This general On-Demand course will help you understand what it entails to have a disciplined tongue.


Allah Most High created this world and bestowed upon us the power to execute great endeavors using our ability to speak. In the teachings of Islamic spirituality, the tongue is called “the mirror of the heart.” In other words, what appears on our tongue indicates what is in our hearts.

This becomes even truer in those unguarded moments when anger, frustration, or stress gets the best of us. Our tongues lose any sense of discipline, which is entirely contradictory and unnatural to a tongue that is inclined towards that which is beautiful and wholesome.

Allah Most High says: “Not a word does one utter, except that there is an (angel) watching, ready to record it.” (Quran, 15:18)

If there is any part of our body we should guard most, it should be the tongue. It impacts everything we do and everything we will become, which is why it must be controlled and carefully guarded so that we don’t get in trouble.

By taking this course, you will learn the sins of the tongue and how to avoid them. You will also gain an appreciation of the power of positive, beneficial speech.

Display on Both categories: No
Category Featured: No
Show in catalog: No
Weightage: 0
Skill Level: Beginner
Monday: No
Tuesday: No
Wednesday: No
Thursday: No
Friday: No
Saturday: No
Sunday: No
Who is this course for:
  • This course is for teenagers and adults.
  • It is a General Level course. There are no prerequisites required to successfully complete this course.
  • This course can also be taken by anyone who is interested in learning how to control their tongue.
Learning outcomes:
  • Learn the importance of guarding the tongue.
  • Understand the sins of the tongue and how to avoid them.
  • Define beneficial speech.
  • Explain the virtue of protecting the heart.
  • Realize the virtues of remembrance of Allah.

Revive the Art of Reading with Seekers Book Club

Recite; The first words revealed to our beloved Messenger Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon). The birth of our religion is intertwined with recitation.

Our religion values language. It birthed an Ummah of lovers of language. The Muslim scholastic tradition gave the world their first and most extensive dictionaries. It gifted the world with poetry, rhetoric, and vast linguistic miracles. The Holy Quran is the Book of all Books. Through these sessions, learn how to gain knowledge and guidance through beneficial books. 

Every month, join one of our scholars in an interactive session discussing a book that the scholar personally recommends. Allow them to take you on a journey as they share their own unique experience with their book. Prepare, learn, and ask questions as we enjoy the realm of linguistic arts - thoughts poured into words, directly imprinting onto your heart.

Discover multiple perspectives, guidance on how to connect with the book, and build your understanding of the book. 

Display on Both categories: No
Category Featured: No
Show in catalog: No
Weightage: 0
Skill Level: Beginner
Monday: No
Tuesday: No
Wednesday: No
Thursday: No
Friday: No
Saturday: No
Sunday: No

This is a General course that students from any level in studies can take. It is essential for every believer to know this information since sins of the tongue can be major sins and will be accounted for on the Day of Judgement.


This course draws from Book R of the contemporary English legal text Reliance of the Traveler by Shaykh Nuh Keller which compiled and summarized the works of Imam Nawawi and Imam Nahlawi on “Holding One’s Tongue” (Hifz al-Lisan). Insights from other texts such as Imam Ghazali’s Ihya Ulum al-Din, Imam Birgivi’s Tariqa Muhammadiyya and Imam Mawlud’s Maharim al-Lisan may also be included.

The sins of the tongue are a major source of the regrets and wrong that human beings commit in the life; the tongue can do something as good as enter one into eternal salvation or eternal punishment, and good and bad deeds in between. This is why this work is so important to study, in its condensed format.

The goal of this course is to understand the importance of holding one’s tongue, and learn to evaluate the status of the things we say in light of the Sacred Law of Islam. The purpose is to avoid those sins, in order to save oneself from the consequences of wrong use of the blessing of speech in both this life and the next. The objective of this is to draw nearer to Allah Most High and refrain from doing things that will makes us distant from Him.

This is a general level course that can be taken at any level and alongside any other courses.

This course belongs to the category of tarbiya, or inculcating essential religious character traits and a basic knowledge of morality in speech.

Because speech is perhaps our most common volitional act and we speak and write thousands of words each day, this course will connect the categories of sins of the tongue with modern-day applications such as using foul language, reading about backbiting on social media, lying on applications, and more. A Muslim is a person from who tongue and hands others are safe, and so this is about creating a holistic and healthy society in which speech is positive and constructive, by learning the few things to avoid when speaking.

Display on Both categories: No
Category Featured: No
Show in catalog: No
Weightage: 0
Skill Level: Beginner
Monday: No
Tuesday: Yes
Wednesday: No
Thursday: No
Friday: No
Saturday: No
Sunday: No
Class Time: 7:30 PM ET

This text crystallizes and encapsulates the Imam’s personal advice to a senior student, a scholar in his own right, who asks for brief guidance in what will ultimately benefit them in the next life. The goal of the course is to find out what pieces of knowledge will benefit one most in the next life, and what one really needs to know and practice. The benefit is that we are being advised by a classical scholar who is one of the best positioned in the nation to do so. Very rarely do we get personal coaching from such a consummate scholar of the past.


This course answers the questions of what we should really focus on, or put our hopes in. It reminds us why we seek knowledge in the first place, and where it should take us other than learning the material at hand. Often, we lose sight of the point of the information we learn and need to be reminded constantly that the bigger purpose is to please Allah and gain nearness to Him for our eventual return to Him in the afterlife. Keeping this in mind helps us live right here and now, and choose what is most beneficial for ourselves of the things we can spend our time doing and pursuing.


