhammad Mendes is a native Ohio, an of Yoruba, Brazilian, and African-American ancestry who also spent some of his formative years in Nigeria and Houston, Texas. He has a background of working with interfaith, Muslim, academic, permacultural, and peace-building institutions. Adeyinka's studies and work have taken him to countrie
Adeyinka Muhammad Mendes is a native Ohio, an of Yoruba, Brazilian, and African-American ancestry who also spent some of his formative years in Nigeria and Houston, Texas. He has a background of working with interfaith, Muslim, academic, permacultural, and peace-building institutions. Adeyinka's studies and work have taken him to countries around the world including Syria, Mauritania, Morocco, Singapore, Turkey, Senegal, Malaysia, and back to Nigeria. He is fluent in Arabic, received a degree in Arabic Language and Cultural Studies from the Ohio State University, and has been trained for over two decades in the spiritual, scholastic, and aesthetic traditions of Muslim civilization by teachers from around the world. Adeyinka is particularly passionate about uplifting youth, empowering women, and inspiring African-Americans with knowledge of their spiritual and intellectual legacy in order to build that more compassionate and sacred world for which our hearts yearn.
Sr. Rukayat Yakub
Shaykh Adeyinka Muhammad Mendes
Sr. Rukayat Yakub
Rukayat is a certified Montessori elementary teacher who has studied traditional Islamic sciences in the UK, Morocco, Spain, Mauritania, and the United States.
Her areas of interest are history, education, race, prophetic kindness, heartwork, ethical wealth redistribution, curriculum design, and gift-investment.
Rukayat is a researcher, wi
Rukayat is a certified Montessori elementary teacher who has studied traditional Islamic sciences in the UK, Morocco, Spain, Mauritania, and the United States.
Her areas of interest are history, education, race, prophetic kindness, heartwork, ethical wealth redistribution, curriculum design, and gift-investment.
Rukayat is a researcher, wife, trainer, mother, and the author of the award-winning activity book Ahmadu Bamba: Sage of Senegal.
Rukayat is the co-founder of AHAD and the founder of Light Legacy Books.
In 2020 she expanded Light Legacy Books into the delivery of online children's classes, school workshops and teacher trainings.
Rukayat embraces the spiritual journey that motherhood provides. Much of the work she does and the materials she develops stem directly from conversations with her children and from working with children for over 20 years.
She is an instructor with Ribaat, and on the advisory board of the Islamic Society for Holistic Education
She enjoys sunny winter days, designing courses and research.