Learning through COVID, who can you trust for Islamic knowledge?

As with any topic Islam has some occurrences where people differ in opinion about a certain 'ruling'.

I should note from the offset that the vast majority of Muslims theoretically agree on the vast majority of issues or rulings.

And that I'm not planning on breaking down the different types/areas in any depth, I am not the person to do that effectively.

Just know there are a few types of Muslim, the most common of which is 'Sunni', and within this there a few 'major schools of thought' known as Madhhabs.

More just planning to talk through my experience

So I reverted before lockdown was a thing, but not that far before, was the latter half of 2019 with lockdown coming into place early 2020.

This meant that I had to do lots of learning without access to big communities, or attending classes, centres, lectures etc.

In my research beforehand I had watched many a YouTube video from well known talkers, and listened to a few podcasts etc. However, not all of these were what I would consider, either back then or now, to be clear and refined islamic knowledge. I watched lots of those religious panel type things, where a question is asked and each person in the panel is a different religion, (usually at this point, Judaism, Christianity and Islam) and they would each answer 'for their religion'. Before this I even watched some of the ones with atheists etc

I wouldn't say these are productive or even a particularly great watch, but that's where I was at before reverting.

Some of the people I came to watch quite a few talks from are

• Omar Suleiman
• Nouman Ali Khan
• Yasir Quadhi
• Belal Assad
• Mufti Menk (occasionally)

I watched many atheist finds Islam or I used to be atheist now I'm Muslim kind of videos. There was a good one by some uni lecturer that I can't seem to find right now.

In the time between then and now I have come to learn what each of the talkers (in my opinion) are best for. And many of these, topic dependent, are more people who call others to Islam, they talk about it in an accessible way and give surface information and guidance.

Some have a good series on a particular topic, for example Yasir Quadhi has a good and detailed series on the Seerah of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) - what we would use to understand and learn from His life.

Likewise there were some styles that I just knew weren't for me, for example Dr. Zakir Naik is clearly very knowledgeable, but his style is not one I am receptive to at all.

Post Reverting, I still watched lots of bits from some of these and tried to understand what I needed to know. I'd say I definitely got some knowledge, but it was relatively unstructured and fragmented, I knew some specific things, but was ignorant to other more basic things - it was a little hard.

I was pretty cautious during COVID times and hadn't even looked into attending the Masjid. It did mean I lacked that 'community feel' that you'd expect to get. I, of course, was not completely without help - but it was necessary for me to learn a lot on my own.

I essentially just focused on what was directly needed of me at the time:

• I need to pray
  • Learn the basics of praying
• Is there anything I need to avoid food wise, even though I am veggie?
  • Looks it up
• How do I actually do Ramadan?
• Night prayers as part of Ramadan?
• I know what Eid is, but added significance, do I need to do anything for it?
• How do I work out how to pay my obligatory charity (Zakat)?
• The Quran?
• Researching around Hajj (pilgrimage)
• What topics should I cover?
• Optional prayers
• Night prayers
• Finance, banking, insurance
• Character and action
• How to interact with other people depending on who they are
• Attending the Masjid
• Islam and the family

Etc etc etc

I found out quickly that things are both very simple and very confusing at the same time (double think again...?). By which I mean the religion is, in principle, a simple and easy one - but it is also very detailed when you delve into it and understanding what to do when there are different paths can be tricky.

A word I found fast was 'Hadeeth'

Hadeeth means the words, actions, approvals or attributes that have been narrated from the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).

A hadeeth may either confirm things that are mentioned in the Quran, such as prayer, zakah (poor-due), etc., or it may give details of things that are mentioned in the Quran in general terms, such as the numbers of rak’ahs (units) in each prayer, the thresholds for paying zakah, the details of Hajj, etc. It may also explain rulings which are not mentioned in the Quran, such as the prohibition on being married to a woman and her (paternal or maternal) aunt at the same time.

https://islamqa.info/en/answers/13206/hadeeth

They provide the context for the Quran in many cases, and are an essential part of understanding the religion. When you get much deeper there are various 'Islamic Sciences' within which there is a whole area dedicated to the science of hadith.

