FAQ

  1. What is your mission statement?
  2. How do you plan to achieve your mission?
  3. Do you offer loans or do you offer scholarships?
  4. Will you offer scholarship or a loan to prospective candidates?
  5. Who is eligible for scholarships?
  6. Do you award scholarships to a particular sect?
  7. How do you define the term Muslim for the scholarship award?
  8. What will be the scholarship amount?
  9. Do you plan to help place the candidates on jobs after they successfully complete their degrees?
  10. Do you impose any bindings on candidates as a condition to award the scholarship?
  11. Do you have a metric to measure the success of the program?
  12. Is this program US centric?
  13. If this program is not US-centric, then what is the long term road-map?
  14. How can I contribute to your mission?
  15. Would prospective candidates have background to successfully complete a degree?
  16. Would you provide remedial courses to prospective candidates?
  17. What are the steps involved in getting a scholarship?
  18. Who are the people behind Ruya Foundation?

 

 

1. What is your mission statement?

The purpose of the corporation is to strive for reconciliation of Islamic thoughts and scientific facts and to encourage rational analysis of religious principles and beliefs.

2. How do you plan to achieve your mission?

The primary means to achieve the objective would be by:

  • Providing scholarships to formally train religious leaders in the latest scientific knowledge from degree programs at recognized colleges.
  • The religious scholars are persons who have religious degrees or equivalent from recognized religious schools or institutions. These persons include Imams, Sheiks and Muftis.
  • Efforts would be made to employ practical and reasonable secondary means and tools to achieve the purpose and the mission of the corporation. Some means that are conceived at this time are the following:
    • Arrange seminars to induce healthy debates to achieve this reconciliation.
    • Provide educational materials and tools, and
    • Publish papers and articles.

3. Do you have any political motives?

No. We do not have any political motive, nor do we affiliate with any political entity. We are a religious non-profit organization and we have received federal 501(3)(c) status. This status bars us from being involved in any kind of political activity.

4. Do you offer loans or do you offer scholarships?

The current policy is to provide scholarships to candidates without any repayment condition.

5. Who is eligible for scholarships?

  • Must be a US resident.

  • Must have a degree from a religious institution of repute.

  • Must complete scholarship application form.

  • Should be able to provide three references.

  • Should submit two essays.

6. Do you award scholarships to a particular sect?

We do not discriminate against any Islamic sect.

7. How do you define the term Muslim for the scholarship award?

For the award of scholarship , the universally accepted definition of a Muslim is used. Specifically, to qualify as a Muslim,

  • One must believe in Oneness of God.

  • One must believe and declare that prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was the last prophet of God and no other prophet (in any sense of the word prophet) has succeeded or will succeed Muhammad (Peace be upon him).

8. What will be the scholarship amount?

The maximum scholarship amount for the academic year 2015-2016 is $10,000.00.

9. Do you plan to help place the candidates on jobs after they successfully complete their degrees?

No. Candidates will be free to adapt any career based upon their acquired skills and educational background.

10. Do you impose any bindings on candidates as a condition to award scholarships?

No, we do not impose any legal bindings or requirements on candidates. Candidates are free to adapt any career after the successful graduation. However, we expect them to help realize the objective of the mission of Ruya Foundation by staying involved in scholarship activities either by adapting fulltime careers that are in the line of our mission or by volunteering to contribute to the community and to the society.

11. Do you have a metric to measure the success of the program?

Ours is a futuristic mission. It is based on a long-term vision. The success or the impact cannot be measured or assessed in a time scale of few years. It can potentially take decades before the impact of the vision is obvious. Until then we need to strive to produce a critical mass of highly trained scholars.

However, if one likes, one can measure the short term progress from the number of trained scholars being produced versus the spending.

12. Is this program US centric?

This program is started as a pilot program and is initially limited to US residents. However, the scholarships will be awarded to attend any university/college anywhere in the world.

13. If this program is not US-centric, then what is the long term road map?

We expect to expand this program in other countries, specially Pakistan, India and Bangladesh in next four to five years depending upon the success of our pilot program in USA.

14. How can I contribute to your mission?

There are many ways you can contribute to our mission,

  • Spread the message.
  • Be generous with your donations. Pledge a monthly or annually donation.
  • Help in fund raising activities – distribute brochures, bring families and friends to fund raising events, volunteer on fund raising event, etc.
  • If you have specialized skills –IT, accounting, legal, media-, help us in logistics and day to day activities. You can contact us at info@ruyausa.org for further information and current needs.

15. Would prospective candidates have background to successfully complete a degree?

At this point, we do not have any concrete data to answer this question with much certainty. However, since our pilot plan is US-centric, our potential candidates will have a high school diploma. We believe that this diploma would have given them a background that is sufficient for the candidates to successfully complete their degrees.

16. Would you provide remedial courses to prospective candidates?

This is under consideration. We do not have yet finalized a policy regarding this. We will update this FAQ once we have an approved policy.

17. What are the steps involved in getting a scholarship?

  • Ruya foundation announces scholarships.
  • Candidates fill the required application forms.
  • Candidates provide three letters of references.
  • Candidates independently secure admissions in a four year college.
  • Based upon the qualifications and merit, Ruya Foundation announces the scholarship awards.
  • Candidates register in colleges and maintain a GPA of 2.5 to be able to continue receiving the scholarships.
  • Candidates will be required to take some core courses.