Friday Night Halaqas are online for summer! Join Ustadha Shamira Chothia Ahmed for weekly halaqa on Friday nights.

7 p.m. to 8 p.m. | Starts June 2 | Every Friday during Summer | To join virtually, register at https://mcceastbay.org/zoom

Ustadha Shamira will resume The Beginning of Guidance series from last summer.

Ustadha Shamira Chothia 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. There she was granted ijāzah (authorization) in Sahīh al-Bukhārī, Sahīh al-Muslim, Sunan at-Tirmidhī, Sunan Abī Dāwūd, Sunan an-Nasā’ī, and Sunan Ibn Mājah. Thereafter, 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. Ustadha Shamira is a co-founder of The Rahmah Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to disseminating traditional Islamic knowledge by qualified female teachers to Muslim women around the globe. She is a passionate advocate for natural birth, infusing her natural birth classes with Islamic spirituality since 2009, and has been a qualified lactation counselor since 2011.  Her latest endeavor is her sisters-only YouTube channel catering to women’s educational and spiritual needs through short talks and reminders. Ustadha Shamira resides in sunny Southern California with her husband and four children.