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| Deen Intensive to Collaborate with Zaytuna | |||
Fifteen years later, Ms. Subhani, who is an emergency room physician and a mother of two, is the executive director of the non-profit Deen Intensive Foundation, which seeks to preserve and disseminate the core sacred sciences of Islam. Every year, the foundation organizes week-long intensive programs and a three-week Summer Rihla program that feature a wide range of scholars including Zaytuna Institute’s resident scholars such as Imam Zaid Shakir and Shaykh Hamza Yusuf. In the fifteen years of its existence, Deen Intensive has served more than 3,000 students in its educational intensives, while the Rihla program has attracted 150 students each summer for the past four years. Both Deen Intensive and Zaytuna Institute are now working together in hopes of combining forces to disseminate knowledge far and wide. “What we’re trying to do is to create a sort of alliance where we can utilize a lot of the material from the Deen Intensive and Rihlas and apply it to Zaytuna’s Distance Learning program,” says Ms. Subhani. Aftab Malik, who has been brought on as a consultant to help steer Zaytuna’s Distance Learning program on a path of growth, concurs. “We have so many resources collected in recorded classes, it is absolutely essential that we make this accessible for the wider public,” he says. “The successful outcome of our negotiations with Deen Foundation will mean that many people will now benefit from the classes taught on the Rihla, and not just the few who were fortunate enough to have attended the courses.” Such an alliance would boost Zaytuna’s popular Distance Learning program by providing it with years of material from the Deen Intensive Foundation’s archives. On its website, the Foundation describes its curriculum as based on the famous Hadith of Gabriel: “Following the educational model outlined by our Noble Messenger, upon whom be prayers and peace, in the famous Hadith Jibril (the second hadith in the famous collection, Forty Hadith of Imam an-Nawawi), our curriculum is built upon the following three major components: Iman (`aqidah or beliefs), Islam (fiqh or jurisprudence), and Ihsan (tazkiyah or the spiritual purification of the heart). Our aim is to provide students with a working foundation in each of these major disciplines which are taught by highly qualified, traditionally trained scholars.” During her years of involvement with the Deen Intensive Foundation, Ms. Subhani has noticed a growing interest in Islam among Western Muslims—indeed, the 150 seats for the Summer Rihla have to be culled from a pool of several hundred applicants. Shaykh Hamza Yusuf will again be participating in the Summer Rihla program (July 5 to July 29) in Medina, Mecca, and Taif this year. “I think that what we’re finding is that students are thirsty for knowledge about the religion,” says Ms. Subhani. “They’re looking for a well-balanced type of approach that offers them the traditional information that they need and allows them to apply that to their contemporary lives.” For Ms. Subhani, the approach of the Deen Intensive Foundation and Zaytuna is well positioned to help quench this thirst for Islamic knowledge among Muslims in the West. “I think that we have an advantage because I think that traditional Islam provides a unique perspective in that it gives them the best text and material from scholars of the past while allowing them to implement the teachings in today’s times with the guidance of our of current scholars,” she says. “I think contemporary Muslims are looking for structure and curriculum. They come from a high level of schooling in colleges and universities, and they are looking for something structured rather than something haphazard. The challenge is upon us to fulfill this need in the best way.” Meanwhile, Mr. Malik adds that Zaytuna’s Distance Learning program will continue to grow in the coming months because it is responding to student needs. Surveys of Distance Learning students showed that they want the ability to download single lectures, not just entire classes, and Zaytuna will be introducing a new feature in Fall 2008 that will allow students to do just that. Distance Learning is also preparing to make a significant international marketing push. “We are creating a special 60 second commercial that will be unveiled at ISNA insha’Allah, which will then be used on various cable channels around the world in addition to commercials to be played on radio stations during the month of Ramadan in the UK,” says Mr. Malik. “We are looking into several ideas to help promote our program, and if people or communities have creative ideas about how to promote Zaytuna Distance Learning, I would urge them to contact me.” Meanwhile, aside from the material that may soon be available from the Deen Intensive Foundation’s archives, Zaytuna is organizing educational programs that will be feeder classes for future Distance Learning course offerings, such as Ustadh Abdullah b. Hamid Ali’s new three-week class, “Essentials of Faith,” which is taught bi-weekly at Masjidul Waritheen in Oakland, California. Aftab Malik can be contacted at: aftab.malik@zaytuna.org |
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