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Ribaat Blog

Where Faiths Meet: Connection, Compassion, and Shared Humanity

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Alhamdulilah, I had the privilege of attending an interfaith intensive through Ribaat this summer—an experience that was both humbling and transformative. The retreat brought together three different cohorts, representing all the Abrahamic faiths, for four days of learning, teaching, and genuine connection. We navigated challenging topics, but we also found joy in the small, everyday details of our lives, discovering common ground in unexpected places.

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Pilgrims Fi Sabilillah: From Mecca to Minnesota

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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.

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A Letter to Imam al-Tirmidhi

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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.

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

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“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.”

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

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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.

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

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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. 

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