Zaynab Ansari – Who To Take Knowledge From Part 1 Student Assembly

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I'm very happy to be here,

joining this student assembly with Seeker's Guidance. This

is my first,

time attending the student assembly. It's quite an

honor to be, with students of knowledge.

My name is Zainab and inshallah. For a

few minutes, I'm gonna take you through some

of the basics of,

how to discern

sound scholarship

as well as how to choose a teacher

and what role locality plays in that process.

The dua that I began with for those

who are learning Arabic, just a very basic

invocation,

always beginning in the name of God, most

gracious, most merciful,

and, invoking God's peace and blessings upon the

beloved, prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wasalam, Very important

in the month of Abu Dhabi Al Awel.

And then just a a prayer for knowledge.

It's really good to preface one studies with

some invocation.

For example, my lord, increase me in knowledge.

We're asking Allah to teach us what will

benefit us and benefit us through what he

teaches us. Because verily Allah, God is most

knowledgeable,

most aware, most wise.

So in terms of,

the the topic here, you know, so all

of you obviously

are really fortunate in the sense that you're

taking classes through Seekers Guidance and you can

be assured that the instructors at Seekers Guidance

have, alhamdulillah, a really firm grounding in the

topic that they're they're teaching. So right off

the bat, you know you're getting,

authentic

knowledge and I personally know some of the

instructors or had the opportunity to sort of

be in the Middle East

with them when they were studying. So they

really did acquire knowledge from these very reliable

sources and now that alhamdulillah,

praise be to God, they're bringing it back

to,

the west, you know, to places like to

places like Australia,

as well as really extending to a global

audience where there are seekers of knowledge really

from all over the globe,

taking this this knowledge and applying it in

their lives.

So sound scholarship. How do we know if

it's sound scholarship?

There are

really in the realm of Islamic Studies today,

particularly if you have affiliations with Academia, there

are a lot of sort of competing voices

and trends, ideas and philosophies. But,

fortunately,

we do have the tools to discern what

makes scholarship what makes for sound scholarship. And

primarily,

it's the

presence of a sound,

a chain of transmission.

And that is knowledge that really is has

been directly transmitted

from teacher to student

to student

and so

on and a direct line of transmission

that can be traced all the way back

to the prophet peace and blessings be upon

him. So what that means is that the

person is not sort of teaching this topic

whether it be tafsir or filth,

Quran commentary or jurisprudence

or Aqidah theology. They're not teaching out of

a vacuum.

They are teaching based upon a very particular

methodology,

philosophy,

epistemology.

And that's in and their teaching is informed

by the broader tradition of Ahlul Sunnah wal

Jama'ah.

And that is what is called traditional Islam

according to the according to the Sunnah of

the prophet peace and blessings be upon him.

And

as far as the transmission of knowledge, it's

not just the knowledge itself, the text itself,

the the information itself that's being transmitted but

the approach to the information, the paradigms,

the way we sort

of, I would say the way we kind

of internalize

and

process and interpret

the tradition, that is also passed down from

teacher to teacher.

And, it really is a very beautiful thing

because it reminds us of the divine promise

in the Quran

that,

where where God

promises that he will preserve

this,

this this dhikr, this reminder

that he has revealed,

this revelation, this Quran, and he will preserve

it. And the way that God has preserved

divine revelation is through the authority of the

sunnah

and through this legacy,

of passing down knowledge

and understanding

from teacher to student.

The prophet, peace and blessings be upon him,

said,

that whosoever God wishes well for, God gives

imparts to this person deep understanding of the

religion.

And by deep understanding,

we mean an understanding that is connected. It

has a providence that, as I said, does

not emerge from a vacuum,

but is transmitted,

in a very particular way,

based upon a particular methodology.

As far as this scholarship is concerned,

it should not contravene what is necessarily known

to be of the Sharia. If it does,

it's not sound.

And the teacher

of that science,

as well as the scholarship produced should have

proper regard for the sources of sacred law.

Quran,

sunnah,

ijma' which is the consensus

of,

generations of scholars as well as other juristic

tools such as analogy. It needs to necessarily

take these into consideration.

And it should be sufficiently broad

that, you know, that the scholarship should not

set up barriers between,

for example,

schools of law and so on. So it

should

reflect and embrace the breadth and depth

of the Islamic tradition as represented by Ahlul

Sunnah wal Jama'ah.

But it should be non sectarian. And note

that there is extinction there. It's perfectly okay

to embrace the very vast Sunni tradition

without being sectarian.

