A celebration in the southwest suburbs as 2026 will mark 40 years since a muslim family made history.

The first all-girls Muslim school in the United States was formed in Bridgeview, Illinois. Decades later, the graduates of the Asqa School are living proof of a family's promise kept.

In the heart of Little Palestine, in Bridgeview, is a building built for the betterment of women. Born from the mind of a man.

"Everybody thought that we are dreamers, me and the other people," said Aqsa School co-founder Mahomoud Ismail.

For Ismail, the school is a dream with roots in his native land.

"Well, I am one of those Palestinians who are very proud to be a Palestinian," he said.

And there he grew into a doting son, who listened.

"And my mother, God bless her soul, was very kind and she always said, 'Look,' to me and to my brother and stuff like that, 'the only thing that will save you in this life is if you hit the books," he said.

So, he did, using his mother's words and her battle with ovarian cancer to motivate his career in medicine in the United States. Then, when he and his wife, Widad, had their own children, that sentiment stuck.

"We want them all to get educated. We don't want the boys to go to colleges and the girls to stay home," he said.

They wanted them to learn at an all-girls private Islamic school. So, he and like-minded families helped found the very first one in the United States, right here in Bridgeview. That was 40 years ago.

Mahmoud's daughters, Tammie and Nadia, were in some of those first classes.

"Uh, my father would often say, you know, as a Palestinian refugee, 'You can lose your home, you can lose your land, but no one can take your education from you," Tammie said.

Still, reminders of home are everywhere.

Aqsa School shares its name with the third-holiest site in the Muslim world, which includes this famous gold-domed mosque in Jerusalem. It depicts a student-painted mural, as is the literal translation of Aqsa, meaning "farther," somewhere Mahmoud's mother always wanted him to go. 

He said he's sharing his mother's message as he wanted to please her, and in doing so, using the pillars of education and faith to inspire its roughly 350 students.

In its four decades, the school has grown to serve girls and boys in elementary school, then only girls from 6th grade to 12th grade.

That single sex separation has worked for junior Layann Nazer.

"So I feel like at public school, I always felt like maybe I had to run with the crowd a little bit more," she said.

In this learning environment, she's gone farther than she'd ever dreamed.

"I felt like I'd been pushed to the best of my abilities. Like I've been not doubting myself. I've been getting confirmation that I wanted and needed all this time, and I've grown so much more," Nazer said.

She's involved in AP classes, student council, Model UN, and off-campus leadership opportunities that expose the girls to more of the world and reflect well on this tight-knit community.

"These students compete, uh, not only with other Islamic schools, but statewide," said board member Rouhi Shalabi.

So much so, Shalabi said other communities take notice.

"I think too, once they know who we are, they're like, they're like everybody else. They want, you know, good jobs, good schools, uh, safe environment, all of these things, like everybody else, as Americans," he said.

Another group paying close attention? College recruiters. 

Aqsa has decades worth of graduates who've gone on to esteemed universities like Michigan and Northwestern, even Ivy League institutions like Yale. 

These women are lawyers, authors, politicians, and much more. An Aqsa grad even sits on the board of Doctors Without Borders.

But there's another special group of alumna who left to change the world and then returned to do it here.

"I said I'd like to come back for a year, I can teach part-time, and after that, I just was like, 'this is
where I need to be.' I knew I wanted to serve, and I knew I wanted to serve community, and I felt that this was how I could do it best," Tammie said.

She is now Aqsa's principal, and Nadia is the college counselor.

"This school gave me so much, I felt like I had to come back," Nadia said. "It was because, you know, we've got dreams to dream for kids. We've got kids to believe in. We've got kids who we've got to motivate to believe in themselves."

By turning a personal calling into their professional work, both women are demonstrating another pillar of Aqsa School service. They expect every student who passes through these halls to give back when and where they can.

"It's the actual embodiment of your faith. And we always say, 'if someone graduates here with straight As but doesn't have good character, we haven't done our job," Tammie said.

With those guiding principles, these two continue the family business, inspired by their father and generations of Palestinians before them.

"You have to think of the future, and these girls and these children, our children, they are the future of this country now," Mahomoud said.

Who now push the next generation of muslim women farther.

"Inshallah. God blessing. God willing," Mahomoud said.

So what's next for the school?

Its founder said his next big dream would be to start a college.