Our Story

The Muraqaba School is the dream project by founders Wadud & Leiya. They both grew up in the North Dallas area of Collin County, and as a young husband-wife team, quickly found their calling in education. From leading Sunday and Summer Programs to co-founding three different Islamic schools in the DFW area, they have always been passionate about teaching and mentoring our youth. With an eye for continuous development and researching the latest best practices, they created a unique, project-based Prophetic Tarbiyah curriculum for kids and a certification course for teachers. After training over a hundred schools and organizations globally, including USA, Canada, South Africa, and Australia, they decided it’s time to dream big and launch their own school - an environment of Ihsaan, integrating research, innovation, and our authentic Islamic traditions of teaching and learning to enable children to reach the best version of themselves academically, emotionally, physically and spiritually.

Our 20+ Years Journey

Youth Leaders
Grew up in Collin County. Love for education and youth leadership for Masjid Sunday & Summer schools (1995-2004). Started 1st Islamic School in Plano in 2004.
School Leadership
Wadud served as the Assistant Principal and Leiya College Guidance Counselor for 4 years at local Islamic school from 2007 - 2013
Accreditation
Wadud & Leiya were part of the original founding team in 2009 for another Islamic school now based in Plano. Later Wadud spent 2 years there as Principal and helped the school become re-accredited in 2023.
Harvard, Vanderbilt, and AT&T
Wadud & Leiya received their Leadership Training from Harvard in the summer of 2012. They graduated from Vanderbilt University with Masters in Education (Leadership LOP) and MBA in 2015. Wadud became a certified Mindfulness/EQ coach through SIY which started at Google and Leiya became a Marketing Director at AT&T.
Define360
Define360 was founded and launched in 2016 to serve the community with curriculum for teaching children Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence through an Islamic framework. It evolved beyond Sunday & Summer school into a global teacher training program in 2019. Successfully implemented in VRIC (2018-2020) and Frisco communities (2023-2024).
Muraqaba
Launched Muraqaba app in 2023 for “Developing Mindful Muslims” - at the intersection of Science and Islamic Psychology + Spirituality. Founded Muraqaba Institute in 2024 to bring all our services under one brand, including The Muraqaba School.
Youth Leaders
Grew up in Collin County. Love for education and youth leadership for Masjid Sunday & Summer schools (1995-2004). Started 1st Islamic School in Plano in 2004.

Our 20+ Years Journey

Youth Leaders
Grew up in Collin County. Love for education and youth leadership for Masjid Sunday & Summer schools (1995-2004). Started 1st Islamic School in Plano in 2004.
School Leadership
Wadud served as the Assistant Principal and Leiya College Guidance Counselor for 4 years at local Islamic school from 2007 - 2013.
Accreditation
Wadud & Leiya were part of the original founding team in 2009 for another Islamic school now based in Plano. Later Wadud spent 2 years there as Principal and helped the school become re-accredited in 2023.
Harvard, Vanderbilt,
and AT&T
Wadud & Leiya received their Leadership Training from Harvard in the summer of 2012. They graduated from Vanderbilt University with Masters in Education (Leadership LOP) and MBA in 2015. Wadud became a certified Mindfulness/EQ coach through SIY which started at Google and Leiya became a Marketing
Director at AT&T.
Define
Define was founded and
launched in 2016 to serve the community with curriculum for teaching children Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence through an Islamic framework. It evolved beyond Sunday & Summer school into a global teacher training program in 2019.
Successfully implemented in VRIC (2018-2020) and Frisco
communities (2023-2024).
Muraqaba
Launched Muraqaba app in 2023 for “Developing Mindful Muslims” - at the intersection of Science and Islamic Psychology + Spirituality.
Founded Muraqaba Institute in 2024 to bring all our services under one
brand, including
The Muraqaba School.

Meet The Team

Wadud Hassan
Principal & Academics Officer (Founder)

20+ years in School & Curriculum Leadership, Teacher Training, & Consulting

Leiya Hasan
Operations Officer (Founder)

20+ years in School Management, Corporate Marketing, & Strategy

Amaal Aref
Instructional Excellence Coordinator

10+ years in Educational Leadership, Community Engagement, Program Development, & Consulting

Sumaia Michel (Renske)
Curriculum Design C0-Lead

10+ years in Curriculum Development, School Leadership, & Teacher Training

Maneeza Dawood, PhD.
Research Director

Postdoc at Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence 10+ Years of Program & Curriculum Assessment, Development, & Thought-Leadership

Farheen Ahmad
Curriculum Design Co-Lead

20+ years in Teaching, School Leadership, Curriculum Design, & STEM Specialization

Our Advisors

Our Prophet ﷺ said religion is sincere counsel.

We have surrounded ourselves with amazing advisors with a wealth of expertise to guide us toward excellence.

Dr. nadeem memon

Islamic Pedagogy

Dr. Farah ahmed

Islamic Education & Halaqa Model

sh. abdul nasir jangda

Islamic Scholarship

sh. abdullah oduro

Islamic Scholarship

asad rahman

Legal Counsel

saadia ahmed

Non-Profits & Community Outreach

sh. salah mahmoud

Community & Islamic Scholarship

faizal moosa

Real Estate & Finance

rafi uddin

CPA

akram syed

Financial Sustainability

umer chaudhry

Investment

Khadija qamar

Curriculum & Islamic Worldview

Dr. Tahir Khwaja, MD

Mental Health

dr. shaza khan

School Research & Best Practices

raheela shaikh

Curriculum Development

gulam bakali

Community Leadership

ust. fahim qazi

Quranic Arabic