About Us

Jannah Institute is dedicated to bring the light of knowledge to the heart of women, through the practice and application of the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger, Peace be Upon Him.

Jannah Institute began its educational programs in 2013, where it began as the only learning institute in Saint Louis, MO to offer Quran and Islamic Studies courses with a strong focus on Tazkiyah. Jannah Institute is dedicated to providing Islamic education for women by women.  Alhamdulillah, all Praise to Allah, Jannah Institute has expanded to reach students from all over the globe. Jannah Institute also offers its educational programs on multiple platforms, including onsite, online, or web streaming services, as well as free weekly programs hosted live on JI social media pages, all to accommodate the greatest number of students possible.

Afiyah holds a bachelor’s degree in politics and philosophy from Oxford University, and a master’s degree in international relations from the London School of Economics. She began her journey with the Qur’an after the birth of her first child, and it has become her career and passion since. She obtained ijazah in the memorisation of Qur’an whilst living in the Middle East, and has also learnt and taught tajweed at Dar Al Huda, Jeddah. She is currently based in the United Kingdom.

Ustadha Rana has been teaching girls and women in Jannah Institute since 2013. She has successfully graduated more than 13 hafizat from the Jannah Institute Pearls Program (hifz program for young girls) between 2013-2017 and continue to teach women proper recitation and memorization .She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and her teaching diploma at the Syrian University in Damascus. She memorized the Qur’an in Beirut, Lebanon with shaykha Nahed Khalil Khattab and received her Hifz Ijazah and Al-jazariyya poem (certification) in the recitation of Hafis ‘an Asim from the highest authority of Qur’an memorization in Syria under Shaykh Muhyee Ad Deen AlKurdi in 2002 and Since then, she has taught Qur’an with tajweed and Al-Jazariyya .She loves teaching the Qur’an and is filled with joy when her students proceed forward in their Qur’an pronunciation or memorization. She feels that it is essential for every woman to dedicate time to improve her spiritual life by learning the Qur’an and other Islamic knowledge. As a mother of five, she knows the importance of balancing between a woman duties and her pursuit of knowledge in preparation for the Day of Judgement

Ustatha Lina is originally from Syria. She currently lives in Saint Louis, MO. She holds a degree in public health and architecture. The degree she honors the most is the one I have in Qur’an. Usatatha Lina describes her journey with the Holy Quran as one that “teaches me that sincerity is what matters most. Hard work and persistence is the boat that drives you to your goal. However, sincerity drives you safely.”  She has taught Tajweed’s rules in theory and in practice in small private classes, and has been teaching for the Jannah Institute since August of 2019. Her goal is to have students perfecting their recitation of the Holy Quran, and eventually, become teachers themselves and transfer the knowledge to other students.

First introduced to Jannah Institute by a friend in 2018, Ayat’s serious learning journey began as a student of Dr. Haifaa. Memorization of the Quran was completed shortly before the start of this journey Alhamdulila and was accompanied by the passion to focus on learning the means of purification of the heart, Tazkiyah. Since being introduced to Jannah Institite, she has been enrolled in the Tazkiyah, Quran and Hifth revision courses with Dr. Haifaa. With a love for sports and math, Ayat is energetically motivated to help and encourage other sisters in their Hifth journey incorporating summary sheets and memorization tips she has been taught along the way.

Tasneem completed her master’s degree in computer science from the University of Arizona in 2011 and began her Qur’ān journey shortly afterwards. She studied under Ustadha Badia Khazaal of Southern California for nearly 5 years, completing her hifth and earning an ijāzah in the recitation of Ḥafṣ by the way of Shāṭibiyyah. Currently, she is working on strengthening her memorization by studying the mutashābihāt of the Qur’ān under Dr. Haifaa Younis. She is also studying the ten variant readings of the Qur’ān under Shaykh Uthman Khan of Critical Loyalty. For the past two years, she has been teaching introductory tajweed to a small group of adult sisters in her local community in Houston, Texas.

