About The Book

The Project Lina book and workshops are designed to bring converts to a place of joyful confidence in themselves, their faith, and their place in their families and communities.

Lina is the Arabic word for palm tree, and the three modules found in this book — Know Yourself, Declare Your Independence, and Tend Your Ties — provide a springboard from which converts can grow into community members who, like palm trees, have deep roots and strong but flexible trunks, and bear wonderful, life-sustaining fruit.

Whether your’re new to Islam or a seasoned convert with tales and advice of her own to share, Project Lina will help you continue to bring your whole self to Islam. It is the open arms, the spiritual guidance, and the balanced way forward that converts need for a healthy transition from newbies to vital members of their communities — and then to the leaders their communities need.

About The Authors

Dr. Tamara Gray is the founder of Rabata, an organization dedicated to promoting positive cultural change through creative educational experiences. She holds a doctorate in leadership from the University of St. Thomas, a master’s degree in Curriculum Theory and Instruction from Temple University, and spent twenty years studying traditional and classical Islamic sciences, Quran, and Arabic in Damascus, Syria.

Dr. Gray is an author, translator, and public speaker. Dr. Tamara’s most recent work is Project Lina: Bringing Our Whole Selves to Islam. Her book Joy Jots: Exercises for a Happy Heart is in its second edition and she is also a co-translator of Mukhtasir al-Jami’ fi al-Sīra al-Nabawiyya by Samīra Zayid [Compendium of the Collection of Sources on al-Sīra al-Nabawiyya] (Co-translator).

Dr. Gray lives in Minnesota where she enjoys coffee, the seasons, and her grandchildren.

Najiyah Maxfield is the author of many articles, poems and short stories. Her young adult novel, Sophia's Journal, is an award-winning time travel adventure. Anse Najiyah has taught English and history in the US and the Middle East. She spent three years as the Managing Editor of Discover: The Magazine for Curious Muslim Kids, and is now head of publishing at Daybreak Press, Rabata's non-profit publishing company.

She lives with her husband in Hutchinson, Kansas where she kayaks in the summer, crochets in the winter, and plays The Floor is Lava with her four granddaughters year-round. Najiyah teaches two courses with Ribaat: Public Speaking and Community Outreach and Creative Writing: Raising Muslim Women's Voices, in addition to leading Project Lina workshops and periodic webinars on the writing craft.