The Women's Mosque of America

"Creating Change With Love" Khutbah by Samia Bano (6/29/18)

Returning khateebah Samia Bano delivers the 42nd khutbah for The Women's Mosque of America on June 29, 2018. She describes the process of how to make changes in our lives by keeping love of God, others, and ourselves in the forefront. Samia is the author of the book "How To Make Change Fun & Easy." She serves as the Happiness Expert & CEO of AcademyOfThriving.com, a transformative educational institution dedicated to helping ChangeMakers learn how to change their lives & the world with love. Samia’s expertise in creating change with love are grounded in both her academic training and hard won life wisdom. As a survivor of child sexual abuse, Samia began her quest for inner peace & positive change when she was merely 8 years old. After more than 20 years of struggle, Samia successfully eliminated suffering from her life & learned how to take control of her happiness. She now leads a thriving life full of inner peace, purpose, and prosperity. The key to her success lies in her learning to create change with love. One of the most important lessons she learned in her journey of transformation from a survivor to thriver is that we are all interconnected, interdependent parts of a whole. As such, we cannot achieve healing and peace for ourselves in isolation or at the expense of others. Indeed we heal ourselves by healing others. This understanding led Samia to dedicate her life to the work she is now doing as a Happiness Expert. Samia’s clients say they “feel protected,” are able to connect to their passions in life, and experience a “deep sense of peace” as they work with her. To learn more about Samia's life and work, visit www.AcademyOfThriving.com.

Q&A with Samia Bano (6/29/18)

Q&A Discussion Circle w/the Imam --Khateebah Samia Bano answers questions from the congregation and leads a discussion on implementing change with love in our own lives.

Adthan by Sophia Alone (5/25/18)

Mu'adhinah Sophia Alone gives a beautifully melodic calling of the adhan for the 41st jumma'a at The Women's Mosque of America on May 25th, 2018.

"Women's Empowerment Within Islam" Khutbah by Zan Christ (5/25/18)

Khateebah Zan Christ delivers the 41st khutbah for The Women's Mosque of America on May 25th, 2018. She speaks about the empowerment that Islam has granted women and how we as women can, and should, utilize these rights to better ourselves and society. Zan Christ is the Coordinator for Religious and Spiritual Life Program at Hamline University’s Wesley Center for Spirituality, Service and Social Justice. She organizes the logistics, promotion, and communication of the Religious and Spiritual Life programs with the intention of nurturing the religious and spiritual lives of students, faculty and staff. She supervises student workers of the RSL groups, including Multifaith Alliance, Jewish Student Life, Mindfulness Meditation, Interfaith Youth Core’s Better Together and Muslim Student Association. Also, she serves as an educational resource on religious diversity, interfaith literacy and cooperation on campus and in the community. She is an experienced interfaith leader, accomplishing an Undergraduate Degree in World Religions from Hamline University and a Graduate Degree in College Student Affairs (Counseling and Student Personnel) from Minnesota State University, Mankato. While at MSU, Zan gained a broad perspective while interning in the Career Development Center, Academic Advising, and Enrollment Management. Over the last five years, Zan has been an interfaith resource for Midwestern collegiate panels and programs regarding topics such as Social Justice Within Islam, American Converts’ Journey to Islam, Interrupting Islamophobia, Counseling American Muslims, and Women’s Faith Experiences in Diverse Communities. Most recently she worked for three years as the Advancement Operations Coordinator at the Science Museum of Minnesota, where she was also active in developing diversity and interfaith trainings for the staff of the museum. There she built a designated Quiet Space, where anyone from any religion or no religion could use it to pray, meditate or just take a silent break. For many years, Zan provided leadership and strategy at Building Blocks of Islam on several projects including Qur’an and Islamic studies teacher, Convert and New Muslims Mentorship Coordinator, and Camp Counselor at Young Sister’s Al Isra Retreat, in which she won the highest award of the camp – The Best Camp Counselor Award.

