My Story
My path to individual holistic health wasn’t straight and narrow. It was winding, full of questions and seeking. But ultimately, it led me here, to Revitalize Me, a place of connection, of knowledge, and of healing.
Starting My Journey
I experienced a mix in cultures early on in my life. I was born in the United States, attending early elementary school in California. Then when I was eight years old, we moved to Sudan. That’s where I lived for my formative years. During my childhood, my father always encouraged me to read and study the Quran. He had a way of making studying fun, of encouraging interaction with learning. It lit a fire in me about education, specifically around the Quran. My Quranic journey was only beginning. That journey would shape my entire life, my career, and my business in many ways.
Discovering a Passion for Pharmacy
But the fire that my father built around studying the Quran also translated to learning in general. He passed away when I was in the eighth grade. Doctors said it was due to a medication error. I was heartbroken. But he came to me in my dreams, always offering guidance and support. He encouraged me to stay connected to the Quran, forging a bond that would never fade away. For my whole life, the Quran offered healing, peace, and comfort. After my father’s death, Instead of turning away from medication, I found that I wanted to understand it more. The passion for learning that my father instilled led to an interest in pharmacy school. Sudan is a country rich in medicinal plants. There, pharmacy is more than just diagnoses and medication. It’s about connection. It’s about healing. It’s about working with your body and nature to find the right solution, wherever that lies. That’s what drew me into the pharmacy world. But my heart was torn between Quranic studies and pharmacy. I couldn’t decide which direction to move into. My mom encouraged me to study pharmacy, assuring me that I could always obtain Quranic knowledge and learn about both subjects. I followed my mom’s advice and went to pharmacy school, where I studied pharmacognosy and discovered the natural roots of medicine and where they come from. I was excited to bring everything I had learned forward into helping people. As my pharmacy school concluded, I got married and moved to the United States. I was blessed to have my mom move with us. She encouraged me to continue my pharmacy journey. While starting my family, I worked on all the licensing I would need to transfer my skills and become a pharmacist here, completing my pharmacy technician license certification, landing a job in a pharmacy and eventually becoming a licensed pharmacist with the Texas State Board.
Questioning the System
Eventually, I started working in long-term assisted living care. That’s where I started to see things in a new way. The patients there were on countless medications. Prescriptions were written and filled without any regard to the root cause, the why behind the medication. I started to question the system. Was this really what it was all about? I saw the flaws in the system when my mom was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, hypothyroidism, then later with thrombocytopenia. She was diagnosed given a long list of medications to take, including steroids that eventually caused diabetes. As a very compliant person who trusts authority figures, she took everything they said at face value. But I couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. They weren’t treating her—they were simply masking symptoms, giving medication after medication after medication, and causing more problems. Where did it end? It didn’t seem like it ever would. There was a stark difference between the world of medicine in the eastern and western worlds, and I was living in that division. I had come from a pharmacy school that taught me about nature, honey, and how to extract essential oils, to a new world that I didn’t fully agree with. I’d become a pharmacist because I was drawn to holistic healing and the connection between medicine and nature. But the world I was living in now seemed more about pushing medications without the why.
Searching for the Why
I was just about to give birth to my fifth baby, and when I was on maternity leave I decided to take some time to explore other options, holistic answers, and a path to healing that returned to my roots. That’s when I became certified as a licensed Hijamah cupping practitioner and a certified essential oil coach. I took courses and completed those certifications as a way to bring those roots forward, to offer healing at a holistic level. In a way, I felt better about this path. But in another way, I still felt lacking. I believed in essential oils, the healing power of nature. I believed in Hijamah, a comprehensive approach to targeting what’s going on in the body. I saw value for my clients in each of those practices—it was no longer just about masking symptoms or fixing problems with medication. But there was a big piece of the puzzle missing. I still needed to know the why behind everything. I didn’t want to offer solutions without full understanding.
My Answers are Your Answers
When you work with me, you won’t get a canned answer that you could read on Google or in a medical textbook. You won’t get a push for medication that doesn’t target who you are or what’s going on in your body. Instead, you’ll get a personalized approach to your health and wellness, one based on who you are, and what you need, one that combines holistic elements to provide your individual body with true healing. My mission is not to change the system, to overtake pharmacy and target the world. My mission is to help you, on an individual level, find the answers that you seek, based on the unique combination of pharmaceutical knowledge, ancient wellness techniques, and proper functional nutrition practice. That might involve Hijama cupping, essential oils, Quranic education, functional nutrition, or even education—depending on your individual needs. If you’re ready to take a healing journey, I’m here to lead! .
Bio-Individuality and a Personalized Approach
So I started to study clinical nutrition and functional medication, searching for those answers. Along my journey, I came across Andrea Nakayama, founder of the Functional Nutrition Lab and the Functional Nutrition Alliance. One of the things she teaches is bio-individuality, the idea that there is not a “one-size-fits-all” answer to health, that nutrition and wellness depend on you, on your body, on your physiology, on your experiences, on your genetics, on who you are. When I learned about bio-individuality, everything clicked. I already believed strongly in individuality. In fact, I was homeschooling my children for the same reasons, because I believed that education happened best when catered to an individual. And here was the same idea, right in front of me, that explained everything. I realized that my struggle with the medical world wasn’t just about medicine. It wasn’t even just about the “why” behind it. It was that the industry was painting a broad brush and trying to fit everyone into the same box. I realized that there was a different approach, a holistic approach—one based on bio-individuality .
