Online Quran & Islamic Classes in New York City

Students in New York City study Quran, the Dars e Nizami curriculum and the Arabic sciences one-to-one online with Shaykh Hafiz Muddassir, a graduate of Tanzeem ul Madaris Ahl-e-Sunnat (Pakistan) with more than ten years teaching these books. Classes are taught in English, Urdu, Hindi or Arabic.

New York is home to an estimated three-quarters of a million Muslims spread across South Asian, West African, Arab and African American communities, from Jackson Heights to Bay Ridge. The scale means weekend madrasas exist everywhere, and serious one-to-one study is still hard to arrange. Community languages here include Urdu, Bengali, Arabic, Wolof and English, and teaching in English removes the barrier for students raised locally who do not read Urdu. NYC evenings are 6am to 9am in Pakistan, a natural slot for a teacher who starts early. Fees are quoted per student rather than published, and a trial class establishes the right starting level before anything is committed to.

Islamic education in New York City

That shapes what families here actually need. Where a community has deep mosque provision, the gap is rarely access to a building; it is structured one-to-one teaching at a level and in a language the student can follow.

Community languages in New York City include Urdu, Bengali, Arabic, Wolof and English, which matters because most classical teaching worldwide assumes Urdu or Arabic as the medium.

What times do classes run in New York City?

NYC evenings are 6am to 9am in Pakistan, a natural slot for a teacher who starts early.

Practically, that means after-school sessions for children and evening slots for working adults. US evenings, from EST to PST, fall in Pakistan’s early morning, a window the teacher keeps open for American students.

Daylight saving is handled by moving the slot rather than leaving the family to recalculate it twice a year.

Why is study in English so hard to find?

Almost all Dars e Nizami teaching worldwide happens in Urdu, because that is the language of the institutions that carry the tradition and of the commentaries built around it. That works perfectly for students raised in Urdu-speaking households.

It works badly for the generation raised in Toronto, Birmingham, Sydney or Chicago. Those students are often fluent in English, functional in conversational Urdu or Punjabi, and unable to follow a technical grammar lesson in either. The curriculum is not too difficult for them; the medium is.

Teaching the same books through English removes that barrier without diluting anything. This page covers this in detail.

What can students in New York City study?

The full range: Quran classes from Noorani Qaida through Nazra, Tajweed, Hifz and Tarjama with Tafseer; the Dars e Nizami curriculum year by year; and the Arabic sciences including Sarf-o-Nahv.

Children commonly start with Qaida or Nazra and add Islamic studies alongside. Adults more often take Tafseer, grammar, or a single classical text.

Sisters studying from home take the same curriculum through the six-year course.

One-to-one or group classes?

Both are taught. A one-to-one class belongs entirely to one student, so the pace follows them and every error is corrected at the moment it happens. A small group class puts a few students at a matched level together, which costs less per student and suits siblings or friends studying alongside each other.

The honest trade is attention against company. One-to-one surfaces a weakness within minutes; in a group it can take a few sessions. Some students, particularly younger ones, work harder with peers in the room and would drift in a solo class.

Which suits a given student is decided in the first conversation rather than assumed, and it can change later. Sessions run on whatever video platform the family already uses.

Teaching children

Children are taught in shorter sessions, with more repetition and a slower introduction of new material than adults need. For a child raised outside a Muslim-majority country, English-medium teaching also removes the quiet embarrassment of not following a class in a language the rest of the family speaks.

Parents are told honestly how the child is progressing, including when the answer is that progress has stalled and why.

This page covers the practical side for parents.

Who teaches these classes?

Shaykh Hafiz Muddassir completed the full Dars e Nizami curriculum under Tanzeem ul Madaris Ahl-e-Sunnat (Pakistan), and has taught its books for more than ten years. He also holds an MA in English, an MA in English Linguistics and an MPhil in English.

That second half is the unusual part. Classical training and a linguistics background rarely sit in the same person, and together they make it possible to teach *sarf* (Arabic morphology) or *mantiq* (classical logic) in English, Urdu, Hindi and Arabic, choosing whichever the student actually thinks in.

Classes run one-to-one or in small groups, whichever suits the student.

What do classes cost?

Fees are quoted for each student rather than published as a price list, because the honest figure depends on the course, how many classes a week and the level involved. A child taking two Qaida sessions weekly and an adult reading advanced Arabic texts are not the same commitment.

For general context rather than as a quotation: Across online Islamic academies generally, tuition is priced either per class hour or as a monthly block of two to five classes a week, and one-to-one teaching costs more than group classes because the hour belongs to one student. Local currency, timezone and class length all shift the picture, which is why a real number needs the real details.

Message the student’s age, level and how often you would like to study, and you will get a straight answer for that situation. This page covers the question in more detail.

Getting started

Begin with a message rather than a booking form. Age, current level, preferred language of instruction and rough availability are enough for a useful reply.

Level assessment matters more than most families expect. Students frequently arrive believing they are ready for a text they cannot yet parse, and starting them there wastes months. An honest starting point is worth more than a flattering one.

A trial class confirms the assessment in practice before anything is agreed.

How does the classical method actually work?

Madrasa teaching has a shape that has survived centuries because it works, and almost none of it depends on buildings. A student reads aloud, the teacher corrects at the exact word where the reasoning failed, and the student explains back what they understood.

That third step is the one modern courses drop. Recognition is not comprehension, and a student who nods through an explanation can rarely reproduce it an hour later. Being asked to explain the passage back exposes the gap immediately.

The method transfers to a video call intact, because the essential part was never the room. What it will not survive is being turned into recorded lectures, since the correction loop disappears with the teacher.

Placing a student correctly

A short conversation and a trial class settle it. The teacher asks the student to demonstrate rather than describe, because describing your own level is genuinely difficult and most people get it wrong in one direction or the other.

Where a student needs to go back a stage, that is said plainly and with a reason attached. It is not a judgement on the student; gaps usually come from how they were taught rather than from ability.

The upside of correct placement is that progress becomes visible quickly, which is what keeps a student studying.

What happens between classes

Every session ends by setting specific practice, not a vague instruction to revise. Specific means a named passage, a defined table, or a page to parse.

Adults with demanding jobs often do better than teenagers with more free time, purely because they protect a small daily slot instead of relying on motivation. The habit matters more than the hour it sits in.

Where practice is not happening, that shows up in the next class, and the honest response is to adjust the plan rather than pretend the material was covered.

Can adults start from the beginning?

Yes, and a large share of students here are adults starting over. Many read the Quran as children, stopped for two decades, and return wanting to understand rather than only recite.

Adults learn differently from children rather than worse. They grasp grammatical structure faster because they already understand how language works, and they memorise more slowly. Playing to the first while planning around the second is what an experienced teacher adjusts for.

The genuine obstacle is embarrassment, not ability. A one-to-one class removes the audience entirely, which is why adult beginners often start there and move to a group later.

Frequently asked questions

Are classes live or recorded for students in New York City?

Live, one-to-one, at a time that suits your local schedule. Nothing is pre-recorded.

Can my child study in English rather than Urdu?

Yes, and for children raised in New York City that is usually the better choice. The classical material is delivered in English at full depth rather than in a simplified version.

What time of day do classes run?

NYC evenings are 6am to 9am in Pakistan, a natural slot for a teacher who starts early. Children are typically taught after school and adults in the evening.

Do you teach adults as well as children?

Yes. Adult beginners and adults returning to study after years away are both common.

How do we start?

Message the student’s age, level and preferred language. You will get an assessment and, if it fits, a trial class before anything is agreed.

Last reviewed 29 July 2026 by Shaykh Hafiz Muddassir.