Q&A with Zan Christ (5/25/18)

Q&A Discussion Circle w/the Imam -- Khateebah Zan Christ answers questions from the congregation and facilitates discussion on how to be more empowered in our own lives.

Q&A with Amira Al-Sarraf (4/20/18)

Q&A Discussion Circle w/the Imam -- Khateebah Amira Al-Sarraf answers questions from the congregation about how to best implement environmental stewardship into our own lives.

"Caring for the Environment Like Prophet Muhammad (p)" Khutbah by Amira Al-Sarraf (4/20/18)

Khateebah Amira Al-Sarraf delivers the 40th khutbah for The Women's Mosque of America on April 20th, 2018. In honor of Earth Day, Amira discusses the importance of being environmental stewards, as Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) taught us.

Amira Al-Sarraf is the Head of School at New Horizon School, an Islamic school in Pasadena awarded the National Blue Ribbon by the U.S. Department of Education. She has a B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from UC Berkeley and an M.S. Ed. in Educational Leadership from Walden University. With over 25 years of experience in the field of education, she is passionate about serving the academic, social, emotional, spiritual, and creative needs of students as well as building a culture of collaboration and coherent pedagogy among faculty.

Believing in the critical need for interfaith work, she has been actively involved in interfaith projects with the Skirball Cultural Center, Weizmann Jewish Day School, the Interfaith Peace Academy, and the Alice and Nahum Lainer School. Currently, she is a member of the Los Angeles Department of Mental Health Interfaith Clergy Roundtable Project in Arcadia, and she serves on the Board of Trustees of the Western Justice Center as well as the Council on Spiritual and Ethical Education. She also served on the Board of Trustees of Alverno Heights Academy, an all-girls’ Catholic school.

In the area of curriculum development, she is a co-author of Transitions, a health and human development program that teaches young Muslims about the important physiological and emotional changes they face during adolescence within the context of Islamic values. She has also been actively involved in the development of the Islamic Studies program at New Horizon and recently designed a new Islamic Studies curriculum for the Bureau of Islamic and Arabic Education that takes a dynamic approach to teaching Islam, incorporates comparative religion, integrates California social studies and science standards, and emphasizes the application of universal moral values and critical thinking skills.

With a love for nature and the outdoors, she sought to give students at New Horizon a sense of the importance of environmental stewardship through a recent project at the school: the building of the New Horizon Peace Garden. She initiated this project in 2011 and worked with the NHS Garden Committee to fulfill the vision for the garden as a place of community-building and garden-based learning. She has attended conferences and workshops including American Horticultural Society and Living Schoolyards and seeks ways for this extraordinary outdoor classroom to touch all the learning at the school.

Born and raised Los Angeles, she grew up in an interfaith household with a Palestinian-American father and a European-American mother. Amira is the mother of four adult children who are working or studying in the fields of law or elementary education.

Adthan by Jessika Kenney (4/20/18)

Returning mu'adhinah Jessika Kinney calls the adhan for the 40th jumma'a at The Women's Mosque of America on April 20th, 2018.

Q&A with Priscilla Al-Uqdah (3/30/18)

Q&A Discussion Circle w/the Imam -- Khateebah Priscilla Al-Uqdah answers questions from the congregation and shares from her personal experiences on how to best support the sisterhood.

"Wanting For My Sister What I Want For Myself" Khutbah by Priscilla Al-Uqdah (3/30/18)

"Khateebah Priscilla Al-Uqdah delivers the 39th khutbah for The Women's Mosque of America on March 30th, 2018. As a long-time congregant and loyal supporter of The Women's Mosque of America, Priscilla shares her insights and wisdom on the importance of treating our sisters the way we want to be treated -- a motto by which she has always lived her life. Priscilla speaks from the heart as she challenges the congregation to take account of ourselves, our families, and our boys, so that we can bring up our entire society as a whole. Finally, Priscilla ends by encouraging Muslim women to take our sisterhood seriously by changing the way we view women's attending of jumma'a prayers; i.e., it should be considered a right and a regular commitment, rather than an occasional luxury.