There's no room for

seekers of knowledge here for example to sort

of be learned learned into those traps that

some students are lured into in terms of

getting into pointless debates or,

or for example, where there's a list of

scholars that are approved and some aren't approved

and there are books that are okay and

some aren't okay.

This has not been my experience sitting down

with various shayuth

and,

sheikat,

and Anisatz to study,

male and female teachers that,

there is this there's a very,

there's a recognition in this tradition that there

is difference of opinion,

That there is diversity within the schools of

law. There are different approaches

to

formulating law.

There are different ways that scholars have arrived

at their fatawa and conclusions

and all of that is meant to be

embraced and appreciated

not discarded.

So that's just some advice that I have

in terms of how to discern if scholarship

is sound.

How does one know whom to study is

another important question and I get this question

a lot. How do you choose a teacher?

And number 1, pray.

Make dua.

Ask Allah to send a teacher one's way.

And the beautiful thing about studying online is

that one does have access to teachers around

the world that normally, one could really spend

a fortune travelling to sit with. But people

are able to, on their own time, come

and take these classes which is a wonderful

thing. It is important though for those who

are studying online to also have access to

a local teacher Which kind of brings me

to the, other point, what role does locality

play? Locality does play an important role.

Make sure that you're not isolated.

Make sure that you do have contact with

your local community

whether you set up a,

for example, seeker circle

or

you are you're active at your local masjid.

And there's a question, can I just sit

down in the masjid, halakal, for example? Will

this serve my my my, my needs?

And I would say from a social standpoint,

absolutely. You don't wanna cut yourself off from

your community.

But as far as the quality of the

halakkah

and the approach and their methodology, I mean,

that really kinda depends upon the masjid

and the the people who are running those

programs.

Obviously, I can't comment in in a sort

of specific way, but I can say in

general,

it's good to be connected to your local

community. And alhamdulillah,

praise be to Allah, some Masajid or mosques

are very solid programs. And some are a

little bit more informal,

where the person doesn't necessarily have formal training

but is very well meaning and wants to

have,

a study circle.

You know, when it comes to deciding who

to study with and,

you know, another another thing that should really

inform your decision is what do you want

to know? What do you need to know?

I see a lot of people make the

mistake of trying to do too much at

one time and if you if you take

a look at this book right here, Instruction

of the Student,

the method of learning by imam Azar Muji

translated by Sheikh Hamzal Youssef.

May Allah preserve him. That,

well, actually the foreword is by Sheikh Hamzah

Yusuf. The translation is by someone else. But,

the the Imam al Sadducci spends a lot

of time talking about not piling on too

much and being really really patient when it

comes to picking a teacher. He advises students

to sit and wait at least 2 months

before picking a teacher. He says they should

observe the teachers who are around them, decide

if the teaching style suits them. So that

when they actually become a student of this

teacher, they can commit.

The last thing you wanna do is sort

of teacher hop or teacher shop. You really

do wanna kinda sit with that person,

to the extent that you need, to to

benefit from their knowledge and their wisdom

and their experience. A lot of times, when,

you know, students that are maybe new to

this, process of seeking knowledge might be put

off if the teacher is a little bit

gruff or or or doesn't or or seems

to be really strict. But it's really important

to be patient and to persevere.

You know, I can kinda share with you,

in Damascus many years ago when we were

trying to find a Quran teacher, we met

a teacher who had a really great

reputation, but she was also known as being

super strict.

And I had a really hard time handling

that and I kinda backed off. But then,

after a a few years, I I thought

back. I said, you know, this is an

opportunity I'm missing. I need to go back

to this teacher. In Canada, I'm really honored

that I got a chance to sit with

her and really get some rigorous Tajweed training,

towards the end of my stay in Damascus.

So it's important to be patient. It's important

to understand that everybody has their personality.

Some teachers are more strict than others. Some

teachers are more encouraging or questioning than others.

It really depends, but,

stay as long as you need to stay

so that you you can benefit.

It's really important to have that attention span.

And like I said, don't take up don't

take on too much. Focus on to the

extent possible on one topic at a time.

And, the topic that you choose should be

one that is essential,

to your situation. So I'm gonna go ahead

and wrap up.

But,

the my final note is that,

you know, there are core Islamic sciences and,

the tendency of many of us is to

try to take as many courses as we

want because everything just looks so

inspiring and so fascinating. But focus on what

is essential knowledge in the beginning. Aqidah,

fiqh,

teshwid.

And really try to go into those topics

to the extent possible.

So, I welcome questions. Thank you very much

for your,

having joined this assembly and may Allah,

may God most high give you Tawfiq, divine

facility in your studies.