Display on Both categories: No
Category Featured: No
Show in catalog: No
Weightage: 0
Skill Level: Beginner
Monday: No
Tuesday: No
Wednesday: No
Thursday: No
Friday: No
Saturday: No
Sunday: No
About the text:

Ayyuhal-Walad, translated as “Dear Beloved Son”, is a short letter of advice written by Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali to a nameless senior student, in response to a question about what is the most beneficial of all religious knowledge to have and act upon for the Hereafter, out of all the many things that scholars learn.


The text covers the reality of knowledge and its true essence. It also informs about the critical importance of doing good actions and having a pure inner state in order for the knowledge to be worthwhile and applied. Without this, knowledge itself does not benefit and rather becomes a burden.

This text is significant because it is a summary and brief reminder of all one needs to succeed in this life and successfully spiritually travel to Allah for the next life. It also emphasizes the importance of fulfilling one’s worldly obligations and treating others well, rather than focusing only on oneself. This is ideal for any curriculum of Islamic knowledge because it reminds a student and a scholar that despite the many things we learn, we must be wary of the pitfalls and focus on what benefits in the Hereafter.


About the Author:

Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali, born in 450 AH in Nishapur (modern-day Iran), was a towering scholar who was acknowledged as the Imam of his time, especially in the regions of Khurasan and Iraq. Having risen to the highest position in scholarship, he was sought after by scholars and authored many texts in different subjects, namely legal theory, beliefs, refutation of heresies, and spirituality.


His magnum opus is Ihya Ulum al-Din, but he is also known for the Mustasfa in Usul (legal theory); the Iqtisad, and Tafriqa in Beliefs; Tahafut al Falasafa in philosophy; and smaller texts in spirituality such as this one. After reaching the height of scholarship and teaching at the prestigious Nizamiyya madrasa, he had a calling to leave that life and pursue purification of the heart in solitude. He traveled the world for a number of years until he returned finally to teaching and penned amazing works reflecting his new experiential spiritual perspective. Many scholars who followed took from his works and ground-breaking combination of practical and theoretical sciences and Islamic spirituality. He passed away in 505 AH.


Who is this course for:
  • This course is suitable for all audiences.
  • It is particularly beneficial for those who are seeking religious knowledge.
  • This course can also be taken by anyone who is interested in understanding Imam Ghazali’s over-arching views on the relationship between knowledge and spirituality.
  • It is a General-level course. Students do not require any prerequisite in order to successfully complete this course.
Learning outcomes:
  • Understand what true knowledge is, and what to prioritize in it.
  • Understand the pitfalls that a student or scholar should avoid.
  • Understand the relationship between spirituality and religious learning.
  • Apply the things that one learns to benefit them in the Hereafter.
  • Understand what really matters out of life and religion, and how to seek it.
  • Understand how the greatest scholars advised their students and emulate this.

Being a servant of the All-Merciful is an honor, and it is greater than just being a worshipper. It means that the servant is accepted by the All-Merciful, and made close to Him.


Consequently, this means that the servants themselves have mercy towards the creation of Allah. This manifests itself towards all of creation. Even when the uncouth deal with them they respond in ways that diffuse animosity and tension. They are characterized by their devotion to Allah, expressed through prayer and recitation of the book of Allah night after night.

They have the right balance of fear and hope, and constantly beseech the All-Merciful for protection from His punishment. They ask Allah to make their children and spouses a source of joy for them by making them obedient to Allah, and aids in obeying Allah.

Join Shaykh Faraz Rabbani as he eloquently shares the deeper meanings of these verses, bringing their content within reach. The reasons behind the study of such verses is expounded, and the benefits are beautifully explained in this course.

Display on Both categories: No
Category Featured: No
Show in catalog: Yes
Weightage: 0
Skill Level: Beginner
Monday: No
Tuesday: No
Wednesday: No
Thursday: No
Friday: No
Saturday: No
Sunday: No
Learning outcomes:

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

  • Understand who the servants of the All-Merciful are.
  • Recognize the honor of being a servant of the All-Merciful.
  • Summarize the qualities of the true servants of Allah.
  • Define the quality of servitude to Allah.
  • Explain the main benefits of the verses discussed in the course.
  • Develop the characteristics required of a true servant.

“If you did not sin Allah would have got rid of you and created people who sinned and then asked Allah for forgiveness, and then forgiven them.” (Muslim)


As humans, we are prone to mistakes. Allah, out of His pure generosity, has given us the means to benefit even after we sin: asking for forgiveness.

If we ask with sincerity Allah forgives our sins no matter how great or how many they are. But not all words of asking for forgiveness are equal. The Messenger of Allah taught us the foremost formula of asking Allah for forgiveness. Within it is a recognition of Allah’s power, mercy, the primordial pledge, a recognition of His blessings, one’s faults, and that none can actually forgive except Allah.

In this series, Shaykh Muhammad Abu Bakr Ba-Dhib explains this beautiful supplication of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and the topic of asking for forgiveness as a whole. The lessons are based on the book The Healing of Hearts and Eyesight in the Exposition of the Knowledges Contained in The Foremost Formula of Seeking Forgiveness, by Imam Ahmad ibn Zayn al-Habashi, which Shaykh Muhammad has produced a critical edition of.

Display on Both categories: No
Category Featured: No
Show in catalog: Yes
Weightage: 0
Skill Level: Beginner
Monday: No
Tuesday: No
Wednesday: No
Thursday: No
Friday: No
Saturday: No
Sunday: No
Learning outcomes:

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

  • Realize the mercy of Allah and increase in reverent awe towards Him.
  • Memorize the foremost formula for seeking forgiveness.
  • Understand the meanings and significance of the words of Sayyid al-istighfar.