I found the rigorous curriculum both engaging and exciting. Alongside study of grammar – sarf and nahw both – we were reading modern Arabic prose and the acclaimed work on the lives of the Prophets, Qisas al-Nabiyyin. This last text is used in madaris worldwide; its inclusion in the curriculum made me realise that I was receiving an experience similar to that of the typical madrasah student I’d dreamed of becoming even without leaving these shores.