Sisters’ Intensive: Connecting our Hearts to Righteousness

For decades, Hafiza Amina Sayeed has been a spiritual guide and teacher, coaching and leading women of all ages in connecting with their Creator and in mending and perfecting their personal relationships. She regularly offers halaqas for pre-teen girls, MSAs, and women, alongside open community talks and meet-and-greets with Muslim converts in various communities across the Chicago metropolitan area.

Hafiza Amina is the founder and director of Salihah Central, an online Islamic learning community designed for women and exclusively taught by women. Encouraging women to celebrate and take advantage of sacred times throughout the Islamic calendar, Salihah Central annually hosts a “Ramadan Boost” ibadah program and Eid Gala, as well as the “Magnet for Mercy” Dhul Hijjah Ibadah program and a Hajj Reception for returning pilgrims. Salihah Central also offers health and nutrition classes that promote eating in the Sunnah way.

Hafiza Amina is the leader of the Birds of a Feather online forum for women seeking spiritual growth, and is the director of the Salihah Central Alimah Program and Quranic Tafsir Program. She is the principal of the Salihah Central Sunday School, a weekend Islamic studies enrichment program for children in Skokie, IL, and is the director of the Salihah Central Children’s After School Hifz Program in Chicago, IL. Hafiza Amina is also the founder of Camp Busy Bees, a summer enrichment program for school-age Muslim girls with locations throughout the Chicagoland area.

Integrating performing arts throughout her work, Hafiza Amina wrote and directed the play Lost & Found which encourages women and girls of all ages to examine their relationships, let go of materialism, and strive for the sake of their Creator. Hafiza Amina also created the Modern & Modest clothing line which caters to the fashionable Muslim woman who actively contributes to society in shariah-compliant style.

Raised in the city of Chicago,  Hafiza Amina stayed true to her hometown working as a school administrator for 50 Chicago Public Schools for which she led the implementation of a district-wide writing program designed by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. She earned her Master of Education degree from Depaul University with additional certification in Educational Leadership, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Loyola University Chicago.

Prior to her extensive work as an educator, Hafiza Amina travelled abroad for an in-depth, life-changing experience of studying classical Islam under qualified traditional scholars. In Syria, she studied the art of proper Quranic recitation [tajweed] and classical Arabic. While in Islamabad, Pakistan, she completed two years of an Alimah program which included an intense study of several subjects including Arabic grammar, hadith, translation and explication of the Holy Quran [tafsir] and Islamic law [fiqh]. She recently completed Hifz-ul-Quran memorization under the guidance of reputable and well-established reciters in Chicago.

Hafiza Amina Sayeed currently resides Chicago’s north side neighborhood with her husband and four children.

Ustadha Nuriddeen Knight

Ustadha Nuriddeen Knight completed an MA in psychology with a focus on child and family from Columbia University. Alongside her academic degree, she studied traditional Islamic knowledge including Islamic law, theology, spirituality and prophetic biography with local scholars and in the majalis in Amman, Jordan.

In 2015 she created Nooralshadhili.com, a holistic initiative focused on human development through education, research, and counseling. She compiled a collection of 40 sayings from the prophet Muhammad’s life through the narration of his wife Aisha and is currently working on its second edition.