Find out more about the staff of MYM!

Editor-in-Chief | Literary Editors | Media Manager | Web Administrator | Writers

Arif Kabir

Editor-in-Chief | Maryland, USA | Articles

Arif Kabir is a student at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. After seeing that there was a void in Islamic literature available to the Muslim youth, he founded Muslim Youth Musings with the vision that this void would one day be filled and that there would be a serious literary platform for the youth to express their thoughts and musings. He is currently serving as the Ameer of Qabeelat Nurayn, AlMaghrib Institute and is an organizer for the annual DC Hidayah Conference. In his spare time, Arif enjoys reading mystery thrillers, writing, graphic designing , and managing projects.

Fatimah Waseem

Literary Editor | Maryland, USA | Articles

Fatimah Waseem is a student at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at University of Maryland, College Park where she is pursuing a double major in neurophysiology and journalism and a minor in art. When she’s not in a classroom, she’s busy serving as a Student Government Association legislator and participating in the four-year interdisciplinary research program, Gemstone. Off campus, she writes for The Muslim Link newspaper, the Maryland, Virginia, and DC area’s premier source for news on Muslim affairs. And when she’s not writing, she has her artist’s pen in hand: her paintbrush. Writing for MYM, however, allows her to take a deep breath, step back, and regain perspective on life!

Noha Sahnoune

Literary Editor | Houston, USA | Articles

Noha is a student at the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston, entering Finance and Global Energy Management. She is a mainstream Muslim, a first-year freshman, a witty writer, and an adventure addict with an indomitable Internet interest. She is a lingual lioness, a syntactically-surged sister, a runner, a futbol and food fan, a charismatically competitive hijabi, and somewhat of a personable person. She appreciates the funny side of life. Noha also enjoys blogging, vlogging, photogging and jogging, and spreading dawah and attending Islamic conventions when everyone else is eggnogging. Her hobbies include writing all day, every day, watching people and wondering at the stories of their lives, and exploring different views of life that she can incorporate into her own. Noha has the habit of posting “Alhamdulilah” as her Facebook status, say, every other day, and has more Yu-Gi-Oh cards than red blood cells. On a serious note, Noha envisions the world as a vast opportunity to help any and all in reaching their dreams. She hopes of assisting other Muslim youth in their writing endeavors, to encourage the growing Muslim community in standing out and using their talents to make a change.

Ruqaiyya Maryam

Literary Editor | United Kingdom | Articles

Born and raised in the UK, Ruqaiyya Maryam shares a roof with a mother who is obsessed with organic eggs and a father who loves to spend his time on Ebay. She is currently doing a degree in Social Sciences, finding a cure to her OCSD (Obsessive Compulsive Shoe Disorder) and writing her first novel. She loves photography, is hopeless at cooking and gets her sleeves stuck in door handles (don’t ask!). She is a part of MYM as she wants to reach out to the Muslim Youth of today through her writing and experiences and of course play a tiny part in spreading this beautiful deen of ours.

Sadiyah Ali

Media Manager | Oregon, USA | Articles

Sadiyah Ali is a college student living in Portland, Oregon. She’s an active member of her community and often organizes events for the youth. She loves poetry, particularly Arabic ones and enjoys writing in her spare time. Sadiyah is also an Arabic tutor during the weekends. She came across MYM two years ago and it has been since then one of her favorite websites.

Gibran Ali

Website Administrator | Maryland, USA | Contact

Gibran Ali, an undergraduate Computer Science major at the University of Maryland, has been a computer buff for years. Originally from Pakistan, Gibran came to the United States in 2008 as a high school graduate. He is the Founder of and System Administrator at Vanelegion Technologies, a web-designing and web-hosting firm. His past work includes designing and hosting websites for various charitable organizations, new businesses and online stores. In his free time, Gibran likes to listen to inspirational lectures by Western scholars of Islam and explore the world of Maqamaat.

Aamir Shamsi

London, England | Articles

Muhammad Aamir Shamsi is currently a Medical student at Imperial College London. He joined MYM in summer 2010 to develop his writing skills, to provide an insight into the incidents that have occurred in his life and to explore his thoughts that have arisen from such occurences. He hopes he can develop as a Muslim and become a better person in the process inshAllah.

Amal Kamalmaz

Virginia, USA | Articles

A future leader of tomorrow, Amal Kamalmaz is on her journey to seeking knowledge. This is her first year at Northern Virginia Community College, and hopes to transfer soon to a near university for a major in Islamic Studies insha’Allah. Amal Kamalmaz hopes to make a change in both the Muslim and Non-Muslim world in the future as a leader, introducing Islam and religion as a topic that combines both groups. She hopes to concentrate on the Quran, as it is the base of our lives, problems, and happiness. She chose to join MYM in order to influence people through her writings. Amal loves to write and is currently writing a book about both adventure, Islam, and how they combined to shape one’s life. MYM has given her the chance to reach out to her best abilities in Islamic reminders.

