Manara College for Islamic & Arabic Studies is an academic institution focused on research in the Islamic sciences, Arabic language, and contemporary American-Muslim affairs.

The idea for the institute emerged from several Imams’ efforts to host educational workshops and academic courses in mosques for those aspiring to expand their knowledge of Islam and thereby deepen their understanding of the role that Muslims must play in establishing human civilization on the basis of justice, equality, and cooperation.

These courses offered a more advanced rendition of the educational services typically provided by mosques to the general public. They also served as specialized courses in specific academic fields urgently needed by Muslims living in the United States.
 

This small scale operation of workshops and courses eventually generated a far more ambitious vision: the establishment of an institution for producing teachers, imams, and chaplains will-versed in the Islamic tradition and will-t in effectively relaying it. Such as institute would develop a sound Islamic approach to ambiguous theological and ethical questions, even as it helped build a fundamentally decent society.

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It had become clear that such an institution was more necessary than ever. Logistical difficulties and cultural illiteracies had rendered the practice of importing educators and imam’s from the East untenable at the best and outright harmful at worst. What the American-Muslim community needed was obvious: American-Muslim Scholars.

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Thus this college, the first specialized college for Islamic and Arabic Studies in the northeastern Unites States, was founded in December 2015. The first semester of study commenced in the spring of 2016. Just two years later, in July 2018, Manara College was officially licensed by the office of Higher Education in New Jersey.

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To fulfill our mission, Manara College we base approach on the ideals of moderation and clemency, authenticity and contemporariness, and participation in the construction of human civilization through Islamic values.

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