ISNS Weekday Maktab and Al Safa Academy: The Northwest Suburbs Model Explained

Introduction

The Islamic Society of Northwest Suburbs (ISNS) in Des Plaines, Illinois, has built something that most American mosques attempt and few achieve: a genuinely comprehensive Islamic education system — three distinct programmes, at three different intensity levels, serving families at every level of commitment and circumstance.

Al Safa Academy for families who want full Islamic schooling. Al Ihsan Academy Sunday school for families who want weekly Islamic education without a full-time commitment. A Weekday Afterschool Maktab for families who want the intensity of the traditional maktab model without the full school day.

This is not accidental. ISNS has made deliberate institutional investments to serve the full spectrum of its community’s Islamic education needs — and the result is a model that Islamic societies across the Midwest and beyond have studied as a blueprint.

What Is ISNS?

ISNS — the Islamic Society of Northwest Suburbs — is a mosque community organisation serving the Muslim families of the northwest Chicago suburbs, centred on Des Plaines, Illinois. It operates a mosque and Islamic centre as its hub, with educational programming as one of its core institutional functions.

ISNS describes its educational philosophy around tarbiyah — holistic Islamic upbringing that forms character, knowledge, and community belonging alongside academic competence. This is the framing that distinguishes ISNS’s approach from an institution that simply teaches Islamic Studies and Quran: ISNS is trying to form Muslim persons, not just transfer religious information.

Key facts:

• Location: Des Plaines, Illinois
• Website: isns.org
• Educational programmes: Al Safa Academy (full-time), Al Ihsan Academy (Sunday), Weekday Maktab
• Community base: South Asian Muslim families in northwest Chicago suburbs

The Three-Tier Educational Model

ISNS’s three-programme educational model maps directly onto the three intensity levels of Islamic education that American Muslim families actually choose between:

This structure means ISNS can serve families regardless of their current capacity:

• The family that wants maximum Islamic formation → Al Safa Academy
• The family that can commit one morning per week → Al Ihsan Academy
• The family that wants intensive part-time education → Weekday Maktab

Many ISNS families move between programmes as life circumstances change — a child might start in the Sunday school, move to the weekday maktab as they get older, and transition to Al Safa Academy for secondary school if the family makes the full commitment to Islamic schooling.

Al Safa Academy: Full-Time Islamic School

Al Safa Academy is ISNS’s flagship full-time Islamic school, offering Kindergarten through Grade 8. It delivers the Illinois state academic curriculum alongside daily Islamic Studies, Quran, and Arabic instruction.

Academic programme:

• Full Illinois state curriculum in all core subjects: English language arts, mathematics, science, social studies
• Standardised testing in line with Illinois private school requirements
• Qualified teachers for all academic subjects

Islamic programme:

• Daily Quran recitation and Tajweed instruction
• Daily Islamic Studies covering Fiqh, Aqeedah, Seerah, and Akhlaq
• Arabic language instruction from Kindergarten through Grade 8
• Morning du’a and Islamic environment throughout the school day
• Halal food programme
• Prayer integrated into the school day (Dhuhr and Asr)

Tarbiyah focus:
ISNS’s tarbiyah framework — character and moral formation — is embedded across Al Safa Academy’s daily life. This is not limited to an Islamic Studies class period but is embedded in how teachers manage classrooms, how students interact, and what the school culture reinforces.

Al Safa Academy is registered with the Illinois State Board of Education as a private school. Like all Illinois private schools, it receives no per-student state funding — operating entirely on tuition and community support.

Al Ihsan Academy: Sunday Islamic School

Al Ihsan Academy is ISNS’s Sunday school — running Sunday mornings for children who cannot or do not attend Al Safa Academy or the weekday maktab.

Schedule: Sunday mornings, approximately 9:00 am–1:00 pm
Age range: 5–15
Curriculum: Quran recitation, Islamic Studies, Surah and dua memorisation

Al Ihsan Academy serves a different family profile than the other two programmes:

• Families whose children are in public school or non-Islamic private school and want supplementary Islamic education
• Families who value Islamic education but cannot manage the weekday evening schedule
• Families exploring Islamic education before committing to higher-intensity options
• Older students or adults who attend Sunday programmes alongside children’s classes

The Sunday school’s 4-hour weekly contact is significantly less than the weekday maktab’s 8+ hours — but for many families in ISNS’s community, it is the right balance between Islamic education investment and everything else the week demands.

