Family and Community

New Muslim Series | Learning Path to the Basics of Islam: Online Curriculum

Published

August 31, 2012

In my first article in the New Muslim Series, After Shahadah, I discussed a few of the issues that new Muslims face, the need for new Muslim support systems, and how to start one up in your local community. In the next article in the series, Br. Yusuf Smith discussed the needs of new Muslims from a financial perspective, particularly when the person has a disability or has been estranged from their family.

As was identified in After Shahadah, there seems to be a lack of comprehensive and organized online resources for new Muslims looking to learn the basics of Islam. I promised I would inform you all when the Islamic Institute of Orange County’s Dawah and Outreach Committee posted their online curriculum, so here we are.

This online curriculum was designed to help new Muslims build a proper foundation in the structure of a “learning path”. It is formed so that only one step appears at a time. Once you complete one section and take a quiz to test your understanding, your next step in the learning path will appear, and it will continue this way until the curriculum is covered. In this manner, it helps to prevent the person from becoming overwhelmed with multitudes of information, as well as prevents “jumping the gun” and learning things out of order which can lead to possible confusion.

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This curriculum covers the meaning of Islam, an overview of basic Islamic beliefs and concepts, pillars of Islam, the Oneness of Allah and belief in His prophets, everything having to do with wudu’ and prayer, and other important topics.

May Allah bless and reward those who worked on this project and make it a means of benefit for new Muslims across the planet.

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Nadya Aweinat

Nadya Aweinat is a Batman loving tajweed geek who spends her days hiking, learning and teaching Qur'an, and enjoying the year round superb weather of Southern California. By the mercy of Allah, she recently completed her memorization of the Qur'an and is working on completing a degree in Speech Pathology.

9 Comments

Yasmin

August 31, 2012 at 1:47 AM

Jazakallah khair for informing us about this great opportunity!

Reply
OMER

August 31, 2012 at 2:49 PM

Whats the view regarding Online Quran Education??

Reply
- Nadya Aweinat
  
  September 5, 2012 at 12:56 PM
  
  Not sure if you’re asking for my views :)
  
  In my opinion, learning Qur’an in person is always better if it’s possible…If it’s not possible, find something online that works for you!
  
  Reply
sabirah

September 1, 2012 at 8:26 PM

nevertheless, once a convert is being absorbed into the masjid environment, in particular women are discouraged from gaining knowledge and information online. My experience is if a woman converts, they have to 1) learn urdu 2) get married 3) then solely take their husband as their source of information.
If already married to a muslim then they’ll be left alone in respect of the husband who is supposed to teach her HIS interpretation of things.
sorry to step on toes, but that’s just my experience as a revert. There is no proper aftersales for convert women.

Reply
- Nadya
  
  September 5, 2012 at 12:53 PM
  
  Assalamu alaikum Sabirah,
  
  You’re right that issues of that sort are fairly common and many times are unfortunate. Alhamdulillah, I’ve also seen beautiful situations where a new Muslim sister (who’s already married to a Muslim man) has a great support and learning system to complement what her husband teaches her. I’ve also seen sisters who embrace Islam, learn their deen, become active members of the Muslim community, and then after transitioning into aware, “practicing” Muslims, get married to a good Muslim brother.
  
  Alhamdulillah there’s both sides of scale…May Allah make things easy on our new Muslim brothers and sisters
  
  Reply
- Nadya Aweinat
  
  September 5, 2012 at 12:57 PM
  
  Assalamu alaikum Sabirah,
  You’re right that issues of that sort are fairly common and many times are unfortunate. Alhamdulillah, I’ve also seen beautiful situations where a new Muslim sister (who’s already married to a Muslim man) has a great support and learning system to complement what her husband teaches her. I’ve also seen sisters who embrace Islam, learn their deen, become active members of the Muslim community, and then after transitioning into aware, “practicing” Muslims, get married to a good Muslim brother.
  Alhamdulillah there’s both sides of scale…May Allah make things easy on our new Muslim brothers and sisters
  
  Reply
Eden James

September 6, 2012 at 4:58 AM

In the UK we have an organisation called the Islamic Education and Research Academy. They have a ‘New Muslils’ department called Muslim Now. They have an excellent support system and hold regular conferences and seminars for new Muslims.

Reply
maryam

September 13, 2012 at 4:45 AM

As a revert, this would have been very beneficial to me a few years ago. I found that seeking/gaining correct knowledge was the most difficult part for me; even more difficult than adhering to the commandments of Islam. On a side note, I just found out (for those students of knowledge) that Tafsir As Sa’di is finally being released in English; by the Islamic Literary Foundation. You can find out more at: http://ilfp.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/tafsir-as-sadi-printed-in-english/

Reply
Ibrahim

June 16, 2013 at 9:06 AM

If I may. I have been a Muslim for about 2 years now. My situation is pretty rough in general but very specifically in the area of education. I live 80 miles from the nearest Mosque, with a car that barely gets me from home to work. My convesion to Islam caused a loss of nearly all friends, as they still live the party life and would rather spend their free time in the bars. I know almost no Muslim in person, and the few I do know are born and raised Muslims, which sounds great but they are also all from out of the country so the language block is too difficult to work through. They are very happy of my conversion, but things have, as of yet, been unable to progress beyond a simple greeting when we see one another. I knew at first it would be difficult and worried that I may lose faith. I am happy to say, however, that hasn’t happened. If anything my FAITH is stronger now than it was 2 years ago. It is lonely though. Very much so. And my education hasn’t progressed to anywhere near the level I would have imagined it would by now. Anyway, that being said, I found a site that is, so far, a great sight to learn things as a new muslim. http://www.newmuslims.com It sounds like a similar setup to what is mentioned here. There are 6 levels, with 20+ lessons in each level. After each lesson you take a little quiz and after each level you take a larger, level review test. I’ve learned more in the last 2 weeks than I have in the last 2 years! I love it!

Reply