Join our esteemed panel of speakers for a night of prayer, remembrance, and reminders starting after the Taraweeh prayer (11 p.m.). This year, distinguished speakers will be Anse Sawsan Imady, Ustadha Halima Afi, Hafidha Husna Sabeer, Ustadha Shamira Chothia Ahmed, Ustadha Hosai Mojaddidi and Dr. Rania Awaad.

11:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. | Friday, March 29 – Saturday, March 30 | Prayer Hall | Free; girls and women ages 14+ | Suhoor provided at about 4 a.m. | Register for in-person at mcceastbay.org/womens-qiyam | To join online, register at tinyurl.com/FridayRahmahHalaqa2

Cosponsored with The Rahmah Foundation. For female teens and women only. No babysitting is provided. Space is limited. Please do not bring children.

• – More The Rahmah Foundation at the MCC: https://mcceastbay.org/rahmah-foundation
• – More Ustadha Dr. Rania Awaad: https://mcceastbay.org/rania
• – More sessions for Muslim women: https://mcceastbay.org/women
• – More Dr. Rania’s Friday Evening Halaqas: https://mcceastbay.org/womens-halaqa

Qiyam Ul-Layl translates to “standing during the night”. And in the Islamic Tradition, the Prophet Muhammad PBUH said, “The best prayer after the obligatory prayers is the night prayer.” (Sahih Muslim)

About the Speakers

Anse Sawsan Imady

Ustadha Anse is the author of the forthcoming “Raising a Spiritual Child” manual and a leading scholar. We were honored to host a scholar of her caliber at our community center. Ustadha Anse Sawsan Imady is also a teacher to our own Ustadha Dr. Rania Awaad. Ustadha Anse inspired the Young Muslimah Mentorship program Dr. Rania inaugurated at MCC through The Rahmah Foundation.

Ustadha Rania Awaad

Dr. Rania Awaad, M.D., is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is the Director of the Muslim Mental Health Lab and Wellness Program and the Director of the Diversity Clinic. She pursued her psychiatric residency training at Stanford and completed a postdoctoral clinical research fellowship with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Her research and clinical work are focused on the mental health needs of Muslims. Her courses at Stanford range from teaching a pioneering study on Islamic Psychology, instructing medical students and residents on implicit bias, and integrating culture and religion into medical care to teaching undergraduate and graduate students the psychology of xenophobia. Her most recent academic publications include an edited volume on “Islamophobia and Psychiatry” (Springer, 2019), Islamic Psychology (Routledge, 2020), and an upcoming text on Muslim Mental Health. She has also produced a toolkit, fact sheet, CME course and is now editing a clinical textbook on Muslim mental health for the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Awaad is particularly passionate about uncovering the historical roots of mental health care in the Islamic intellectual heritage. Through her outreach work at Stanford, she is also the Clinical Director of the San Francisco Bay Area branches of the Khalil Center, a spiritual wellness center pioneering the application of traditional Islamic spiritual healing methods to modern clinical psychology. She has been the recipient of several awards and grants for her work. Before studying medicine, she pursued classical Islamic studies in Damascus, Syria, and held certifications (ijaza) in the Qur’an, Islamic Law, and other Islamic science branches. Dr. Awaad has also served as the first female Professor of Islamic Law at Zaytuna College, a Muslim Liberal Arts College in Berkeley, CA, where she taught courses on Shafi’i Fiqh and Women’s Fiqh and Qur’anic sciences for nearly a decade. In addition, she serves as the Director of The Rahmah Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating Muslim women and girls. At Rahmah, she oversees the Murbiyyah spiritual mentoring program for girls. Dr. Awaad is a nationally recognized speaker, award-winning teacher, researcher, and author in the Islamic and medical sciences. Follow her on I/T: Dr.RaniaAwaad

– More from Dr. Rania: https://mcceastbay.org/rania

Ustadha Shamira Chothia Ahmed

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

After graduating as a Valedictorian from her large public high school, Shamira’s 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.

After completing her intensive Alimah studies in South Africa and England and further studies in Damascus, Syria, Shamira received various licenses (ijazas) to teach the sacred sciences.

In 2005, Ustadha Shamira taught Hanafi fiqh to women at the Zaytuna Institute in California and, since then, has led 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 Dr. Mufti Abdur Rahman Ibn Yusuf Mangera’s direction and assisted in compiling Imam Abu Hanifa’s Al-Fiqh al-Akbar Explained.

In 2008, she earned a Master’s Degree in Demographics and Social Analysis from the University of California at Irvine

Ustadha Shamira is a co-founder of The Rahmah Foundation and is currently a teacher for Nur Al-Iman, a full-time online shariah program teaching the fardh Al ayn and more to young women. 

She has passionately advocated for a natural birth, infusing her natural birth classes with Islamic spirituality since 2009. She is also a certified lactation counselor, a virtual birth doula, and a birth consultant.

You can find Ustadha Shamira hiking, playing, or exploring with her husband and five children in sunny California.

Ustadha Hosai Mojaddidi

Ustadha Hosai Mojaddidi was born in Afghanistan and moved to the United States with her family at age two. She credits her Islamic journey to 1996, when she began attending Islamic classes in Hayward, California. Since then, her teacher and mentor has been Shaykh Hamza Yusuf.

One of her main areas of focus is to help create a strong sisterhood for women in the community by leading halaqas (spiritual study circles) and support groups while offering individual spiritual counseling and mentoring. She noted that many of the spiritual problems encountered were actually reflective of the deep and complicated mental health issues of the community and would be better served by focusing on mental health. Thus, along with her cousin Dr. Nafisa Sekandari, they co-founded a website called Mental Health 4 Muslims (www.mentalhealth4muslims.com).

Ustadha Hosai is also a freelance writer and editor and lectures on various Islamic/spiritual topics.

– More Ustadha Hosai: https://mcceastbay.org/hosai

Questions? events@mcceastbay.org