DONATE
Rabata Logo
Rabata Logo

Make this Ramadan the best one yet with Rabata!

Rabata

Pilgrims Fi Sabilillah: From Mecca to Minnesota

Leave a Comment / Ribaat Blog

I attended Rabata’s retreat for the first time, and I returned home transformed into a different version of myself. The experience reminded me profoundly of my journey to Hajj, both in its challenges and its revelations.

Like Hajj, this retreat demanded sacrifice. Being away from my young children for five days, forgoing the comfort of familiar sleep and the solace of home, every aspect of my routine was tested. Yet in this testing, I found something sacred.

Pilgrims Fi Sabilillah: From Mecca to Minnesota Read More »

A Letter to Imam al-Tirmidhi

Leave a Comment / Ribaat Blog

Dear Imam Muhammad ibn Sawrah ibn Musa ibn al-Dhahhak al-Tirmidhi

It is my great pleasure to address you in a letter. May Allah ﷻ elevate your rank in the hereafter.  I am currently taking a course on traditional Muslim scholars through the Ribaat Academic Institute. We have learned about so many amazing scholars, but your name and your story stayed in my mind.  This is mostly because we share the same last name.  It is said that one of your descendants left Tirmidh to give dawah in India. In South Asia, the dha (ذ) sound became transformed to za (ز), hence the last name Tirmizi among those who came after him.

A Letter to Imam al-Tirmidhi Read More »

Toward the Almonds of Jannah

Leave a Comment / Daybreak Press

Bobo jaan was a tall, sangeen (dignified, respectfully polished) woman who wore long dresses, crisp white pants, and soft chiffon hijabs. Her friends called her Bibi Shireen. She had this quiet confidence about her that came with being the matriarch of our family. Her husband, my grandfather, passed away from a heart attack in Afghanistan when she was still very young, and her youngest son, my father, was only four years old. She never remarried. Growing up, Bobo jaan would babysit us when our parents were at work. She lived in the same apartment complex as we did.

Toward the Almonds of Jannah Read More »

In Their Company, I Found My Way: A Letter to Imam Ash-Shafi’i

Leave a Comment / Ribaat Blog

“When I first read about how you developed usul al-fiqh—laying the foundation of legal principles that helped organize Islamic jurisprudence—I realized that scholarship isn’t about winning arguments; it’s about guiding people closer to Allah through clarity, justice, and compassion. You didn’t aim to simply refute or correct; you sought to understand, to elevate, and to unite.”

In Their Company, I Found My Way: A Letter to Imam Ash-Shafi’i Read More »

In Their Company, I Found My Way: A Letter to Imam al-Bukhari

Leave a Comment / Ribaat Blog

From the travels you did to acquire knowledge to the thought you put in to recording it in your books, you dedicated your life for the sake of Allah and left us treasures! This day and age, most of us have so much knowledge, and it is at our fingertips, but we do not know what to do with it. Some do not know how to learn, it seems, and some are just occupied in worldly things so much so that it scares me for them.

In Their Company, I Found My Way: A Letter to Imam al-Bukhari Read More »

Preserving the Ijaza Tradition in a Modern World: Ribaat’s Ijaza Retreat

Leave a Comment / Ribaat Blog

Students from all over the world attend Ribaat’s online program in beginning to advanced levels to enhance their Quran recitation. Our most advanced students enter the Ijaza Track, with the goal of receiving an ijaza—a traditional certificate that links a student to a chain of transmission going all the way back to the Prophet ﷺ. 

Preserving the Ijaza Tradition in a Modern World: Ribaat’s Ijaza Retreat Read More »

Beatific Baqara for Cool Converts

Leave a Comment / Daybreak Press

“Learn Surat al-Baqara? Me?? Ha! You have to be kidding!” I remember my initial derisive thoughts surfacing when I toyed with the idea of reading the longest surah in the Quran, all 48 pages with 286 ayaat in the original Arabic.  I dismissed the thought as unrealistic and left it at that until about a year ago, someone suggested that I, an older convert become acquainted with Surat al-Baqara, the second Surah of the Quran, and read it daily for it contains “barakaat”—blessings as well as protection from evil. Presented below  are a few tips from a skeptic-transformed-proponent for all converts to learn Surat al-Baqara, myself included!

Beatific Baqara for Cool Converts Read More »