My journey of learning tajweed started from Alhuda online course in 2009. After that,  I got enrolled in the very first batch of Jannah Institute for improving tajweed with Ustatha Rowhea Nawa. Then I completed  my Itqaan course with Ustatha Alaa in 2015 at JI. I started teaching in 2014 during the weekend courses. In 2015, I taught the Itqaan Course for 3 years, and am currently focusing on Tajweed in Urdu.

Faiza Khan holds a Bachelor’s in English Literature from California State University, Fresno. She started her Quran journey by enrolling in various courses online and by studying tajweed at the Quran Institute of America in Detroit, Michigan. From there, she completed the Bayyinah Dream program and is currently a student at the Qalam Seminary. Having teaching experience in various secular settings, Faiza is most passionate however about teaching and learning the Arabic language. She resides in Dallas, Texas, with her husband and kids.

Amina Mujela-Botic finished her Bachelor’s degree at Faculty of Islamic Studies in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, at department of Islamic Theology, as one of the highest ranked students and the reciever of the Golden badge from the University of Sarajevo. She was a student assistant for the Qira’atu-l-Qur’an class at Faculty of Islamic studies, and is currently at Islam in Europe master’s studies at the same faculty. Amina has three years of experience in teaching classes of Qur’an, tajweed, Arabic letters and hifdh of the Qur’an, and is in the process of finishing her hifdh of the Qur’an. She studied the Qur’an under Shaykh qurra hafidh Armin Abaza, Shaykh qurra hafidh Dzevad Sosic, and Shaykh hafidh Kenan Music.

Zaynab Ansari is a native Southerner with Northern roots. She spent several years studying the core Islamic sciences, including Arabic, jurisprudence, Qur’anic recitation & commentary, Hadith, and Prophetic biography in Damascus, Syria at Abu Nour Masjid’s college preparatory program. Upon her return to the United States, she continued her Islamic studies privately with Shaykh Khalil Abdur-Rashid, Imam of New York’s Iqra Masjid, Shaykh Faraz Rabbani, Educational Director of SeekersHub Global Islamic Seminary, Shaykh Jamal Ud-Deen Hysaw, and Dr. Fareeha Khan, Assistant Professor of Religion & Anthropology at Willamette University. From 2004 to 2009, she volunteered, answered questions, and taught at SunniPath Academy. She currently answers questions for SeekersHub, writes for Azizah Magazine’s Deen Department, and volunteers with the Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta. Upon her return to the United States, she earned degrees in history and Middle Eastern Studies from Georgia State University. Since 2014, Zaynab Ansari has served as a scholar-in-residence for Tayseer Foundation, offering enrichment courses and halaqahs to women and youth in the Muslim Community of Knoxville, and working on interfaith dialogue. She is currently an instructor at Tayseer Seminary, which features a one-year intensive in Islamic Studies, drawing students from Tennessee and all regions of the United States.

Ustadha Hosai Mojaddidi has served the Muslim community in the San Fransico Bay Area for 20 years, as an organizer, teacher, spiritual counselor, mentor, and mental health advocate. She holds a Bachelors in Liberal Studies with a minor in sociology. Her traditional studies of the classical sciences of Islam have included Tazkiyah an-Nafs, Arabic, Hadith, and Hanafi fiqh through Zaytuna Institute. Ustadha Hosai has many teachers such Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi, Imam Zaid Shakir, Shaykh Abdullah al-Kadi, Qari Amar Bellaha, and others. Ustadha Hosai is passionate about transformative internal change for muslim women and runs workshops and writes articles about this.

Shaykha Dr Ayshah Wazwaz has studied the Islamic sciences for nearly two decades and specializes in Fiqh. She has studied at Dar al-Hadith and Dar al-Quran, in Masjid al-Aqsa. Shaykha Ayshah went on to complete a Bachelors in Islamic Jurisprudence and Masters in Contemporary Islamic Science from al-Quds University, Palestine, and a Phd in Islamic Studies from Jinan University. Shaykha has been a Lecturer at various Masajid and organizations for 17 years, and has been a lecturer at Islamic University of Minnesota for 4 years. She is the founder and CEO of Gems of Light.