teachers
Ustadha Saira AbuBakr
Saira AbuBakr has received a B.S. in Biology (California State University at Stanislaus) and an M.S. in Genetic Counseling (Sarah Lawrence College, NewYork). She worked as a genetic counselor for five years and then as a clinical researcher for one year. She has studied Maliki Fiqh, Arabic, Seerah, and Purification of the Heart at Islamic Studies School (prior to the formation of Zaytuna Institute), CA since 1997 with Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, Shaykh Khatri ould Bauba (Mauritanian),Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah and with Shaykh Salik ibn Siddina (Mauritanian). In 2000 she attended an 8 month Arabic intensive at the Fajr and Diwan centers in Cairo, Egypt to study Grammar and Rhetoric. She has a B.S. in Islamic Studies from Zaytuna College (Director Imam Zaid Shakir), Berkeley, CA, 2008. She recently returned from Syria where she spent two years furthering her studies in Aqeedah, Fiqh, Arabic and Tajweed and where she attended classes taught by Shaykh Mohammad alYaqoubi. During this time she also continued to teach sisters Seerah, Maliki fiqh, Arabic and other subjects in online and private halaqas.
Ustadha Shamira Chotia Ahmed
Born and raised in Northern California, Shamira Chothia Ahmed is an emerging young female scholar of the traditional Islamic sciences. Her studies led her to seek sacred knowledge from scholars on three continents — Africa, Europe, and Asia. In England she completed the five-year, traditional alimah (Islamic studies) program, studied the ahadith collection of the Sihah Sittah and received her ijaazah (authorization) in Sahih al-Bukhari with renowned Hanafi scholars. Thereafter, Ustadha Shamira was able to continue her studies in Damascus, Syria and was later an instructor of Hanafi fiqh for women at the Zaytuna Institute in Hayward, California. She recently earned her Master's degree in Demographics and Social Analysis from the University of California at Irvine with her focus on the identity formation of the Muslim-American population. Ustadha Shamira is both a wife and mother, and enjoys giving interactive and uplifting talks to sisters across the U.S.
Ustadha Rania Awaad
Raised in the U.S., Ustadha Rania Awaad began her formal study of the traditional Islamic sciences when her parents permitted her to travel to Damascus, Syria at the age of 14. Her desire to continue studying the Deen resulted in multiple trips back to Damascus, interspersed between her high school, college and medical studies. She was honored to receive Ijaazah (authorization to teach) several branches of the Shari'ah sciences at the hands of many renowned scholars, including many female scholars. She has received Ijaazah to teach Tajwid in both the Hafs and Warsh recitations from the late eminent Syrian scholar, Shaykh Abu Hassan al-Kurdi. In addition to completing several advanced texts of the Shafi’i madhhab, she is licensed to teach texts of Maliki fiqh, Adab and Ihsan.
She has also completed a medical degree and is currently pursuing medical residency training in psychiatry at Stanford University. Her medical interests include addressing mental health care concerns in the Muslim community- particularly that of Muslim women. She has been awarded grants from the NIH (National Institute of Health) to conduct research on this topic and has presented her findings at several medical conferences. Other on-going endeavors include the compilation of a manual addressing female-related medical issues from a fiqh-oriented perspective as well as a manual on raising Muslim children in the West. She currently serves as the director of the Rahmah Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching Muslim women traditional Islamic knowledge. Ustadha Rania is both a wife and a mother; she has been counseling and teaching women classes on Tajwid, Shafi'i Fiqh, Ihsan, marriage and raising children since 1999.
Ustadha Mona El-Zankaly
Ustadha Mona El-Zankaly was born in Cairo Egypt, raised in California, a graduate of the University of California Riverside with a bachelors degree in Computer Science and Mathematics. In 1998 Ustadha Mona began seeking sacred knowledge at the Zaytuna Institute in Hayward CA. There she has studied with many eminent scholars, such as Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, Shaykh Khatri, Shaykh Abd Allah b. Bayyah, and Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi. In 2001, she joined Fajr center in Cairo, Egypt to complete a year-long program in Arabic. She then returned to the Zaytuna Institute in 2002 where she studied full time with Shaykh Salik b. Siddina several texts in Maliki fiqh, Aqidah, Hadith, Tafseer and the inward science. In 2004 Ustadha Mona traveled to Damascus, Syria to continue her studies with a focus on Qur'an. While in Damascus, she obtained an Ijaazah to teach Tajwid in the Hafs style from Shaykh Shukry Luhafi. She has also obtained Ijaazah upon hearing the complete recitation of Sahih al-Bukhari, and Muwatta al-Imam Malik from Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi. She then completed the four year Zaytuna Seminary pilot program and received a baccalaureate degree in Islamic Studies in 2008. Ustadha Mona has also attended the Dawra programs in Tarim Yemen where she had the opportunity of learning from the great scholars of Tarim. Ustadha Mona began teaching in 2002 both privately and publicly and has taught for The Zaytuna Institute, Sisters Deen Intensive, Dar al-Zahra, The Rahmah Foundation, and Meadows of al-Mustafa. Currently Ustadha Mona resides in Egypt where she is continuing her studies.
Ustadha Roya Naisan:
Ustadha Roya has a Bachelors Degree in Biology from CSU East Bay. She has studied various Islamic sciences under local Bay Area scholars. In 2008, she moved with her family to Hadramawt, Yemen, where she studied classical Arabic, Fiqh and Tajweed under some of the most eminent scholars in the world at the prestigious Dar al-Zahra. In December 2009, she received her Ijaza, certification, in Tajweed.
Ustadha Eiman Sidky
Ustadha Eiman has studied under Al-Habib Umar bin Hafiz, Habib Ali Aljifri and the Haba’ib of Tarim. She has been actively engaged in dawah and educating Muslims in the United States for the past 15 years. Ustadha Eiman is loved by all those who meet her and has an amazing way of instilling the love of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in the hearts. For twenty years, she taught Qur’an and Islamic Studies at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Virginia. She continues to teach Seerah and Qur'anic tafseer classes both in the United States and in Egypt.
Ustadha Fadwa Silmi
Fadwa Silmi received her B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of California in Berkeley in 1997. After teaching in a private elementary school for five years, she returned to academia and received a Master's Degree in Elementary Education as well as her teaching credential from San Francisco State University in 2004. Fadwa has studied basic and intermediate Maliki Fiqh, Aqeedah, Seerah, Purification of the Heart, Prohibitions of the Tongue, Arabic as well as other courses in Islamic adab at the Zaytuna Institute in Hayward, California from 1997-2005. She has been blessed to study with Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, Shaykh Khatri ould Bauba, Shaykh Saleck Ould Sidine as well as other visiting scholars to the Bay Area, and currently studies online with various female scholars including Ustadha Eiman Sidky and Ustadha Mona Elkaff. Fadwa has previously served as the Program Director for the Children's Quran school at the Zaytuna Institute in Hayward, CA and currently acts as an Educational Consultant and science teacher for Northstar School. Fadwa has taught both Maliki fiqh and Arabic privately. She currently resides in Hayward, California with her husband and three children.
