Back to Our Roots as SeekersGuidance – Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
A Renewed Commitment to be the First Truly Global Islamic Seminary: An announcement by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani.
Assalam alaykum,
The year 2019 will bring some exciting changes to our services and programming. Moving forward, we are very pleased to announce our new name: we’re going back to our founding name, SeekersGuidance.
This is part of the growth of our online Islamic seminary. Neither our services nor your donations will be affected by this change. Your donations to “SeekersGuidance Global” will continue as they are to support our shared causes of spreading light and knowledge; we have always been legally registered as “SeekersGuidance.” Also, we are resuming our teaching on the ground in Toronto as “SeekersGuidance Canada.”
And do bookmark www.seekersguidance.org as our new URL.
Why the Name Change?
SeekersGuidance began in the summer of 2008, by Sidi Mumen al-Hamawi (now our Programs and Development Director) and me. We were striving to establish an online portal to open access to Islamic education, and a free question and answer service to anyone, anywhere.
As part of this concern, we soon adopted the #KnowledgeWithoutBarriers paradigm, and made all our online courses and educational offerings completely free.
As a result, we grew from 600 students in 2011 to about 90,000 student registrations in 2018 alone. Alhamdulillah!
Establishing a Global Islamic Seminary
Our teachers – some of the leading Islamic scholars, such as Habib Umar bin Hafiz , Shaykh Nuh Keller, Shaykh Akram Abd al-Wahhab, and Imam Zaid Shakir – have urged us to take “all possible means” to establish a truly global Islamic seminary, offering a full curriculum of top-quality Islamic education, for anyone, anywhere.
This is a major mandate that we have been working steadily towards. For this, we added “Global Islamic Seminary” to our name, “SeekersHub.” However, “SeekersHub Global Islamic Seminary” was becoming quite a mouthful.
As such, we are returning to our roots, and our name is back to SeekersGuidance. Our moniker is “The Global Islamic Seminary.”
(There is also the matter of the parting of the ways with our previous home in Toronto, which is retaining the name “SeekersGuidance Toronto.” Though we own the rights to the name, “SeekersHub,” and retain the domain “SeekersHub.org,” part of our commitment to part with grace is that we are allowing our brothers and sisters at the Hub to keep the name – and we wish them all the best.)
What Are The Implications? Will Any Services be Affected?
None of our services be affected by this name change. Rather, we are renewing our commitment to excellence (ihsan) and to consistently improve and expand our educational services.
Thus, we are continuing to strive to make our Steps curriculum, online Courses, Answers, Podcasts, Blog, and other projects cater to the needs of our community in the best and most beneficial ways.
The “Double the Impact” Initiative
We reached 90,000 student registrations and nearly five million unique visitors to our website in 2018. But the need to spread the light of Prophetic knowledge and guidance is far, far wider. As such, our goal for 2019 is to “Double the Impact” of our online offerings.
We want to reach 200,000 student registrations and ten million visitors to our website in 2019.
This is not “just for the numbers,” but for the benefit, the need, and the urgent obligation and imperative to preserve and spread the light of Prophetic guidance to seekers everywhere.
We Love the Name SeekersGuidance
We love the name “SeekersGuidance,” because it highlights the two foundational pillars of our project:
- All believers should be seekers – we all seek Allah’s love and closeness, and knowledge is the only way to this;
- All believers seek guidance – the beneficial knowledge and inspiration that will show us the path of turning to Allah, upholding and spreading the good, and that inspires us to fulfill our true human potential.
What about My Donations?
If you were donating to “SeekersGuidance Global,” your donations are still reaching us. (We have, in fact, always been legally registered as “SeekersGuidance, Inc.”)
If you are not already a monthly supporter, you can help us Double the Impact of our online offerings by becoming a monthly supporter now by going to www.seekersguidance.org/donate.
We will continue to provide authentic, engaging, and relevant Islamic education. And most importantly, we will still offer all our services completely free of charge.
What about Toronto?
We have registered in Canada as “SeekersGuidance Canada,” and our classes and programs are continuing with Shaykh Muhammad Badhib, Ustadh Amjad Tarsin, Ustadha Umm Umar, and myself. These classes are being held weekly at Jame Masjid Mississauga (Coopers), and other locations.
We’re establishing a newer, bigger learning center and headquarters in Toronto – to serve the local community and as a base for our global Islamic seminary and its educational offerings. Click here to support our efforts.
Some New Projects Are Coming!
In addition to all our current services, we are working on some exciting new projects. These include:
- Publishing our own ebooks and other digital content.
- Newly revamped On-Demand courses offering many relevant topics.
- New additions to our curriculum courses.
- Exciting content released by the members of our Helpers program.
- Forthcoming Podcasts by a number of scholars and counselors.
- Reboots of our SeekersGuidance Arabiyya and SeekersGuidance Espanol partner pages, in order to reach seekers all over the world in other languages as well.
May Allah grant us and you facilitation and success.
Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani, Founder and Executive Director, SeekersGuidance,
And the SeekersGuidance team.
