The Nur Foundation for Sacred Sciences seeks to complement the important work of its many Muslim sister organizations by focusing on providing spiritual and educational opportunities for Muslim women.  It is often noted that women comprise over half of the population and raise the other half.  Any Muslim community that wishes to thrive must have facilities that support fostering a female population that is both strong in their faith and knowledgeable in the essential sciences of Islam.  Thus it is imperative that there are concentrated efforts for achieving this goal throughout the vast range of the American Muslim population.  The Nur Foundation for Sacred Sciences aims to serve the American Muslim community through providing opportunities that will elevate Muslim women both spiritually and intellectually.

TEACHERS

Feryal Salim

Feryal Salim received her ijaza in Qur’anic recitation from the late Syrian scholar Abu al-Hasan al-Kurdi in 1998.  She has since then studied a number of related Islamic sciences including: Shafi’i and Hanafi jurisprudence (fiqh), Islamic theology (aqida), the Prophetic biography, Arabic grammar, Muslim inheritance law, classical logic, Qur’anic sciences (ulum al-Qur’an), and Islamic legal methodology (usul al-fiqh).  In 2009, she received a degree in the hadith sciences from the Nuriyya Hadith Institute of Damascus.  She currently resides in the Chicago suburbs while completing a PhD in early Islamic thought with a focus on hadith methodology at the University of Chicago.

Maryam Salman

Maryam Salman, a native of Michigan, spent an initial period of three years in Damascus during the late nineties studying Arabic and Shafi’i jurisprudence.  She completed the memorization of the Qur’an and received an ijaza in Qur’anic recitation from the late Syrian scholar, Shaykh Abu al-Hasan al-Kurdi.  Since her return, she has been actively involved in teaching tajwid and Qur’anic memorization both privately and in classroom settings.  She graduated with a degree in early childhood and elementary education and resides in Chicago.  She currently serves as an elementary teacher in the north-Chicago suburbs.

Sarah Tantawy

Sarah Tantawy began her Islamic studies in Damascus in 2002 where she remained for almost three years.  She received an ijaza in the Hafs form of Qur’anic recitation from the late scholar Shaykh Abu al-Hasan al-Kurdi.  She also studied Shafi’i jurisprudence and the Prophetic biography as she continued her Qur’anic studies by memorizing the Qur’an in its entirety.   She then received a second ijaza for memorization according to the Hafs recitation.  This was later followed up by her studying the Warsh form of Qur’anic recitation and her receiving another ijaza in the Warsh canonical reading.  She graduated with a degree in Business Administration/Accountancy and resides in northern California where she is active in teaching the Qur’an while she pursues her career as a Certified Public Accountant.