How Can I Balance Between Medical School and Learning Islam?
Answered by Ustadha Shazia Ahmad
Question
Alhamdulillah, I am currently a third-year medical student. Recently, Allah Almighty has blessed me with a yearning to learn Sacred Knowledge. And as a result, I have been following some of the courses on SeekersGuidance and other platforms. However, I am finding it hard to give my full attention to both and to excel at both. Is there any advice you can give to someone in my situation to balance Islamic Studies and secular studies?
Answer
Assalamu alaykum,
Thank you for your question. May Allah reward you for your newly found interest and help you while your plate is so full.
Secular knowledge
The truth is that you are busy studying medicine right now, and you won’t be able to give your all to both. Instead, you should focus on your priority at the moment, and that is developing your skills to help you provide for your family. Study well because you will be treating patients, sometimes making decisions that can mean life or death, and that is no light matter.
The Deen
Keep up with acquiring personally obligatory knowledge on the side, at a minimal and sustainable pace, probably a class or two on the weekend. Try listening to a lecture or two a week, and try to get through the basics of fiqh (jurisprudence), `aqidah (beliefs), tajweed (recitation of Qur’an) and the halals and harams of everyday life. Applying this knowledge daily is the real work.
Consistency
Don’t get down on yourself for not doing more, because you will be able to do more, just not now, and recall this prophetic hadith: “Do good deeds properly, sincerely and moderately and know that your deeds will not make you enter Paradise and that the most beloved deed to Allah is the most regular and constant even if it were little.“ [Bukhari]
May Allah give you the best of this world and the next.
[Ustadha] Shazia Ahmad
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Ustadha Shazia Ahmad lived in Damascus, Syria, for two years, where she studied aqidah, fiqh, tajweed, Tafseer, and Arabic. She then attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she completed her Master’s in Arabic. Afterward, she moved to Amman, Jordan, where she studied fiqh, Arabic, and other sciences. She recently moved back to Mississauga, Canada, where she lives with her family.
