Suhba Essentials for Teens
Dates: October 2025 - June 2026
Teens can now join Al-Madina’s global spiritual community where they will find solace, strength, and the tools to face today’s challenges with unwavering spiritual and intellectual fortitude.
Under the stewardship of Ustadh Hassan Kandar, the Suhba Essentials Program for teens offers a unique curriculum blending spiritual fellowship, essential knowledge, and practical character transformation. Embrace the journey of inside-out change with Suhba Essentials for Teens.
Overview
Why Suhba Essentials for Teens?
To change inside-out, connect experientially with Allah and His Messenger ﷺ, find solace and strength in a mentor-led community, and gain spiritual and intellectual fortitude to face the challenges of today’s world.
What is Suhba Essentials for Teens?
Being a teen has never been easy. Being a teen in the modern world is even more challenging. With all the pressures that surround us—peer pressure, social media, fashion pressure, lifestyle pressure, identity pressures, and more—how are we to navigate our challenging place in this world with principles, grace, and strength? Is it even possible?
Suhba Essentials for Teens is an online, once-a-week class for teens composed of both instruction and mentorship. The program aims to address real-life challenges facing teens today while offering practical, Islamically-grounded solutions.
This curriculum of spiritual fellowship (suhba), essential knowledge (‘ilm), and practical character transformation (‘amal and akhlaq) is designed by Shaykh Mokhtar Maghraoui and delivered by Ustadh Hassan Kandar.
How Do I Change Inside-Out and Connect Experientially with Allah and His Messenger ﷺ?
By studying everything within an envelope of purification of the soul (tazkiya al-nafs), diving into your inner world, understanding what limits your spiritual potential, cultivating beautiful inner character, and practicing what you learn, step-by-step, with consistency.
How Do I Find Solace and Strength in a Global Spiritual Community?
Through fellowship (suhba) with teachers and students, shared reflections, group remembrance circles, one-on-one mentoring, and year-round opportunities in Istanbul for in-person study and fellowship.
How Do I Gain Spiritual and Intellectual Fortitude to Face Today’s Challenges?
By nurturing your spiritual intelligence (SQ), learning the spiritual and rational principles of Islam, applying them to real-life case studies, and cultivating certainty (yaqin) based on experiential and rational understanding.
Timing
The full class will be held on Sundays, with the time decided after gathering time zone information from all registrants.
- Primary Instructor: Ustadh Hassan Kandar
- Supporting Instructors: Teachers and Mentors from the Suhba Essentials and Suhba Seminary
- Classes: Once a week for eight months with breaks at select times
- Class Length: 1 hour 15 minutes weekly (45 minutes instruction, 30 minutes guided reflection & conversation)
- Class Time: Sunday @ 11am EST - 12:15pm EST
Class Split: The practical, interactive portion of the classes will be gender seperated.
Content
Classes are organized into modules of 4–5 weeks each. Topics covered include:
- Tazkiya an-Nafs (Purification of the Self)
- Usul al-Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence)
- Sira
- Tafsir
- Hadith
- Aqida
- Fiqh
Program Cost
Pricing has two tiers:
If the parent of the child is not registered in the Suhba Seminary or Essentials Program: $800 USD
If the parent of the child is registered in the Suhba Seminary or Essentials Program: $400 USD
Sponsorship requests can be made on the application page.
FAQs
Yes, classes will be recorded and posted 48 hours after they conclude.
Students should commit to 1.5 hours of weekly classes and mentoring, and 30 minutes to homework. The total time commitment a student should make is 2 hours per week.
The age suggestions for the program is 13+ with the focus likely being on students aged around 16
Orientation: Sunday, October 12th, 2025
First class: Sunday, October 19th, 2025
Final session: Sunday, June 21st, 2026
Teens may attend this teens program, the adult Suhba Essentials program or both. We do have teens currently in the Suhba Essentials and Seminary program. Teens who enter the teen program may then choose to continue in the adult program in subsequent years.
Yes! Every week students will have access to a learning resource material document including key words, texts, and an overview of the class.
Teens who complete the program requirements at a satisfactory level will receive an electronic program completion certificate.
No. Due to the interactive nature of this program only a limited number of applications will be accepted.
The application process will take between 1-2 weeks.