How do I know whose religious advice to trust?
Ask people who actually studied, and be most careful with the ones who are quickest to answer. The Qur’an instructs asking those who know, and the tradition treats “I don’t know” as a mark of learning rather than a failure of it. Confidence is not evidence of knowledge, and a large audience is not evidence of either.
The four schools concur on this.
This is among the most useful things to sort out early, because almost everything else you learn will come through somebody.
The instruction itself is explicit: “And We sent not before you except men to whom We revealed Our message. So ask the people of the message i.e., former scriptures if you do not know.” (Qur’an 16:43)
And repeated: “And We sent not before you, O Muḥammad, except men to whom We revealed the message, so ask the people of the message i.e., former scriptures if you do not know.” (Qur’an 21:7)
What to look for:
- Actual study. Who did they learn from, for how long, and in what? Traditional Islamic learning is transmitted through teachers, and a scholar can normally tell you exactly whose classes they sat in.
- Willingness to say “I don't know.” This is the strongest single signal. The early scholars are remembered for it — Mālik reportedly answered a large number of questions put to him with exactly that.
- Distinguishing agreement from opinion. Someone who tells you where scholars differ, rather than presenting one view as *the* Islamic position, is being straight with you.
- Asking about your circumstances before answering something that depends on them.
What to be wary of:
- Instant answers to complicated questions.
- Rulings delivered to a general audience on matters that turn on individual facts — which is much of what circulates online.
- Anyone whose main claim is that everyone else is wrong.
- Confidence in place of citation. Ask which verse, which hadith, which collection, which scholar.
A note on scale, because it is specific to now. Nothing about a large following indicates religious knowledge; the platforms that distribute Islamic content optimise for engagement, and certainty engages better than nuance. The most careful scholars are frequently the least visible.
Practically: find one or two people with real training whom you can actually ask — a local imam, a teacher, a study circle — and take your questions there rather than to a search engine. An app like this one can orient you; it cannot know your situation, and it should not be your last stop on anything that matters.
- Qur’anQur’an 16:43
- Qur’anQur’an 21:7