Norhafizah Musa

Norhafizah Musa is a Malaysian preacher and academic, one of the country's two most-followed celebrity ustazahs in ISEAS's 2025 study, with 1 million Instagram followers. {cite:source/iseas-perspective-2025-81-ustazahs} She holds degrees from Yarmouk University in Jordan and the University of Malaya, has lectured at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, co-founded a tahfiz institute in Gombak, and appears as a columnist and panellist on Malaysian radio and television. {cite:source/iseas-perspective-2025-81-ustazahs}

Norhafizah Musa earned a bachelor's degree in Arabic literature and Islamic studies from Yarmouk University in Jordan, then a master's and a doctorate in da'wah and human development from the University of Malaya. {cite:source/iseas-perspective-2025-81-ustazahs}

She lectured at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in Kuala Lumpur, wrote newspaper columns, and appeared as a panellist on programmes including Usrati on IKIM FM, Tanyalah Ustazah on TV9, Al-Hidayah on TV3 and Forum Perdana on TV1. {cite:source/iseas-perspective-2025-81-ustazahs} The ISEAS study records that in 2000 she served on the Majlis Syura Ulama (Ulama Council) of the Islamist party PAS. {cite:source/iseas-perspective-2025-81-ustazahs} She received a district-level Tokoh Maal Hijrah award for Jempol, Negeri Sembilan, in 2018, and in 2023 was honoured alongside nine Qur'anic personalities in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. {cite:source/iseas-perspective-2025-81-ustazahs}

With her husband Azahar Yaakub, Norhafizah Musa founded the Maahad Tahfiz Integrasi Madinatul Huffaz, an integrated Qur'an-memorisation institute in Gombak. {cite:source/iseas-perspective-2025-81-ustazahs} She runs the Mihrab Coaching online course, releases religious songs with her own lyrics performed by Halim Ahmad — some videos passing 200,000 views — and works as a brand ambassador for Muslim women's fashion. {cite:source/iseas-perspective-2025-81-ustazahs}

What follows is material attributed to its source, not verdicts of the museum. The ISEAS study describes the celebrity-ustazah model as blending preaching with commerce and personal marketing — what critics call penunggang agama, "selling religion" — and records that a teaching video by Norhafizah Musa on a prayer for marital intimacy drew wide attention on the platforms, with celebrity followers among its audience. {cite:source/iseas-perspective-2025-81-ustazahs}

Norhafizah Musa writes newspaper columns in Malaysia and works in family motivation and religious guidance, per the fields of work the ISEAS study records for her. {cite:source/iseas-perspective-2025-81-ustazahs}

The ISEAS study places Norhafizah Musa and Asma' Harun at the head of Malaysia's celebrity ustazahs as "micro-celebrities" combining preaching with brand-building, with the dated figure of 1 million Instagram followers for Norhafizah Musa at the time of the study. {cite:source/iseas-perspective-2025-81-ustazahs}

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