Fiqh 100

What is FIQH 100? In a traditional school in the Muslim World, there is an understanding among the students that the teachers at that institution teach according to a certain methodology and perspective on the religion. But when it comes to Muslims in American prisons, not everyone is from the same background. Some converted from Christianity, some were Atheists, some had read extensively classical works like the ones we teach at Tayba Foundation, some have only read modern books...
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What is FIQH 100? In a traditional school in the Muslim World, there is an understanding among the students that the teachers at that institution teach according to a certain methodology and perspective on the religion. But when it comes to Muslims in American prisons, not everyone is from the same background. Some converted from Christianity, some were Atheists, some had read extensively classical works like the ones we teach at Tayba Foundation, some have only read modern books before coming into contact with us. We discovered that even though everyone was studying fiqh according to the same classical manuals that have been used for centuries, there were still some questions, misunderstandings and every now and then, even some arguments that were being proposed by many students. We tried to identify the most important of these and explain them adequately enough so that by the time everyone got to the core of our curriculum, these things would no longer be an obstacle to learning.What misunderstandings are we talking about? Things like the importance and relevance of fiqh, why the Schools of Islamic Law (Madhāhib) still exist, how we should navigate scholarly differences of opinion, who is qualified to give legal rulings, etc. So most of what we will seek to accomplish with this short course is to clarify these and related issues so that as students are progressing, the concerns that are not directly addressed by the primers we are teaching will have already been covered. This course is also intended to serve as a 'talking points' reference manual for our students to refer to when people have questions about Tayba Foundation's understanding of the issues discussed in the text. While this course is not intended to serve as the final word on these issues, we do pray that Allah allows it to help to clarify the mainstream Orthodox stance about certain fiqh-related issues for our student body specifically, and through them, the larger body of the Umma of Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace) in general.