Basiratulann Shahid

Manchester, United Kingdom | Articles

Basiratulann Shahid was born in Manchester, Great Britain but her nationality is Pakistani. She has always wanted to be a writer since she can remember and would love to publish a few novels. Around
four years ago, she realised that she also wanted to be a poet after a spontaneous experience in the art room, in which a poem suddenly came flowing from her pencil. Since then, she has maintained writing poetry as one of her main hobbies and usually incorporates the beauty of nature into her poetry. She joined MYM after her sister suggested the website to her and felt that this was the perfect environment for her to endorse herself in. She loves the fact that MYM is a place of increasing her knowledge about Islam and reading other brothers’ and sisters’ literature. Apart from writing, she enjoys reading and has a passion for photography and learning languages.

Fatih Seferagic

Texas, USA | Articles

He was born in Germany, but his nationality is Bosnian. He moved to the USA when he was 4, and has been living there ever since. He lived in Arizona for 3-4 year before moving to Maryland. He lived in Maryland for 7 years, and did most of his growing up in Baltimore. It was in Baltimore that he joined a Quran School to memorize the Quran. He started memorizing the Qur’an when he was 9, and completed the memorization in 3 years – when he was 12. He continued to stay in the class after he finished for 2 years before leaving. He stayed for 2 more years to study Riwayaat and to strengthen his Quran even further. In 2010, He was accepted into the Bayyinah Dream Program. He has been studying Arabic at Bayyinah Dream ever since September 2010. He’s currently the youth leader at Shaykh Yasir Birjas’s Masjid in Dallas, TX. He decided to join MYM out of his love for working with youth. Being a youth himself; he knows a lot of the problems that youth face on a daily basis, so this is a very good way for him to share advice, and any other pieces of information that might help the youth of today. On the side; He enjoys writing, reading, gaming, learning languages, philosophy, psychology, and languages.

Hanaa

Ontario, Canada | Articles

Hanaa is an English major who calls the border city of Windsor, Ontario, Canada home. She has an insatiable thirst for the written word, particularly poetry and enjoys immersing herself in the study of new languages. She writes for MYM to remind herself and others that all of our trials and triumphs come from to Allah azza wa jal. In her spare time she enjoys writing eclectically in her journal, attending AlMaghrib seminars and playing basketball.

Hannan Ouyoun

Illinois, USA | Articles

Hannan Ouyoun is currently an online homeschooling High School junior in Chicago, Illinois. She hails from an odd family of eight consisting of five girls and one boy. Outside of  MYM, Hannan enjoys an expansive array of sports including karate and basketball. She may live in Illinois, but you’ll have a better chance of running into her anywhere there’s an AlMaghrib class. Hannan and her family spend almost every weekend somewhere out of state immersing themselves in the study of Islam. She writes for MYM as a means of fulfilling the rights of the knowledge she seeks upon her. Encouraged by her incredible parents, she has finally built up the courage to share what knowledge she has accumulated, alhamdulillah. May Allah, the All-Kknowing, accept.

Maryam

Lahore, Pakistan | Articles

Maryam is an undergrad law student at the University of London International Programme, currently living in Pakistan. She discovered MYM on Google when she was quite lost and had not much clue on how to become a good Muslim. She believes that MYM helped her to change that and become a better Muslim. Her dream projects include making an animal orphanage, free schools for the economically inactive children and adults, and soup kitchens all over the world. She wants to see a world where no child goes to bed hungry, where all children go to school, and where no animal is mistreated, Insha’Allah.

Muhtasham Sifaat

New York, USA | Articles

A Bangladeshi descent from the sakura trees of Japan, the golden prairies of Iowa, and the windy days of Chicago, Muhtasham Sifaat currently lives in New York City as a Pre-Medical student of William E. Macaulay Honors College at the City University of New York. He found his passion for writing at the Bronx High School of Science and took this practice as a discipline for fruitful reflection and self-expression. Alhamdulillah, Sifaat was able to develop his writing through numerous competitions such as the Muslim Interscholastic Tournament (MIST) and with irreplaceable support from his friends and family. He intends to write for MYM to better himself as a Muslim and a writer, Insha’Allah. Besides writing, Sifaat likes to draw, take afternoon walks, meditate, and pray (sometimes nap) at different masaajid throughout the city. He is also a disciple of Hoshinkido Hapkido, a Korean martial art, which he practices alongside Taekwondo on his free time.

