an online rihla through the online ummah

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

In the traditional sense of the word, a rihla is sacred travel in order to gain knowledge. Throughout Islamic history, students and adventurers traveled to the ends of the earth in order to gain knowledge and improve their deen.

On occasion, these travelers left behind journals detailing their adventures. Perhaps the most famous of these chroniclers was Ibn Battuta. His journals available today, online and in print. His Rihla was required reading for my Islamic History class at Madison, and I still have it on my bookshelf today.

Today, people still take these sacred journeys, but now, we have more options. Students of knowledge still travel to sit at the feet of scholars, but rihlas now are also made on television and documented online.

My intention is to one day make a real, physical rihla, inshaAllah. Sheikh Hamza Yusuf of the Zaytuna Institute and many other fabulous teachers have been leading a rihla of mainly american seekers of knowledge to the City of the Beloved, Medina, for a few years now. inshaAllah ta'ala, I hope to join them someday.

For now, however, my rihla will be made from my computer. I hope that this blog will serve as my journal of my journey through the online ummah. SubhanAllah, there are a ton of fantastic resources out there for muslims. I spend plenty of time surfing the web as it is, so why not create something beneficial from it, inshaAllah.