Can We Start a Group to Strengthen Faith and Encourage Good?
Answered by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick
Question
Is it allowed to form a group of twenty-five people to share advice and help each other strengthen their faith (iman)?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate.
It is allowed to form this kind of group, and your good intentions make it even better. In general, things are allowed unless there is a reason not to.
A meeting to help each other strengthen our faith and give advice is a good example of working together for good.
Just make sure everything you share follows Sacred Law and stick to sharing reliable, general reminders.
Social Platform
Starting a group on a social platform, whether to share guidelines or to consult one another, is generally permissible.
The governing principle is that the default in all things is permissibility (al-asl fi al-ashya’ al-ibaha), so nothing here requires a specific proof to be allowed. [al-Suyuti, al-Ashbah wa al-Naza’ir]
Your stated intention raises it further. To gather peers in order to firm up faith and seek counsel together is an act of cooperating upon righteousness and piety, and Allah (Most High) says, “And cooperate in righteousness and piety, and do not cooperate in sin and transgression.” [Quran, 5:2]
Seeking the counsel of trustworthy peers in a good matter is itself contrary to the way of the believers.
What this permissibility rests upon is that the engagement stays within the bounds of Sacred Law.
So share only general, encouraging reminders and information verified by people of knowledge. Better still, seek a reliable scholar willing to oversee the group, so that what circulates among you is sound.
What you must avoid is speaking on religious matters about which you have no knowledge, and letting the group drift into idle or ill-informed talk about religion.
Allah (Most High) says, “And when you see those who engage in vain discourse concerning Our verses, then turn away from them until they enter into another conversation.” [Quran, 6:68]
Principle and Practical Guidance
Proceed, and may Allah reward your concern for your own faith and the faith of those around you. Set up the group with a clear purpose and good intentions.
Keep its content to verified, beneficial reminders, and where possible, place it under the light supervision of someone grounded in Sacred knowledge.
Where a question arises that none of you can answer with knowledge, pause and refer it to a qualified scholar rather than venturing an answer yourselves.
In this way, the group remains, from beginning to end, a means of cooperating upon righteousness.
And Allah (Most High) knows best.
[Shaykh] Irshaad Sedick
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
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Shaykh Irshaad Sedick was raised in South Africa in a traditional Muslim family. He graduated from Dar al-Ulum al-Arabiyyah al-Islamiyyah in Strand, Western Cape, under the guidance of the late world-renowned scholar Shaykh Taha Karaan (Allah have mercy on him), where he taught.
Shaykh Irshaad received Ijaza from many luminaries of the Islamic world, including Shaykh Taha Karaan, Shaykh Muhammad Awama, Shaykh Muhammad Hasan Hitu, and Mawlana Abdul Hafeez Makki, among others.
He is the author of the text “The Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal: A Hujjah or not?” He has been the Director of the Discover Islam Centre, and for six years, he has been the Khatib of Masjid Ar-Rashideen, Mowbray, Cape Town.
Shaykh Irshaad has fifteen years of teaching experience at some of the leading Islamic institutes in Cape Town). He is currently building an Islamic podcast, education, and media platform called ‘Isnad Academy’ and has completed his Master’s degree in the study of Islam at the University of Johannesburg. He has a keen interest in healthy Prophetic living and fitness.