If you ever watch a video, you will likely experience the same thing I did. The talker will be talking about [random topic on life] and then they will suddenly be talking in Arabic, possibly quoting names or chains of names. They will then switch back to English (if that's your language) and explain what they had just said and explained. The Quran and much of islamic knowledge is in Arabic so it makes sense that a Hadith would be best understood as it was first understood. That being said, it can be really disorientating when you're not used to it.

I learnt from who I could and tried to decipher what was right. But it can be hard, especially as a new Muslim. It can get really granular really fast. I found that I really got on with the teaching style of Muhammad Tim Humble, to this day my preferred teacher. I believe he is more of a teacher than a caller to Islam. Whether it is how he chooses to explain, or if it is because he is also a Revert, I would always find myself going back to him for advice - via the Muslim central podcast channel made for him, posting his various talks and lectures. If I was confused about something, I would find myself checking if he has a talk about it. He has provided a lot of benefit to me without ever knowing, hopefully I can let him know one day insha'Allah.

There is also 'islamQA'

This is the one that I find is very good. Despite it's old appearance, it does a good job of citing it's evidences, and telling you the various opinions, before stating why one opinion might be stronger than the other.

You want someone who is able to cite where and why something is the way it is. You want to be able to fact check them and be confident that you didn't need to.

The panels were probably not a good place to go. The 'celebrity Dawah' videos are definitely not a good place to go. These are the ones where there is usually someone standing on the street arguing with someone and 'beating them'. The title and picture usually some sort of click bait like "Mr Dawah OWNNNNS this atheist". I'm sure it can be interesting, but this kind of video is not the place to be finding anything of value.

Trusting those wishing to get views more than get good deeds seems like a risk.

This over a period of time, learning little bits here and there, has allowed me the knowledge Allah has granted me up until this point. A noticeable improvement from when I first started, but far from a student of knowledge.

When I ended up being able to meet up with people in person, either on courses, or in Masjids or work or otherwise - I was often pleased to receive some sort of positive feedback about how, whoever I was speaking with, saw my efforts to progress. Talking about how being motivated without community, finding knowledge without just choosing what I wanted (rather than what is most likely right), and just in managing to learn the prayer properly etc was something they had a sense of admiration for.

Of course I'm sitting there thinking, I am but a beginner 'you've been doing this your whole life' - I've got so much to learn. Or maybe 'well of course I learnt how to pray, after the Shahada, that's the most important thing to do, pray 5 times a day'. I felt like I either didn't quite deserve the comments, but appreciated them all the same. Or alternatively, I felt like the actions I had taken were 'a given' anyone would do the same. In all cases I was grateful for the support.

I will cover the confusion of first attending a Masjid in a separate post.

But for now, one thing that often came up when I did get round to speaking with other Muslims more, was they would ask what Madhab I followed, or I would have people try and get me to enroll in a programme that followed a specific one. I found this all quite confusing at first. I hadn't ever really thought about it. I knew there are different schools, but I saw it more as different groups of experts, if they all agree then great, if they don't, then I listen to each of their arguements, and with guidance from Tim, or islamqa, or another reliable source, I would follow the one that seemed right.

That being said, it does make sense that there would be programmes that follow a school and teach you their ways. Perhaps because I was not in a family, or community of any sort, this wasn't a given. I like the idea in principle, but I wouldn't want to agree with a school 99% and then feel obliged to do the 1% I feel is wrong. That just doesn't sit right with me, it's not how I think, nor is it how I perceived the religion to think. I respect that any of the schools have a long history of highly experienced scholars which vast knowledge, so it would be fair for me to supersede my thoughts to their greater research - but if I can do the most good I can, I want to.

So I ended up having to clumsily say

Errr I don't really follow one, I just follow what I believe is right - not like just 'what I want' but what I believe to be the right option based on the evidences I have managed to research

Sometimes they would just get it - sometimes they would give me an eye of concern. Perhaps they were worries I was just picking and choosing what I wanted to obey and skipping other bits. No one is without faults and I am sure I am at fault in places. But I was not intentionally compromising anywhere. Or perhaps they were really sure of the school of thought they preferred and wished that security for me too.

I think there were many challenges, I was more alone than I could have been, I had to rely on my own personal motivation lots of the time.

But likewise I got to look for and discover what I believed to be right, I wasn't living in the predefined 'right way' of parents of community, which in itself might be a good thing, depending.