Sneak peak into my first encounter with Madina Institute SA Cape Town Open week Jan 2015.

The topic – Aqeedah,
The text – Fiqh ul Akbar,
The teacher – Sayyidi Shaykh Muhammed Ninowy.

” I want you to learn something the class before you learnt well. Anytime somebody tells you something in this deen, you have to ask for the daleel.
“What is your daleel/evidence? ”
I don’t want you to believe in this deen because you’re imitating me, or imitating anybody else.
This religion is based on evidence. Evidence is not something what I say, or what anybody else says.
Evidence is what Allah says and Rasoolillah Sallallahu A’layhi Wa Sallam says.
Daleel, by definition is Qur’an and [authentic] Sunnah”

We proceeded to the text:
“It’s important to know how do you worship, but it’s more important to know who is worshipped this is ‘Fiqh ul Akbar’ – ‘The Greater Fiqh.’
Why is who more important than how ? Because, if you don’t know who than it doesn’t matter what you do”
Sayyidi Shaykh Muhammad Ninowy.

Madina teaches you to understand this deen, to practice this deen, to love this deen, not blindly follow a person or a group, it is the prioritization of The Qur’an and Authentic Sunnah.

You can only love something when you know and understand it, you can only know and understand it when you learn it.

Jameel Ismail