Where and to whom can I ask for answers to my questions and doubts?

Question

AsslamuAlaikum.

When searching for specific questions online, you come across so many islamic Q and A sites where it seems like some guy asked a question which was answered by a knowledgeable islamic professional. But when you have questions of your own, at least according to what I've seen, those websites don't take questions even though they seem to (I.e. they lie about it)

When you have doubts, you are supposed to ask people who know. So who are those people? How do I get to them? Surely they aren't around here where I live, and it's definitely not my parents.

There are so many islamic sites which claim to answer your questions but don't do so. And they are surprisingly the most famous one's.

Examples:

1) islamqa.info. This site has thousands of questions answered buy shake Muhammad saleh (I think). It has a link called "send a question" which when you click, says that you are asking at the wrong time and tells you to return at 1:00 makkah time. But when you do, it says "daily quota filled" and then asks you to return later. It's been like this for a year. I don't think islamic sites should lie like this. And yeah, their contact email returns you an automated reply.

2) 877-whyislam (www.whyislam.org). This site says it has a 24/7 talk on phone service for Canada and USA. I don't live in those countries so never mind. It does have a one on one discussion service through email, which asks you to fill a form, and then it says "sorry, service currently available for non Muslims only". I never tried putting false info in the form. They probably won't answer if I did that.

3) www.ask-a-muslim.com. You can ask questions to this site through email, and they never answer you back.

So can anyone tell me how do I get my questions answered and where or to whom do I ask?

Answer 1

As I said in my comment above: You can try to ask questions here or Youtube, Islamqa, Islamweb ask Imam ... but any site you may ask have the same level. If you seriously have questions you want to ask you should go and ask a Scholar, Sheikh or Mufti you trust!

Just to make you understand the necessity of asking a Mufti you trust: If you ask a Mufti your question(s), the first thing he would do is asking you to get all relevant information, to give you a fatwa on your purpose. Note that sometimes a Mufti needs much time to answer. So expecting a direct answer is also a wrong expectation. Note that scholars at the golden ages of Islam used to answer: I don't know or Allah knows best! even after days of research. So scholars who give you a direct answer on any kind of question seem to me doubtful.

On a online platform a Mufti would only be able to give a random fatwa as he can't get your feedback. As most people only want their questions to be answered without knowledge what a good or perfect answer needs so they give random information. Some is useful to give a fatwa, some not, we have the possibility of commenting to help you improve your question or focus it. But still we are not qualified to give fatwa.

Why a mufti you trust?
As two people may have different opinions (madhab Issue, different understanding of a religious text or source, ...) and maybe both can give you answers based on Quran and sunnah as both have knowledge you don't have. So fatwa is a matter of trust and authority and looking for this on the internet is basically wrong from the start.

And as Envayo may have indicated in his comment you should search your answer first by reading: try to learn more about your religion, the halal and haram and again ask scholars to check your understanding ... be mindful and critic!
The first is try to understand the Quran this means reading it, reading a tafsir, if you have some problems ask a scholar, you should always be mindful, accept what your heart, soul and mind accept and reject what they reject if they can't find consensus then you must search for a better or more helpful answer!

See also this post.

P.S.: The fact that anyone -including me- may have lots of reputation points on this site doesn't mean that all we post is the truth. I often find myself reviewing my answers and correcting some of my statements after consulting other sources or if I found out I was wrong.

And Allah knows best!

Answer 2

Very good question, let me answer as precise as possible. I start with a Holy Quran reference:

I created this universe and life, so to see who does the good deeds and follow good paractice (s) among you from each other. [Surah Mulk]

First of all every Muslim is a human and tries to understand & follow Allah given instructions in possible right way. One person may be very good in his office relations and duty hours, one may be very good in practices but not very good in social communication, one may have a limited knowledge (which applies to every one), one may be very good in knowledge but may have extreme thoughts about others.

So, every person/Muslim should learn from Holy Quran and follow as mush as he can. With this we may need to get right ideas and right understanding from every Mufti or Muslim brother we get in touch with. We should hear others experiences, knowledge, daily life good practices and evaluate in our studied Holy Quran context. Of you see it is right then follow. If it does not match or you find better alternative way then do that.

Allah in Quran has told to break our word if at any time we find a very right thing to do instead of sticking with old understanding (but it is related to deeds/practices and not money) which we feel that we should do. But should pay "kafara" of braking our words (qusam).

I am not very good in English so please verify and get the right understanding.

In today's word if you blindly follow one or two persons you may get distracted as they get distracted or forced to get distract. So do your study from Quran (with translation and tafseer) and then from any other book. Also you should not stick to a translation / tafseer of one author. You should read from different authors perspective and should at least read full Quran with translation and tafseer. No matter who translated. You can verify and get right understanding when you read or discuss with any one. As sometime we do not understand all stuff at a single shot.