The Weekday Afterschool Maktab

ISNS’s Weekday Afterschool Maktab is the traditional South Asian maktab model — Monday to Thursday evenings, children attending after regular school for two hours of Quran and Islamic Studies instruction.

Schedule: Monday–Thursday, evening sessions (typically 5:00–7:30 pm)
Age range: 5–14
Curriculum: Follows the standard maktab curriculum: Quran/Qaidah progression with Tajweed, Islamic Studies covering the core disciplines, Surah and dua memorisation

The weekday maktab delivers approximately 8–10 contact hours per week — more than double the Sunday school. For families committed to meaningful Quran progression and Islamic Studies depth without full-time schooling, it is the most effective part-time option.

ISNS’s weekday maktab reflects the educational culture of the northwest suburbs’ predominantly South Asian Muslim community — families from Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh who grew up attending maktab and regard it as a necessary part of their children’s upbringing rather than an optional supplement.

Curriculum Across All Three Tiers

Despite operating at three different intensity levels, ISNS’s three programmes share a coherent curriculum philosophy — one that prioritises the integration of Islamic and academic formation rather than treating them as separate tracks.

Quran across all tiers:
All three programmes include Quran recitation as a core component. Al Safa Academy integrates daily Quran sessions; the Sunday school and weekday maktab provide Quran as the primary learning focus. All tiers follow the standard progression: Qaidah → Nazra → Hifz track for interested students.

Islamic Studies across all tiers:
Islamic Studies content — Aqeedah, Fiqh, Seerah, Akhlaq — is delivered at each tier, with depth and time investment proportional to the programme’s intensity.

Arabic:
Arabic language instruction is integrated into Al Safa Academy’s full-time curriculum as a standalone subject. The Sunday school and maktab incorporate Arabic literacy as part of Quran instruction but do not typically teach Arabic as a separate language.

Tarbiyah:
Character formation — honesty, respect, community service, Islamic identity in a non-Muslim society — is embedded throughout ISNS’s educational philosophy regardless of which programme a student attends.

The Community ISNS Serves

ISNS’s primary community is the Muslim families of Des Plaines, Arlington Heights, Skokie, Mount Prospect, and surrounding northwest Chicago suburbs — predominantly South Asian (Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi) with a growing Arab and convert community.

This community is:

• Economically stable: Many northwest suburbs families work in professional and technical fields — technology, medicine, finance — which means private school tuition is within reach for a significant share of families
• Educationally ambitious: First and second-generation South Asian families have typically high educational aspirations and significant investment in children’s academic achievement
• Islamically committed: The decision to attend ISNS’s programmes reflects deliberate Islamic commitment — families who make their children attend maktab four evenings a week are signalling that Islamic education is a priority

This community profile — professional, educationally ambitious, Islamically committed — is what makes ISNS’s full three-tier model sustainable. A community with lower average income might sustain the Sunday school but not the full-time academy. ISNS’s community can support all three.

Why the ISNS Model Is Worth Studying

The ISNS model is worth studying by any Islamic society that aspires to more than a single programme. Three specific lessons:

1. Serve the whole spectrum:
Not every family in your community will make the same choice. Some want full-time Islamic schooling; some want weekly Sunday classes. If you offer only one, you lose families at the other levels. ISNS’s three-tier model captures families regardless of where they start.

2. Tarbiyah as the unifying framework:
Running three separate programmes under a single tarbiyah philosophy creates coherence across the institution. Students who move from Sunday school to weekday maktab to full-time school are moving along the same philosophical continuum — not switching between unrelated programmes.

3. Institutional investment creates institutional capacity:
ISNS has invested over many years in building teachers, governance, and operational infrastructure. That investment compounding over time is what allows it to run three programmes well. Mosques that start with a single volunteer-run Sunday school and gradually build can aspire to this — but only with consistent institutional investment.

Conclusion

ISNS represents what a well-governed, community-committed Islamic society can build when it invests consistently in Islamic education across multiple generations. Three programmes, one philosophy, one community — serving Muslim families at every level of commitment with Islamic education that actually produces the Quran literacy, knowledge, and character its community wants.

For Islamic societies across America — especially those in communities with the financial capacity and the will to build — the ISNS model is a blueprint worth studying.

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