We’re Shaik Zakeer Hussain and Zulekha Shakoor Rajani, a husband-and-wife team driven by love for our daughter and a shared passion for stories that matter. Zakeer spends his days as a journalist and community organiser, weaving words to spotlight Muslim voices and build meaningful connections. Zulekha, a counselling psychologist who studied Islamic psychology at Cambridge Muslim College (UK) and Khalil Center (Türkiye), brings her gentle wisdom to guide young hearts toward balance and faith.
It all began in our cozy Bengaluru evenings, curled up with picture books and our little girl. As avid readers ourselves, Zakeer with his notebooks full of stories, Zulekha with her insights into the soul, we dreamed of sparking that same magic in her. But flipping through the pages, we kept hitting walls. Fairy tales of princesses chasing princes, no hijab in sight, no salah on the horizon. We’d skip lines, tweak endings, or close the book altogether, hearts heavy with what was missing.
Then came her questions, innocent and piercing: “Why doesn’t that girl wear hijab, Baba? How come she never prays?” We saw it clearly, kids crave mirrors in their stories, characters who look, pray, and live like them. Without that, they either push the books away or fall so hard for those far-off heroes that they start mimicking lives not their own. We knew that pull too well from our own childhoods, glued to cartoon channels, wishing we could be just like those shiny characters.
That’s when Little Amanah was born, not from a boardroom, but from a parent’s ache to give our daughter (and yours) tales rooted in our iman. Stories of Muslim kids being brave, kind, and faithful, with hijabs, salah, and adventures that feel like home. International books exist, beautiful ones, but they’re pricey imports out of reach for most Indian Muslim families. So we rolled up our sleeves. With our love for writing and faith as our guide, we’re creating these stories ourselves, affordable, heartfelt, and truly ours.
Little Amanah isn’t just a project; it’s our amanah to the next generation. Join us in raising readers who see themselves as the heroes of their own beautiful faith.