The Madrasa
Project Enrol
Al-Mahdi Institute  ·  Birmingham

The Madrasa
Project

A two year programme in Islamic thought and personal development, for young people aged 16 to 18.

Enrol for October 2026 What it is
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You were told
what to believe
Were you taught
how to think?
The Project

A place to ask
the hard questions

Somewhere between sixteen and eighteen, the questions arrive. Where the universe came from. Why pray if God already knows. How to hold a faith among friends who do not share it.

Most of us meet those questions alone, late at night, on a phone. They deserve better company than that: a room, a tradition that has argued about them for a thousand years, and people asking the same things at the same time.

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16–18
Ages
19
Saturdays
Two hours
Each session
17 Oct
Year one begins
The Curriculum

Five strands

01
Identity
Who are you, before anyone tells you? How the tradition understands the self, the soul and the body.
02
Faith
Who is God? And what do we do with doubt, with prayer that feels hollow, with trust that is hard to hold.
03
Ethics
What it means to live responsibly. Honesty, integrity, and what changes when the room is a screen.
04
Relationships
Parents, community, boundaries. What forgiveness actually asks of a person.
05
Contemporary Issues
Navigating pluralism and a world that keeps moving, without losing your footing.
A student inside the labyrinth
A student inside the labyrinth
A Saturday

Two hours,
eighteen times

Eighteen teaching sessions across the year, two hours each including a break. Sessions are self contained, so a missed week is not a disaster, but the year is built as an arc and it compounds.

The question
Put plainly, with no preamble
Where the tradition has taken it
Read from the sources, not summarised
Discussion
In small groups. Disagreement is expected
The portfolio
Your own thinking, written down while it is fresh
The Institute

The brains
behind it

Dr Zoheir Ali Esmail
Headmaster  ·  Curriculum

Dr Zoheir
Ali Esmail

Research Lead in Islamic Mysticism and Spirituality, Al-Mahdi Institute

Dr Esmail designed the curriculum and leads the programme. He studied at seminary in Qom and holds a doctorate in Islamic mysticism, and has taught Islamic thought at university level in Birmingham for years.

The Madrasa Project is the first time that work has been opened to young people, in a form built exclusively around what they need.

The Institute
Cohort One

Cohort one.
October 2026.

Year One begins on Saturday 17 October 2026 and the final session is on Saturday 1 May 2027, so the year is complete before the exam period. Nineteen Saturdays in all — a welcome day and eighteen teaching sessions — with breaks at half term, Christmas and Easter.

£350 Early bird  ·  cohort one

Includes the student handbook and the printed portfolio for the year.

Al-Mahdi Institute is a charity. The fee is subsidised and goes only towards running the programme, the materials and the room it happens in.
01
Application
A short form. Three minutes, no documents required
02
Academic review
Every application is read by the Programme Lead, not scored by a form
03
Offer
A written offer, the enrolment details and a secure link to pay the fee
04
Enrolment
Consent and medical forms are completed, and the place is confirmed
Enrol See the calendar