[zabiqapara]

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wa barakatuh

and welcome to the forum brother.

I have been to a few courses in Johannesburg. I am also from Johannesburg, good to have someone from the same city on SF

Working in the corporate world means that I don’t really get a chance to devote my time to Studying Islam. So these weekend courses are perfect for me. The “Jamiat al ulema” has been slow to offer such courses but alhamdulilah launched their first weekend course this past weekend titled “Understanding the west and Muslim responsibilities”. There are other institutes that offer similar courses, one such that comes to mind is Ar-Rihla (www.rihla.co.za), you should check it out.

I really wanted to attend but unfortunately I couldn’t make it. They also covered the topic of Jihad which many scholars are afraid to cover, so it was quite refreshing to see them being pro active in tackling this subject. I hope they covered it in a forthright manner whichout watering things down to appease anybody. I doubt you will get a talk on Jihad from Al kauthar.
Al kauthar does have a course on the seerah of the prophet (saw) during the Madina period in Johannesburg on the25th and 26th of Feb. Its gonna be interesting to see how they try and bypass the battle of the battle of Tabuk and Surah Taubah. Ismail Adam Patel of the UK done the course along with Mawlana Ebrahim Bham.

Anyway coming to the topic of discussion. I have been to a number of these Al kauthar courses. The historical ones are excellent in their presentation, detail, referencing and the application of lessons to our lives. and it is the history of our pious salaf that is an inspiration to us, in that regard you should see this blog which is a humble effort to document the undocumented history of our pious predecessors.


The fiqh courses are fascinating for me as a beginner student. Even though I am a hanafi and I follow the hanafi madhab, I don’t want to limit my knowledge to my madhab only. I enjoy learning about all the madhabs and the views of other scholars like Sufyaan al thawri, ibn Hazam from the Dhahiri Madhab and Ibn Taymiyah.
I might not agree with some of these scholars but I still enjoy learning about their view. As a beginner student shouldn't you concentrate on your own madhab and solidifying your knowledge of the fiqh of your madhab? I dont think any traditional scholar would teach in this way, this is rather a salient feature of the Salafis, and the beginning of the start to convert a person to la-madhabism.

The instructor usually presents the various views and the reasons why the scholars differed. They tend to be very open to the following of madhabs and I have yet to hear any of the instructors urging students to leave their madhab. That is the point, they never tell you to leave your madhab but sow seeds of doubts in your mind about following a madhab. I personally know people who after attending Al-Kauthar have changed madhabs or have completely left following a madhab.

This is only on the fiqh courses. We did not even touch on the aqeedah.

I suggest you start by reading the book "The Legal Status of Following a Madhab" by Shaykh (Mufti) Taqi 'Uthmani (HA)


To add, I just want to say that this is humble advice from my side and I ask for sincere maaf if I have come across rudely or harshly and this is not my intention. I have seen many that I know getting sucked into Salafism, la-madhabism, etc and it is a dark and murky world out there. The Ummah was united for centuries on 4 madhabs and 2 schools of aqeeda until the Salafis came on the field. Feel free to contact me, maybe we can meet up sometime