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Fatwa CenterSeeking religious knowledge at the expense of academic performance
Question
I am a student in 2nd year of college. I try to give some time to getting islamic knowledge, such as learning the quran and knowing about verious islamic problems. Somtimes, this results in poor academic performance, such as when I have to do some research about a particular thing, asking or reading from multiple sources, and also because I keep records of my questions and answers that I find or receive as my memory is not good, and because there are too many things that I do not know and which I think that I need to know related to avoiding sin and performing ibadat in the best way. My father does not care enough about such things, he rarely says his prayers, so he is not at all a trustable source of islamic knowledge and my mother, though somewhat regular in saying her prayers, would also not approve of me showing lack of care for studies due to spending time on aforementioned things. So I try to hide it and this results in some waste of time as well. What I want to ask is, am I justified in using ambiguity for hiding lack of performance in studies mainly due to devoting some of my time as mentioned above?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.
May Allaah generously reward you for your keenness to acquire Islamic knowledge. This is no doubt a great door to goodness. At the same time, dutifulness to parents is also something that draws the Muslim closer to Allaah. You are advised to keenly try to balance between succeeding in both your secular education and your acquisition of Islamic knowledge. We believe that achieving this honorable objective is possible with good time management and sincere diligence. Hopefully, your keenness to acquire Islamic knowledge and study the Quran will enhance your insight, intelligence, and ability to understand and memorize and thus contribute to the success of your secular education. It is worth noting that you can also make full use of vacations and devote them to learning Islamic studies, thereby reaping the fruits of both and putting an end to your dilemma, Allaah willing.
If you cannot devote yourself to both (secular and Islamic studies) and your academic failure causes significant trouble to your parents, you should concentrate your efforts on your secular education and avoid anything that involves undutifulness to your parents or disobedience to their demands. This is of course as long as this knowledge is not something you are required to learn in particular, i.e. anything by which your creed and obligatory acts of worship will be valid. Then, it is to be given precedence to secular studies. As stressed above, you can combine both secular and Islamic studies in your schedule, Allaah willing. For further benefit, please refer to Fataawa 84726 and 84369.
Allaah Knows best.
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