About us

Who are we?

That’s a question we’ve been trying to answer ourselves!

 

 

 

 

Well here it is: The DeenTeens are a group of awesome and energetic youth (you knew that right?) who want to please our parents and learn our religion. Well… that was how it started.

Then Ustadha Mariam Bashar told us she didn’t want to teach us unless we were ready to live what we learn. And then she let us ask lots of questions (until she had to tell us to pipe down), be ourselves (until she was wishing we were someone else), and have lots of FUN! We realized that learning about religion could be exciting and useful.

What motivates us?

First of all, we have our own website! Now how cool is that? And guess what? When you ask a question, you’ll get an answer straight from a DeenTeen (don’t worry, our teacher will review our answers first). On top of that, some of the art work on the site is by the DeenTeens. Hey, if you would like to see some of your art work on our site, send it to us at info@deenteens.com and you might become famous!

And there is something else, too. It just feels good to learn about Islam and practice it in real life. Try it. We still make lots of mistakes, do lots of things we have to say sorry to Allah for, and act bad sometimes (ok, a lot of times), but at least now we know when it’s bad so we can say sorry. And that’s getting us lots of good points with Allah and also makes us feel confident about being Muslims.

Peace, brothers and sisters. Come learn with us. Ask lots of questions (we didn’t say that, our teacher said that part).

What is the goal of the DeenTeens site?

• Opening the doors of knowledge for Muslim Youth
• Connecting Muslim youth around the world on a platform of faith
• Empowering young Muslims to benefit from each other
• Providing a network for authentic, mainstream Islamic knowledge

Ustadha Mariam Bashar

Ustadha Mariam obtained her knowledge of Shāfi῾ī fiqh through years of study with Shāf῾ī fiqh scholars both in person and through online education. She studied Ḥāshiyah al-Bājūrī and Fatḥ al-῾Allām, as well as other texts with Dr. Ahmed Hassan, a student of Muftī ῾Alī Jum῾ah. She obtained her Master’s degree in Fiqh from the International Islamic University Malaysia. Presently, she continues to expand her fiqh knowledge by following the teachings of the great Syrian scholars Shaykh Rushdī al-Qalam and Shaykh Ḥassan Hīto. In addition, she is currently studying al-Taqrīrāt al-Sadīdah fī al-Masā´il al-Mufīdah with the Shaykh Muḥammad Omar al-Kāf.

Ustadha Mariam began to teach when she was 12 years old to cover her mother’s class, while her mother was attending to her hospitalized little brother. From that time on, she and everyone around her recognized that Allah had blessed her with the natural talent to teach. Since then, she has been teaching young people between the ages of 2 and 70. Her teaching experience has been diverse including teaching English, Math, Biology, Chemistry, Public Speaking, Confidence Building, Team Building, Creativity, ḥadīth, and most importantly Islamic Belief (῾aqīdah) and Shāfi῾ī fiqh. She has taught (῾aqīdah and fiqh to children as young as 4 as well as to adult males and females. Additionally, she has taught the material to new converts as well as to students of Islamic knowledge.

Teaching requires compassion for students’ situations, love for the student as well as for the work, a desire to make the world a better place, the ability to think quick in order to answer questions and deal with new situations, lesson planning skills, impromptu teaching skills, excellent public speaking skills, a personable character, and the ability to admit when one is wrong. Ustadha Mariam praises Allah the Most Glorious for having blessed her with these traits.