For Sisters Ages 12+! Join Ustadha Mona Elzankaly, Ustadha Leila Fakira, Ustadha Shamira Chothia Ahmed, and Dr. Rania Awaad to learn the Fiqh of Fasting in the Hanafi, Shafi’i, and Maliki schools of thought. Gain practical insights on how to prepare & equip ourselves for Ramadan spiritually and how to maximize the most out of this blessed month.

Sunday, Feb. 18 | 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. PST | MCC Conference Room | Women & Girls Ages 12+ | In-person & Online | Register at mcceastbay.org/fiqh

No babysitting option | Refreshments will be provided in the Banquet Hall.

The event will not be publicly live-streamed.

Schedule:

• 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. – General Session
• Break for Asr/Tea
• 4:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. – Fiqh Sessions

The Rahmah Foundation and MCC East Bay are sponsors for this event.

• – More Getting Ramadan for Ramadan reminders: https://mcceastbay.org/ramadan-ready
• – More Ramadan sermons & talks: https://mcceastbay.org/ramadan-reminders
• – More videos in collaboration with Rahmah Foundation: HTTP://mcceastbay.org/rahmah-foundation

MCC has a standing policy that financial need should never prevent a person from attaining spiritual knowledge. For a financial-based scholarship discount code, please email scholarship@mcceastbay.org

Questions? events@mcceastbay.org

Ustadha Mona Elzankaly
Born in Cairo, Egypt, and raised in Southern California, Ustadha Mona Elzankaly graduated from the University of California, Riverside, with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and mathematics in 1994.

In 1998, Ustadha Mona began seeking sacred knowledge at the Zaytuna Institute in Hayward, CA. She later traveled internationally, seeking sacred knowledge. She has studied under many eminent scholars, such as Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, Shaykh Khatri, and Shaykh Abd Allah. Bayyah, Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi, Shaykh Salik b. Siddina, Imam Zaid Shakir, Habib Umar b. Hafiz, Habib Ali al-Jifri, and other scholars from Syria, Yemen, and Egypt.

Ustadha Mona obtained different Ijaazahs in Tajwid and books of hadith, Aqidah, and Maliki Fiqh.  In 2008, she completed the four-year Zaytuna Seminary pilot program and received a baccalaureate in Islamic Studies. In 2014, she completed a four-year Islamic Shari’a program at al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.

Ustadha Mona began teaching in 2002, both privately and publicly. She has taught for Zaytuna Institute, Sisters Deen Intensive, Dar al-Zahra Tarim Yemen, The Rahmah Foundation, and Meadows of al-Mustafa.  She currently teaches an Islamic studies program for ladies at Nur al-Iman.

Ustadha Leila Fakira
Born and raised in the US, Leila Fakira has lived most of her life in California. After an inspiring first trip to the Holy Lands, Leila left her job as a Business Systems Analyst after more than 14 years in accounting to focus more intently on her Islamic Studies and be involved in her children’s education.  Allah blessed her with a yearning to learn her deen, and Allah granted her tawfeeq by guiding her to Zaytuna Institute, where she studied Arabic, Shafi’ Fiqh, Shamail, Seerah, and more.

Leila has a strong background in Shafi’ Fiqh and was encouraged to teach by Imam Zaid Shakir, Dr. Rania Awad, and Shaykh Yahya Rhodus after studying Reliance of the Traveler, Fiqh Al-Ibaddat, and Safinat Al-Nijah respectively. She also studied Rislat Al-Jamia’a with Shaykh Abdur Karim Yahya, AbuShuja with Imam Jamal Hysaw, and other Shafii teachers, male and female, online.

Leila studied and completed the Tajweed reading of the Qur’an a few times with Ustadha Noha & Ustadha Aya from Egypt. Also, she did her initial reading of the Qur’an with Ustadha Nawar Taleb-Agha and was permitted to teach basic Qur’an reading & basic tajweed.

Leila has studied Arabic with Imam Zaid Shakir, Shaykh Yahya Rhodus, Ustadha Aya (from Egypt), and Ustadh Usama Canon, Seerah & Shama’il with Shakyh Yayha Rhodus & Almaqasid, and Tafsir and Inner Sciences Imam Zaid Shakir,  Shaykh Yahya Rhodus, and Habib Hussain (online).  She continues to study online with various teachers overseas to continue her Arabic studies and Inner Sciences.

Ustadha Shamira Chothia Ahmed
Born and raised in California’s Central Valley, Alimah Shamira Chothia Ahmed is passionate about educating and empowering Muslim women to reach their highest spiritual potential through acquiring sacred knowledge.

Having graduated as valedictorian from a large public high school, her studies led her — following a brief soul-searching stint at Georgetown University — to seek sacred knowledge from scholars on three continents — Africa, Europe, and Asia.

Ustadha Shamira began her journey in seeking sacred knowledge at the women’s Dar-ul-Uloom Mu’eenal Islam seminary in South Africa, and completed the five-year intensive ‘alima program at Ja’mia Al-Imam Muhammad Zakariyya, one of Britain’s first and most renowned Islamic universities for women. After that, she continued her Arabic and Qur’anic studies in Damascus, Syria, where she obtained an ijāzah in Tajwīd of the Ḥafṣ recitation from the late eminent Syrian scholar Shaykh Ḥasan al-Kurdī.

In 2005, Ustadha Shamira taught Hanafi fiqh for women at the Zaytuna Institute in California and, since then, has taught various Islamic sciences in venues across North America. In 2008, she earned a Master’s Degree in Demographics and Social Analysis from the University of California at Irvine, focusing on the identity formation of the Muslim-American population.

In 2013, Ustadha Shamira specialized in the detailed rulings of menstruation, lochia, and abnormal discharge under the direction of Mufti Abdur Rahman Ibn Yusuf Mangera and assisted in compiling Imam Abu Hanifa’s Al-Fiqh al-Akbar Explained.

Shamira is a wife and mother of five children. She is passionate about empowering women in their childbearing years to gain closeness to their Lord through her spiritual birth consultations and virtual doula services.

Ustadha Shamira is a co-founder of the Rahmah Foundation and currently teaches for Nur al-Iman, a full-time girls’ shariah program with Ustadha Mona Elzankaly based in the Bay Area.

Ustadha Dr. 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 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 Ijazah (authorization to teach) several branches of the Shari’ah sciences at the hands of many renowned scholars, including many female scholars. She has received Ijazah to teach Tajwid in 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. Currently, Ustadha Rania teaches online and local classes for The Rahmah Foundation, Rabata. She is on the faculty of Zaytuna College, where she teaches courses in Shafi’i fiqh and women’s issues in fiqh and has helped develop and co-direct the Tajweed and Hifz program.

Ustadha Rania is also a medical doctor specializing in psychiatry. She completed her Psychiatric residency and fellowship training at Stanford University, where she is currently on the faculty as a Clinical Instructor in the Stanford Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences department. Her medical interests include addressing mental health care concerns in the Muslim community- particularly that of Muslim women and girls. She has been awarded grants from the NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) to research this topic and has presented her findings at several medical conferences. Other ongoing endeavors include compiling manuscripts addressing female-related mental health and medical issues from a fiqh-oriented perspective. She is the Director of the Rahmah Foundation, a non-profit organization that teaches traditional Islamic knowledge to Muslim women and girls. In this capacity, she also heads the Murbbiyah Mentoring Program, which trains young women to teach and mentor Muslim girls and teens. 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.

– More from Dr. Rania: https://mcceastbay.org/rania
– More Dr. Rania’s Friday Evening Halaqas: https://mcceastbay.org/womens-halaqa