Al-Qalam is Zawiyah Foundation’s quarterly publication. Its aim is to be a source of information for Vancouver’s Muslim community as well as an avenue of creativity for anyone wishing to express him/herself on issues pertinent to Muslims living in North America.

Focus for Articles:
We understand that the topic of Islam is broad, but we ask that articles maintain an Islamic perspective and please refrain from partisanship, as we are a non-partisan organization.

We are looking for well written, thoughtful, analytical articles and we also accept submissions for:

• Short stories
• Poetry
• Book reviews and
• Recipes

As our publication grows, Insha’Allah we will review our submission guidelines and make appropriate changes where necessary.

Submission Guidelines:

1. Please keep your submissions on subject.

2. Formatting:

a) Please submit all pieces in a Word document, with no fancy formatting or fonts. Simple Times New Roman 12pt. font is best. Feel free to also paste your text into the body of the email, but this is optional.

b) Please do not use HTML in your piece, except for embedded links.

c) Any photographs included with a piece must have at least 300 dpi and must be original, otherwise the source must be cited.

3. Please include a short (one small paragraph) bio with your piece, and include an email address to which you would like to have correspondence sent. If you have a website, include that as well. In addition, let us know whether or not your piece is an original submission. We prefer them to be original, but we may reprint exceptional pieces. Al-Qalam does not pay for submitted articles.

4. Always link to sources. If you make a statement that isn’t common knowledge, especially statistics, please back it up with a link insha’Allah.

5. Title your submission. Please note that titles are subject to change at the time of publication

6. If your submission isn’t published, please don’t stop sending! We accept submissions on an on-going basis.

7. If you have submitted a piece and haven’t heard back from us in a reasonable amount of time, please send us an email.

If you have any additional questions, or would like to find out how to receive an issue of Al-Qalam, send us an email (and include your full name please) at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Thank You, Jazakum Allahu Khairan

The Zawiyah Foundation