About Us

IQRA’ International Education Foundation is a non-profit Islamic educational establishment (waqf) instituted to creatively respond to the growing need of our children, youth, and adults for sound Islamic instruction in the modern global village.

The concept of IQRA’s comprehensive program of Islamic education was set in motion when Abidullah and Tasneema Ghazi helped establish an Islamic Sunday school on the campus of Harvard University in 1968. Searching for instructional material quickly led to the discovery of the woeful state of Islamic education, particularly in the West. It was time for action to be taken. Enjoining the extraordinary combination of a professional educator matched with an Islamic scholar, the Ghazis were entrusted with the task of developing a program of supplementary religious education.

With their remarkable fusion of Islamic and Western learning, the Ghazis conceptualized a complete system of Islamic Studies based on a traditional madrasah syllabi structure, utilizing modern educational methodologies. While the Harvard Sunday school proved to be an incubator, the application of this system was realized in classrooms of Islamic supplementary schools in Minneapolis and San Diego where the Ghazi’s later resided. In 1979, Drs. Abidullah and Tasneema Ghazi moved to Chicago where they took on the task of writing Islamic Studies textbooks for the Muslim Community Center, Chicago (MCC).

The curriculum for Islamic supplementary schools, as well as nearly 20 titles from the popular Sirah series – including Our Prophet: Muhammad Rasulullah (S), Mercy to Mankind, Messenger of Allah and Stories from the Sirah – were printed by 1981. As an official organization, IQRA’ International Educational Foundation was registered in the State of Illinois as a non-profit organization in 1983 in compliance with IRS section 501-C (3).

Since then, IQRA’ has produced a comprehensive, systematic and integrated system of Islamic religious knowledge, involving 150 textbooks, workbooks, teacher’s guides, curriculum manuals and other educational materials. It is a program that is extremely popular in North America and in many English-speaking communities across the world.

Today, IQRA’ stands worldwide as a trusted name in Islamic education. With its main office in Skokie, IL and its Book Center in Chicago, IQRA’ has taken the lead in providing our children with a spiritual foundation for over a quarter of a century.