The Madinah Project

I recently read your article on female scholars of madinah, it's simply beautiful subhanallah. However I wish to ask you where those female scholars graduated from, since there is no accommodation for women's education in madinah University? Ordinary females who join these halaqas, will receive any recognition or ijaazah from those scholars? I wish to pursue my Islamic education in madinah. Please advice.

Jazakallah Khair

Wa alaikum assalaam wa rahmutallah sister,

There is plenty of opportunity for women to learn Islam in Madinah, especially the Quran. Every neighborhood has multiple Quran schools (tahfeeths) for women, and they are certified by supervisory committees--sort of like accreditation programs. Masjid an-Nabawi itself offers Quran classes for women. It is easy for any girl or woman who has valid legal residence in Madinah to attend any of these classes, rise through the levels, and eventually be tested and certified to teach. This includes ijazahs as well.

Salaam! I know Masjid al-Nabawi was offering online classes, but I’m not sure how to register - try searching around! Masjid al-Haraam in Makkah might have some too.

I’ve used Studio Arabiya in the past--it’s based in Egypt, teaches Arabic and Quran, and has qualified male and female teachers and flexible schedules for one-on-one classes: https://studioarabiya.com/. Egypt actually has several online programs, but this is the one I’ve used and I’ve had a good experience with them. 

Center of the City

To the left: the graveyard, surrounded by life Souls grasping its tessellated gates—not just humans: Flocks of pigeons, too, flapping feathers among fluttering palm leaves, Glimpsing the rocks that guarded the heads of the dead, finally home.

Beyond: the street, uncertain where its sidewalk ends. People, the words of a hundred languages, the honks of a hundred cars Interspersing, interweaving, inching towards other gates: The courtyard, the garage, of— to the people of this city—a second home.

Ahead: itself, the second home. The masjid, bricks the color of sand, the green dome, Umbrellas in its courtyard, closing to welcome the sunset, The athan from inside, calling to welcome the footsteps Of the people, yearning for home.

To the right: rubble, buildings all lessened To lifelessness, the foundation of an expansion, continuing the cycle of growth. Only one remains: a building, gray domed, tiny, alone, its minaret still standing, a hope for the souls of lost homes.

Here: a family in a car, adding to the languages and sounds, Taking from them too, the stories they hold, the journeys they told, Joining the cyclic caravan of this world To what’s next in their sequence of homes.

Hi anon,

To be completely honest with you, I didn’t know about Neom until I googled it after reading your question!

Honestly, I am really suspicious about it. It was Mohammad bin Salman’s idea, and the government is spending billions on it. Instead of making a new city, why not invest in older ones? Why not continue the projects that have been abandoned in Madinah and Makkah? If they want to make it “sustainable” and innovative and so on, then why not work on the existing cities to reach those goals? Wouldn’t it be more sustainable (not to mention cheaper, and more beneficial, to the people living there) if they invested in already existing cities?

To me, it seems like this is just an excuse to appeal more to “the West.” Especially if they’re allowing alcohol there.

I’m reading a book called Cities of Salt by Abderrahman Munif, and it takes place in the Arabian gulf in the early-to-mid 1900s, around the time the US came and established Aramco. It shows the emergence of a city, Harran, in the desert, for the sole purpose of the American company looking for “black gold”--it’s pretty much a fictional representation of Dhahran. Neom kind of reminds me of that, except it’s not the Americans coming and imposing their ideas this time. It’s the Saudis themselves, trying to appease Western ideals. 

I’ll have to look into it further, but so far I’m not very optimistic about it. 

These white vinyl sheets are used as barriers between different sections of Masjid anNabawi, sometimes between the men and women’s sections, sometimes between the women’s-only and women+children section, and sometimes for sections just for students and halaqas so they don’t get distracted from the rest of the visitors.

Here you can see that people from all over the world, with different languages, left their signatures on these sheets, but two of them, side by side, stick out the most:

I 💗 Madinah, and Free Palestine 🇵🇸

Wa alaykum assalaam wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh..

Morning of Eid alAdha, 2012, Masjid Quba, Madinah