Answered by Shaykh Amjad Rasheed
I have lived in Canada since childhood and my parents never taught me religious rulings as they should have and preferred instead for me to focus on this-worldly knowledge. All the Muslims in my area are Salafis who read books like Fiqh al-Sunna. I want to learn directly from a sheikh. I don’t want to learn over the Internet. I recently began studying this-worldly knowledge at a university over here but I don’t want to continue. I live with my wife and parents and I have neither earnings nor money that would enable me to live independently. I want to leave everything and go to Hadramawt to seek knowledge but my parents and wife don’t agree with this and I don’t have money. What should I do?
The first thing that is obligatory on you is to work hard to acquire the [h: personally] obligatory amount of correct knowledge from reliable Sunni scholars in order to thereby correct your belief (‘aqida), worship (‘ibadat), commercial dealings and other [h: dealings] that you engage in. If it is not possible for you to take this directly from a scholar, it is obligatory for you to learn it [h: in any other manner], even if over the Internet.
As for knowledge that is beyond this, it is not obligatory for you to acquire it. Since you have mentioned that you have a wife and you have begun studying in a university and you cannot live independently because of not having a source of income, I advise you to complete you studies in the university so that you can, in-sha’Allah, soon earn a lawful income through which you can support yourself and your wife, and serve the Muslims of your land through this [h: worldly] knowledge you have acquired. After this, you can turn to seeking knowledge in Hadramawt or other countries.
In my opinion, if you leave to acquire knowledge and leave your [h: university] studies while you are in your present state, it will cause you many problems and difficulties, especially with respect to supporting yourself and your wife, which will distract you from seeking knowledge and you will end up not acquiring it as it should be acquired, thereby wasting the study and effort that you have put into acquiring a degree, which, if you had obtained, you could have acquired [h: Sacred knowledge] by means of it.
And Allah alone guides to what is correct.
Amjad Rasheed
Amman, Jordan
(Translated by Hamza Karamali)