Is It Permissible to Take Knowledge from Various Islamic Websites?


Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

I had a question about following various scholars. So I recall you saying that we can follow, for example, Shafi‘i madhab on worship and Hanafi madhab on banking situations, and I assumed the same was true when it came to websites I follow.

For instance, when it comes to worship, purity, and a few other things, I follow a specific website, and I make sure that when it comes to a particular topic, I stick with one website so that there isn’t overlap or things that contradict each other. Is that permissible?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.

It is permissible to take religious advice from any official website that meets the following conditions:

  • That the website be overseen by authentic scholars with a chain of transmission back to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and give him peace);
  • That the website base its answers on the evidence of the Sunni mainstream (Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama‘a).

Summary

Note that these websites are references for Islamic questions. They are a vital source for Muslims but should not be used as a substitute for seeking Sacred knowledge directly from an Islamic scholar.

Related:

Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch teaches Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York, where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences.

He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he studied for three years in Dar al-Mustafa under some of the most outstanding scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib.

In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Quran and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Quranic exegesis, Islamic history, and several texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.