Mehded Maryam Sinclair was born on the shores of Lake Erie in Euclid, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland on August 29, 1947. She grew up close to nature, enjoying swimming, gardens, and picnics.

One of her fondest memories from childhood were the family outings to Euclid Beach and the amusement park there. But one of her most treasured memories is when she used to pretend that she lived in the times of Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) and his mother Mary (peace be upon her) in Palestine. Of course once she realized that it was all pretend, this caused a deep sadness in her heart with a longing for it all to be real. 

After graduating from high school, she attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, studying elementary education. She studied with the famous Charlotte Huck in a children's literature class and learned from her a deep love of children's writing.

She eventually went on to study foreign languages, and graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in the teaching of foreign languages: Russian and German. She went on to teach German to high school students, but felt that it was too limiting.

She left to Vermont where she found a job teaching 5th graders. It was all she had hoped for, teaching poetry workshops, science projects and after-school nature walks.

Maryam married and had two sons. She was with her older brother when he died and this had a profound effect on her, setting her on a spiritual path to find the meaning of life and beyond.

She gained her master's degree in counseling from the University of Vermont, which led to her first exposure as a storyteller. She spent eleven years crisscrossing the state of Vermont as a storyteller in schools, universities, theaters, museums, factories, correctional centers, camps and festivals. She taught storytelling to children, teens and classroom teachers.

As she became deeply involved in her storytelling, it brought back memories of how much she used to love to write. In high school, she had a writing teacher who instilled in her the love of language. She started writing short stories and letters. She wrote a series of articles for the town newspaper on organic gardening, one of her passions.

The longing to be with Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) and his mother Mary (peace be upon her) that she felt as a child, eventually led her to Islam. The chapter in the Quran called "Maryam" left a deep impact on her heart. In that she found a clear connection to what she had passionately felt as a child.

This eventually led to her moving to Turkey where she wanted to learn more about Islam. Before she left to Turkey, she told a friend that she wanted to go and be among "people with vast interiors," and that is what she found there.

In Turkey she begin translating some Turkish stories into English. She translated a collection of Nasreddin Hoja stories, illustrated by one of Turkey's most beloved illustrators, Ahmet Yakupoglu. She also wrote for a company producing materials for learners of English as a second language, and a series of traditional Islamic stories, a couple of which were published there.

She now calls Amman, Jordan her home, where she lives close to her younger son and his wife and their four children, who are all Muslim, as well as her older son, who lives in the the US with her two grandsons.

Maryam says about living in Amman: "I am grateful to be among people who are seriously studying the art and science of Islam from Arabic sources, and feel a deep need to be able to communicate with them. Islam truly is a religion of knowledge. Without knowledge, there is nothing. In the world today there is much that is called “Islamic knowledge” which is nothing of the kind. One must pray steadily to be guided to the wellsprings of pure knowledge, and not be led astray, down a path that will lead to ruin. And Allah knows best."