My Quranic Journey (And How Quranic Education Ties Into Wellness)
My relationship with the Quran started in childhood. Like many parents, my dad emphasized the Quran heavily in our house. He wanted us to study, to memorize, and to recite. But he also wanted more than that for us. He wanted us to take the values and lessons to heart, to form a relationship with the Quran that would last a lifetime. He practiced what he preached, reciting the Quran daily, leading by example. We would have family gatherings after prayer to recite the Quran together. The interactive element allowed me to form an even stronger bond with the Quran and with religion in general. I knew that religion would always be close to my heart, but I didn’t know then that the seeds my father was sowing around the Quran would eventually impact my business. Following in my father’s footsteps, I began memorizing and reciting the Quran, taking it to heart and cherishing it closely. During my early pharmacy school years, my friends and I started a weekly study group with an amazing Quranic teacher. We worked on memorizing and diving deeper into the texts, understanding the meaning and reflecting on what it meant. This led to us organizing camps for people who wanted to connect with the Quran. We would rent spaces or find someone with an apartment or dorm willing to host, and invite anyone who wanted to join to come meet us for night prayers, memorization, and studies. That desire to share the Quran’s values continued even as I came to the United States. I spent some time teaching in an Islamic school. The experience taught me a lot. I began to see that the way we teach the Quran in Islamic schools was flawed. Yes, students were taught to memorize and recite, but they didn’t gain the connection, the passion, and the understanding in how the text functioned as a way of life. It seemed like the Quran was a side subject for the students instead of the source of guidance that it should be. When I had my own children, I wanted to pass those values on to them. I chose to homeschool, both to meet my children at an individual level with their education and to ensure that the values I held dear to my heart were a part of their journeys as well. While I was at home with my kids, I also taught recitation and pronunciation to a group of women in my home. I loved sharing the Quran with others and encouraging the same love of learning it that my father had encouraged in me. But somewhere along the way, I realized that as I gave, as I educated others, my own connection to the Quran lost itself. I decided to start working toward a bachelor’s degree in Quranic studies with Knowledge International University. There, I specialized in understanding the deeper meaning in the Quran, and in explaining to others how to correctly extract the valuable lessons and guidance from the verses. I didn’t end up finishing my bachelor’s degree, but the knowledge I gained continued to shape me for years, impacting my understanding in Quranic sciences and the rules of interpretation. I realized that I needed to carry that knowledge forward and do more, to help others build the connection—a connection that wasn’t just about memorization, but was also about nature, about finding Allah in the world around us, and about seeing His wonder everywhere. My passion for education was strong, so I started a homeschooling group in Austin for Muslims—Connect the Dots in 2014! The idea was this: “We get to know Allah through all the cool things he does.” We took field trips and connected with animals, plants, wildlife, seeing the amazing beauty of Allah’s creation. The program was fun, engaging, encouraging—everything I wanted it to be. But the more that time went on, the more I realized that we were missing the mark. Children were engaged, but they weren’t connected. It wasn’t enough to show the wonders of the world and Allah. We needed to bring in the love of the Quran. The Quran is what connects the dots. I revamped the program to a 12-week course that combined the elements of nature, science, and social studies with the religious perspective and the connection from the Quran. This time my goal was to create an emotional bond between the children and the Quran, to share that passion and connection that had influenced me for my entire life.
Connect the Dots
As I created Connect the Dots, I thought a lot about my own business, my own journey, and my own connections. I had walked a long and winding path since embarking on my pharmacy journey. What had been born out of an interest in plants and medicinal healing had been difficult to adapt in the Western world. But as I dove deeper into functional nutrition, into the why behind healing practices, and into individualized wellness plans, I realized that my pharmaceutical journey mirrored my Quranic journey.
Everything was connected
My passion is in education, in sharing my knowledge with others so that they can understand, see, and relate in a deeper way, whether that’s through healing, through nature, or through the Quran. I realized eventually that everything tied together. Wellness. Health. Mentality. Religion. It is through the Quran that I saw how to heal. It is through the Quran that I connected with nature. It is through the Quran that we reach peace, wholeness, and wellness. But that connection comes from within you. The word of God is a cure, but only if you can connect to it, only if you can sense it, only if you can find yourself in it. That’s something that I’ve learned in so many ways throughout the years—through my own journey and connection to the Quran, starting all the way back with my father, to my Quranic studies during pharmacy school, to teaching the Quran in Islamic school, to studying in the bachelor’s program, and even recently as I completed my Ijaza certification in Asim recitation, for both Hafs and Shouba narrations. I now know that education of the Quran is vital to who I am, both in how I educate others and in my commitment to continuing my own education. Since 2017, I have studied 101 with a Quranic scholar. It has continued to open my eyes, guide me, and connect me to Allah and the Quran. Over the years, I have learned that the individualized approach is key. I’m lucky to have found mentors and guides who helped me learn not just the basic knowledge, but an understanding of the manners, a deeper meaning, and a passionate connection. I am blessed to have found that guidance in my scholar, as well as those who have guided me along the way—Sheikha Asya Taha, Sh. Saad, Sheikha Hanan Mutawli, Sh. Yasir Fazaga, Sh. Ahmed Alsayid, Sh. Mohamed Alibaidyand many more in KIU Quranic studies teachers and scholars. I’ve had a lifetime of education with the Quran, a lifetime of understanding how to dive deep, to connect, and to extract the lessons that shape life in all ways. I’d like to help you along your own journey, help you connect to yourself, to Allah, to the Quran, to your body, and to your health—mentally, physically, and spiritually. Through Quranic education, you can open the doors to healing, to peace. Let’s take the journey together.
Join Me on the Journey
I’d like to help you along your own journey, helping you connect to yourself, to Allah, to the Quran, to your body, and to your health—mentally, physically, and spiritually.
