A small thing to think about before going abroad to seek knowledge for a long period of time.

In the Name of Allah, and may peace and salutations be on the Messenger of Allah and his companions.

The topic of seeking knowledge can be a tough one, especially given the fact that many people talk about it and very little do it. On social Media, for example, you can find a plethora of people who speak about the virtue of seeking knowledge because its the cool thing to do in our day and time. There is influx of self styled Sheikhs giving Da'wah on Youtube and other social Media platforms, and that can create the notion that everybody seeks knowledge, when in reality that may not be the case.

This small article is just a brief reminder to anybody who truly wishes to embark on this great Journey of seeking knowledge, that your life will change forever, for better or worse, and it's upon you to take this golden opportunity and change your destiny forever. However having said that, you need to take into consideration the many challenges you are going to face when embarking on this path, especially if you are going to study in Saudi, with no more than the pounds in your pocket, the challenge maybe just a little bit more harder.

A challenge you may face could be a total change in environment, from a Western environment to the Middle East. This  maybe extremely difficult for a student to take, it is therefore extremely important you speak to people who have sought knowledge in other countries and seek advice on how to handle these kind of initial difficulties you may face when going abroad.

Also mental health, I have heard stories of students who have gone to Universities and left due to mental health issues, seriously, this is not the place to come to if you are suffering from severe mental health issues such as Bipolar etc. You may find that the heat and the stress of such a large workload could flare a mental episode possibly putting your own life in danger. A person needs to be really honest and ask himself if this is what they want to do in life, and see this as a Marathon and not a race. Coming here with mental health issues may not be the wisest choice a person makes. Hikmah is needed in this situation and you have to have a really honest discussion with yourself on whether you can handle this. There was once a student here with us from Turkey, who had mental health issues who eventually left because of them, so you need to do the right thing and be honest with yourself and ask yourself is this the right choice for you. Allah says

                                        وَمَنْ يُؤْتَ الْحِكْمَةَ فَقَدْ أُوتِيَ خَيْرًا كَثِيرًا 

   (And whoever has been given Hikmah has indeed been given A lot of good) Baqarah:269

You should also have an understanding of what it means to actually seeking knowledge, meaning, you should know as a student of knowledge how to study and how to go about studying this religion, in a systematic manner, taking each Islamic science step by step, which I will be later explaining in further blog posts. 

Also, on the basis that you studying such a great Science you are going to be afflicted with trials, and you need to understand that whilst studying here you will be tested, and to think that you will not be tested is something you have to remove from your mind, as there are so many Ayaat and Ahadeeth which speak about Allah's slaves being tested, so how about the person who is seeking knowledge? will they be left alone?

Khalid Zakaria Hassan 

Burdaidah Saudi Arabia, October 5th 2018.