*In-person positively full. Please join us online.*

Join our esteemed panel of speakers for a night of prayer, remembrance, and reminders starting after Taraweeh prayer (12:30 a.m.).

12:30 a.m. to 6 a.m. | Friday, April 14 – Saturday, April 15 | Prayer Hall | Free | Suhoor provided at about 4 a.m. | Register at HTTP://tinyurl.com/grandqiyam

Cosponsored with The Rahmah Foundation. For female teens and women only.

• – 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
• – More Ustadha Hosai: HTTP://mcceastbay.org/hosai

Qiyam Ul-Layl literally 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

Shaykha Ieasha Prime

Ieasha Prime is the Director of Women’s Programming at Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Virginia and the DC Muslim Women’s Conference founder. She converted to Islam more than 20 years ago after being a Youth Ambassador to Morrocco and Senegal. There she developed a thirst for knowledge that would cause her to sit at the feet and learn from some of the top Islamic Scholars of our time. After participating in several circles of knowledge in the US, Ieasha pursued religious studies abroad. She studied Arabic and Quran at the Fajr Institute in Cairo, Egypt. Later, she moved to Hadramaut, Yemen, and enrolled in Dar al Zahra, an Islamic University for Women. There she studied Aqeedah, Quran, Hadith, Arabic, Jurisprudence (Fiqh), Islamic law, Purification of the Heart, and other religious-related learning. She has received several scholarly licenses (ijaza). The work that she is most committed to and enjoys has been the development of Islamic programming, Islamic Studies curriculum, and Rites of Passage programs for youth and adults. The majority of her life has been spent as an educator and activist. She is most passionate about combining Islamic studies, cultural art, activism, and service to training leaders to rise above whatever challenges stand in their way and that of the community they serve. In addition to her full-time work, she is the co-founder and Executive Director of Barakah INC, an organization committed to training Muslim women in traditional Islamic sciences with a focus on modern application. Sister Ieasha is recently known for participating in the National Women’s March and the courses she teaches on traditional knowledge, the challenges of race and gender in the Muslim community, and Spirituality. Ieasha Prime is a proud wife and mother of three children.

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 Qur’an, Islamic Law, and other Islamic sciences 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 Hosai Mojaddidi

Ustadha Hosai is the co-founder of MH4M (http://mentalhealth4muslims.com), established in 2010. For nearly 20 years, she has been actively involved in the Muslim community in the Bay Area and southern California working and volunteering for many notable organizations. Learn more about her at http://hosaimojaddidi.com – More Ustadha Hosai: https://mcceastbay.org/hosai 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 attended Islamic classes in Hayward, California. These classes were taught by her teacher and mentor since then, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf. One of her main focus areas is to help create a strong sisterhood for the women in the community by leading halaqas (spiritual study circles) and support groups whilst offering individual spiritual counseling and mentoring. She noted that many of the spiritual problems encountered were actually reflective of the community’s deep and complicated mental health issues 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 a freelance writer and editor who lectures on various Islamic/spiritual topics. – More Ustadha Hosai: https://mcceastbay.org/hosai Ustadha Hosai Mojaddidi is an educator, public speaker, author/writer, spiritual counselor, and mental health advocate with over 25 years of experience serving the Muslim community. She co-founded MH4M (www.mentalhealth4muslims.com), a site dedicated to providing clinically supported & Islamically sound information on common mental health issues. She began her Islamic studies at the renowned Zaytuna Institute (now Zaytuna College) in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she was blessed to study a variety of topics, including Qur’anic memorization and recitation, fiqh, seerah, aqeeda, tazkiyyah an-nafs, and other sacred sciences directly with Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi, Imam Zaid Shakir, Qari Amar Bellaha, and other visiting scholars. She currently offers year-round classes on spiritual development and self-development for adults and youth through different local and national organizations on topics such as parenting, marriage/family, women’s issues, youth issues, spirituality, Seerah, tazkiyyah an nafs, social-emotional learning, social media literacy, mental health advocacy, etc. She is also a published author, writer, and active content creator on social media. She is a wife and mother of two and resides in California, USA.

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

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.

Hafiza Suzane Derani

Hafitha Suzane Derani received her Ijaza in Tajwid at age 15, and she completed the memorization of the Qur’an shortly after. She subsequently received her Ijaza in the ten canonical readings (qira’at) of the Qur’an in 2023. She graduated with a B.A. in European and Middle Eastern history, focusing on secondary education. She is an educator with extensive experience teaching the Qur’an to students of all ages and backgrounds for over twenty years. She also taught history and Islamic studies to middle and high school students. With her traditional training and classical teaching experience, Hafitha Suzane has taught multi-level individualized and group classes for children, teens, and adults. She has also held motivational workshops for teens and women on how to excel in their Qur’an studies. Hafitha Suzane released her first Islamic children’s book, “The Quran My Best Friend, in Ramadan 202. She lives in Michigan with her family, where she continues to reach Qur’an. She serves as a board member for The Rahmah Foundation. Hafitha Suzane continues to further her studies in the different sciences of the Qur’an with scholars worldwide and write books for children and mentor youth.