OUR STORY
How do we help our children encounter Islam not only as information to learn, but as an inheritance to love?
Risalah began with our family. As homeschooling parents, we wanted a beautiful reason to sit down together, open something tangible, and enter the stories, ideas, places, and people that carried the Message across generations.
MEET THE FOUNDERS
Risalah is founded by Mohamad Moussa and Dolly Ali, a husband-and-wife team whose work is shaped by faith, family learning, and a shared love of meaningful stories.
CO-FOUNDER · STORY, RESEARCH, AND EDITORIAL DIRECTION
Majd studied psychology in college and has a longstanding interest in healing and medicine. He has also studied Islam through various programs and with scholars, most recently through the two-year TSP program at Darul Rayaan.
He brings to Risalah a love of spiritual formation, human development, and the stories through which knowledge becomes lived wisdom.
CO-FOUNDER · CHILD DEVELOPMENT, LANGUAGE, AND FAMILY EXPERIENCE
Dolly studied child development and English. Her understanding of how children learn, grow, and connect with language shapes the way Risalah speaks to young people: with maturity, warmth, clarity, and respect.
As a homeschooling mother, she is especially attentive to experiences that invite curiosity rather than making faith feel like another assignment.
WHY WE CREATED RISALAH
We homeschool our children, and we have always wanted more opportunities to connect with them over Islam in a way that feels alive, beautiful, and shared.
Islamic history is filled with spiritual transformation, courage, intellectual discovery, journeys, cities, manuscripts, art, medicine, astronomy, service, and extraordinary human lives. Yet children often meet this inheritance as isolated names or abbreviated lessons.
We imagined something different: a letter arriving at the home, a story worth gathering around, a physical artifact to examine, and questions that continue at the table after the reading is finished. Risalah grew from that desire.
Something beautiful enough to keep, and meaningful enough to bring the family together.
WHAT GUIDES US
Risalah is not designed to replace parents, teachers, or formal study. It is designed to give families a beautiful point of entry: one story, one gathering, and one conversation at a time.
OUR MISSION
To create immersive, trustworthy Islamic story experiences that help families learn together through history, faith, discovery, art, and meaningful conversation.
OUR VISION
We envision young people who know that Islamic history is their history; who recognize its scholars, cities, journeys, achievements, and moral struggles; and who feel responsible for carrying its wisdom forward.
Receive the story. Carry the Message.
WHY SNAIL MAIL
A physical letter asks something different of us than another link, notification, or lesson on a screen. It creates anticipation, attention, and a reason to gather.
A numbered envelope arriving each month gives the family something to look forward to and makes the story feel like an event.
Paper, maps, cards, and artifacts slow the experience down. They can be held, examined, passed around, and revisited without another screen.
The story becomes a shared reference point for questions about character, faith, knowledge, struggle, sincerity, and the world our children are growing into.
Each dispatch adds to a physical family collection—a visible record of stories discovered and conversations shared over time.
STORY, ART, AND CRAFT
Islamic civilization did not preserve knowledge through words alone. Manuscripts, maps, architecture, pattern, illustration, and calligraphy helped make ideas visible and memorable.
Risalah is designed to feature work from a range of artists and calligraphers. Their contributions will not be random decoration. Each piece should deepen the world of the story, honor the subject, and give families something beautiful to examine and preserve.
Work with artists and calligraphers whose style serves the story.
Treat Arabic and sacred material with care, accuracy, and adab.
Create pieces families will want to display, collect, and revisit.
FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS
Our hope is that every Risalah gives your family more than information. We hope it gives you a memory, a conversation, and another reason to feel connected to the inheritance we have been entrusted to carry.
