Do you have a coach/teacher/guide?

[Kya]

Do you have someone who is teaching you to be better version of you tomorrow than you are today? It could be any type of teach from Islamic teacher to fitness coach to life coach. Someone helping you get to next level regardless of what it is you are focusing on.....Especially for those who are not student.

It seems hard to find coach/mentor/teacher as an adult, there is the embarrassment attached to just finding the right resource. I am not very good at teach yourself things from YouTube or online. So I always look for more traditional way of learning and enriching my life but with adult schedule I always hit road block whether its

- not enough time or it doesn't fit my after work schedule or its for kids & I feel awkward/self conscious

So what are you learning? from whom? or how are you learning? Do you have coach? How do you as an adult get yourself motivated to be in the student mode of learning & thriving instead of just surviving

[Abu julaybeeb]

Shaykh, older friend, parent

[Farah. A]

I have the same problem as you. I can't study alone.
That's why i am studying online but with a teacher.

[Abu julaybeeb]

Kaas go to halaqas and dars in masaajid
Masjid humayra is good.
also darul arkam
also tayiboon

they do stuff for sisters
look online


Personally when i first tried studying i found it very hard to stay focused by my self at home (i got easily distracted and had a low attention span) so i started going classes which helped alot you feel more motivated and encouraged

now alhamdullilah i can study at home
but sometimes u need a different environment or setting or person to push you
anyways id advice going masjid classes
but make sure if your learning aqeedah the aqeedah is good otherwise they will teach u some funky stuff
(id advice sticking to lectures online of known and recommended shuyookh for aqeedah if u cant find someone in real life whos manhan and aqeedah is thoroughly known)

for fiqh, hadith, usool al fiqh etc however there will be differences in even these topics of someone is ashari/matureedi or if someone is athari

[neelu]

During my student days there was a brother who was more like a mentor to me.  I learned a lot about Islam just through my conversations with him.  I hadn't been practising very long so hadn't read up that much so there was a lot of stuff I didn't know but wanted to figure out and as he was a convert, I wanted him to help me sort through what common traditions in the community are Islamic and what are cultural.  There were loads of issues he helped me out on.  The first and perhaps most fundamental one was that on some level I knew Islam is the truth, but I didn't know how to substantiate it so he lent me a book called "the road to faith" by samih atef el zein and it became my favourite book as it answered some fundamental questions about proving the existence of Allah (swt) through a better understanding of creation and the nature of man.  It helped form an excellent foundation for me to be convinced of Islam and not just holding on to some flaky blind faith.

He also helped in other ways like advising me on things about my life for example I was working at a supermarket so that entailed selling alcohol and he encouraged me to leave that place.  Aside from the lifestyle advice though, there were two really crucial and fundamental areas where he helped me improve my understanding of Islam: one as I said before was when he gave that book which explained so much about proving the existence of a Creator and that the miracle of the Quran.  The other thing he really helped me with was those niggly questions about Islam to do with stuff the kufaar use for mud slinging against Muslims; for example why does Islam allow people under 16 to get married, why was there slavery, why do women seem to get a raw deal such as not being allowed to become rulers and getting a smaller share of inheritance etc.  Not easy stuff to answer but made a huge difference.

[aelmo]

When I first left university I though that the learning was over and I couldn't handle any critisizim from anyone. But after a while I realized that there are so many things that I am clueless about and I don't want to accept living so ignorantly.

that being said, I still learn best on my own. Even at school, there were very few teachers who I was able to learn anything from. If I see something that I want to learn from somebody I will just observe them and figure it out. I used to go to a new school every year that always had a new curriculum so I never had any idea what was going on. The teachers would be like "remember how last year we learned.. " and i wasnt there the year before so i didnt understand what they wanted from me. I never learned how to learn from someone through that teacher student relationship.