Islamic Studies Resources

I'm merely a beginner when it comes to the vast ocean of sacred knowledge. In a world where seeking and accessing teachers and texts grounded within tradition can be more difficult, I believe that I must at least share a bit about my own journey and study resources that I like. The four general areas of Islamic studies include Quran (which includes areas like knowledge of recitation, exegesis or tafsir), Sunnah (which includes prophetic biographies or seerah, along with hadith studies, a field in its own right), Fiqh (I study the Hanafi madhab), and Aqeedah (one you get past the fundamentals, probably not as important to study as the other fields for a beginner student like myself). I have some scattered notes on the Hanafi madhab here.

General reading: While this can be a good way to supplement your knowledge on a topic unfamiliar to you, it can be unstructured and you'll probably forget what you learned over time . It's better to acquire specific knowledge of texts within the tradition and then selectively read books that you can critically analyze or cite for future research purpose. Nevertheless, a few of my absolute favorites
- Crisis of Islamic Civilization by Ali Allawi
- Traveling Home: Essays on Europe and Islam by Abdul Hakim Murad
- Biography of Abu Hanifa by Akram Nadwi
- Introduction to Quranic Sciences by Yasir Qadhi
- Family Structure in Islam by Hammudah Abd al Ati
- Agenda to Change Our Condition by Hamza Yusuf
Fiqh: If you don't have a local class or need more flexibility around your school/work schedule, I highly recommend you study fiqh through the Hanafi Legal Code Program offered by Irshad Academy (the class requires that you continue to work on understanding and learning Arabic, but you do not need proficiency by any means).
Tafsir: Bayyinah TV has self-paced Arabic lessons (through the Dream program), numerous tafsir videos by Nouman Ali Khan, and only costs ~$11/month
Arabic: There are plenty of resources both online and in-person to learn Arabic.
- Dream Program on Bayyinah TV subscription: great for self-paced learning, comes with a huge digital textbook and workbook
- Qasid University has online tutoring and a comprehensive classical Arabic program that I am considering doing down the line
- In-person options include Dar-ul Qasim in Chicago and Qalam Institute in Dallas (Qalam also has an online track)
My favorite modern-day scholars and thinkers:
- Timothy Winter (Abdal Hakim Murad)
- Akram Nadwi
- Muhammad Nizami
- Hamza Yusuf
- Dr. Yasir Qadhi
- Dr. Sherman Jackson
- Mufti Taqi Usmani
- Nouman Ali Khan