New Here, Want to Learn

Hi everyone,

I'm new here and want to learn more about Islam. Not from any desire to convert, but from a love-your-neighbor standpoint. I've read up on some basics (like the 5 Pillars), visited Friday prayer services, a chatted with a few Muslims, so I feel I can pass Islam 101, but not 102. When I've tried to learn 102, that's when differences between Islam groups start coming in, and it gets harder to tell junk from not. Can anybody point me to some good resources? I'd perfer things/books/people on-line that I could access for free.

Thank you.

Welcome to Islamicboard. Hope you will find it a source of beneficial knowledge

Welcome to the forum.

I guess if you ask people, you will get a variety of answers due to their understanding, level of understanding, what they think you are asking or what they think you want to hear etc….

Actually, islam is about God's message to mankind and how do we learn about it? I guess the simplest way is to read about the various messages God has sent to human throughout civilization. We can do this from reading the stories about the 25 prophets of islam (from Adam (pbuh) through to Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (peace be upon them all). You will find consistencies in the messages and the final message (Quran), laid down rules for living in a community, hence the syariah..

Wishing you a great stay.


eace:

Thanks everyone.

GreenHill-- I've noticed the variety of answers making my understanding more difficult. Unfortunately I don't even know the different Islamic groups to well enough to help "sort" the various opinions as I do in my native Christianity. I could dive straight into the Koran myself... but that doesn't really tell me what Muslims believe, because Muslims understand the various passages so differently (let alone how I would understand it). Hence my predicament.

Jane_Doe said:

Thanks everyone. GreenHill-- I've noticed the variety of answers making my understanding more difficult. Unfortunately I don't even know the different Islamic groups to well enough to help "sort" the various opinions as I do in my native Christianity. I could dive straight into the Koran myself... but that doesn't really tell me what Muslims believe, because Muslims understand the various passages so differently (let alone how I would understand it). Hence my predicament.

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i think you should start with seerah of the prophet s.a.w : https://www.islamicboard.com/seerah/

I am not Muslim but I attend a local mosque. My advice would be to look for a traditional Sunni mosque in your area that offers classes on Islam for women, and attend these classes.

Hi there and welcome

This forum is a pretty nice source all on its own and well balanced. You will find discussions on different opinions among Muslim scholars, discussions in comparative religion and also you can feel free to ask any questions. There's always someone willing to help out.

Hope you enjoy your stay!

Hi,

Welcome to Islamicboard, it's great you want to learn and discover (something we all really need to do in this day and age).

You'll find this forum has so much information and interesting discussions, and we are more than willing to answer any questions you'll have inshaAllah. I hope you enjoy your time here .

Within Islam, there are differences of opinion on certain issues - however it is important to keep in mind that on the fundamental basics, there is a general consensus, differences tend to appear in the finer details. You've probably heard of the Sunni and Shia divide, which is the largest division within Islam and they do differ a lot theologically. Sunni's however, make up 85-90% of all Muslims worldwide.

Within Sunni Islam, there are different schools of thought, called madhabs. The four central ones are Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki and Shafi. They do differ in some details on various aspects of Islamic rulings and rituals, however as Muslims we regard them all as equally correct and valid and it is our duty to respect the differences of opinion within each of the madhabs.

This forum has a balanced and thorough approach to the central tenets of Islam, you'll find most of what you need to know from here.

I would recommend to anyone learning about Islam to read the biography of the Prophet Muhammad :saws: (the one written by Martin Lings is very good) and the stories of all the Prophets in general (the one by ibn Kathir is a classic).

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Muhammad-Life-Based-Earliest-Sources/dp/0946621330

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stories-Prophets-Hafiz-Ibn-Kathir/dp/9960892263