Nadia Farooqi

Texas, USA

Nadia is currently studying Pharmacy at the University of Houston. She has a heart of kindness and love for everyone to take and share. Nadia enjoys meeting new people and spending time with her cherished ones. You’ll find her frequently hugging random hijjabis and coping with a handful of people here and there to get acquainted with many Muslims and non-Muslims. Allah gifted her with this need and passion of aiding others, in all cases, as much as possible. Her time goes out to her family, Islam, sketching, writing, and a lot of volunteering. Currently, she is holding a position with Crescent Youth, a non-profit organization, as a sisters coordinator, reaching out to youth as much as she can by creating new projects and events. She is also an enrichment teacher for Amaanah Refugee services, also a non profit organization in the goal of helping refugee families. Nadia has many goals in life and she wants her voice to be heard through her writings, for people to feel and understand certain situations, to help someone in a different state or country reading it. For this reason, she joined MYM and is excited to write for them, for one article can make a difference to any reader. She perceives whats happening around her; her surrounding, environment, masjlis, ummah and believes that one day, she’ll be able to make many changes and differences in someones life.

Raadia Khan

Maryland, USA | Articles

Usually found typing away at a laptop or scribbling rapidly in a composition notebook, Raadia is a slightly insane high school student with a zeal for writing. Her passionate writing expresses her love for Islam. She adores cats, and hopes to get one someday. She has wanted to join MYM since introduced to it by her friends. Raadia loves to sit and marvel at her Deen. She occasionally tries to cook, but usually fails miserably. In her free time, she enjoys reading, having deep philosophical conversations with her father, talking to her friends, looking for those inspirational signs, ayaat, that make her day. She also can be found engaged in an intense monologue with her food, much to the annoyance of people around her.

Saiema Alam

New York, USA

Saiema Alam is a high school student who will be starting college next year, Insha’Allah. On the weekends, she can be found in the masjid with her students creating camels out of yarn, coloring pictures of arks, gluing together wudu books, and teaching the Stories of the Prophets. In her free time, she enjoys reading anything that she can find, crocheting toys for her nephew, trying new pizza recipes, and of course, writing! She is excited for this new chapter in her life as she writes for MYM and finds the Islamic perspective in seemingly ordinary life events.

Sherine Soliman

Ontario, Canada

Sherine was born in Alexandria, Egypt, sixteen years ago. Today, she lives in Mississauga, Ontario and enjoys playing basketball, cricket, and reading on her front porch. When she was younger, she used to run barefoot through the house, leaving behind her a chaotic maze of overturned chairs, ribbons, and candy wrappers. One minute she was a warrior, howling battle cries and raising her sword to the sky. In an instant, she became a pirate, a monkey, a clown, a ballerina. Sherine fell in love with the freedom to imagine, to express. As she grew older, she found this very same love in writing. Words consumed her. She began painting pictures with words, paintings that could only be seen by the mind and felt by the heart. Her passion for writing was born of storytelling. She loved sitting by her mother’s feet, entranced as she read her stories of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them). Words give Sherine a voice, a means through which she can reach out and plant a picture in someone’s mind. These pictures she evokes are meant to empower, to strengthen, to inspire change. When all is done and gone, she hopes people will remember her pictures as canvases reverberating with the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): “What actions are most excellent? To gladden the heart of a human being, to feed the hungry, to help the afflicted, to lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful, and to remove the wrongs of the injured.”

Sumaira

New York, USA | Articles

Born as a New Yorker and always a New Yorker, Sumaira is known to be the “city girl” who will never survive in the countryside. She is on the never-ending pursuit of trying to please Almighty Allah, and be among the strongest believers of Islamic monotheism that He would be proud of. She is passionate about loving her dear friends and family as well as being bluntly honest with people, and telling it like it is. Creating extended metaphors are her forte, and she often finds a way to personify inanimate objects in her writing. Sumaira joined MYM in order to be a part of a community of people who absolutely adore to write and enjoy writing for others. A community where writers connect their inner creativity with the worship and love for their Rabb, it is another one of many places to grow spiritually.

Zainub

Alberta, Canada | Articles

Zainub can usually be found thawing out in front of her fireplace in Calgary, Alberta, Canada where temperatures often dip as low as -30° C. When not defrosting, she can be located in the University of Calgary library with furrowed brow, trying to understand convoluted literary theories in efforts to earn her degree in English. Zainub is fascinated by the rich tradition of Islamic literature by the likes of Ibn Battuta and Imam Al-Ghazali. She’s part of MYM because she sees the group as a humble and modern expression of the same fire that motivated these great thinkers. She also contributes articles to I Got It Covered, a website devoted to women’s modesty. In her spare time she loves to travel, practice her photography and play with her two cats Mowgli and Lola.

Retired MYM Staff:

• Adil Bukhari (Web Administrator)
• Ammar Habib (Pieces)
• Jawaad Ahmad Khan (Pieces)
• Maryam (Pieces
• Nasir Al-Din (Pieces)
• Shahin (Pieces)