Maktab Ul-IslamIslamic Library

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

Every door to authentic knowledge, under one roof.

A curated home for the best of Sunni Islam online — today's finest videos, podcasts worth your commute, answers to the hardest questions, free books, structured courses, and the Muslim businesses building our community.

The Debate Hall

Honest answers to hard questions

Doubts deserve better than dismissal. Every topic below links to sourced, scholarly responses — read both the claim and the answer.

Landmark debates

The exchanges that shaped Muslim–non-Muslim dialogue — from the classics to the front lines today.

The Sisters' Reference Desk

Answers to the questions women actually ask

Purity, prayer, fasting and the fiqh that arrives at inconvenient moments — organised by the question, with the school named on every answer. Plus the women teaching this material, at scholarly level.

How to read this shelf: the schools genuinely differ here, and the differences are material. The Hanafis hold a minimum of three days and a maximum of ten for hayd; the Shafi'is hold one day to fifteen. Rulings on yellow and brown discharge, on making up fasts missed through pregnancy or breastfeeding, and on zakat for gold you wear all diverge the same way. So every link above is labelled with the school it answers from, and this library issues no ruling of its own — including through a tool. We do not host a hayd calculator, because the calculation is precisely the part scholars disagree about. For anything that doesn't match the textbook case, ask a qualified teacher.

The Courtyard

Muslim life & businesses

A free directory of 75 Muslim-owned and Muslim-focused businesses, apps and organisations across modest fashion, home & gifts, books & learning, halal food, halal finance, apps, travel, community & charity, kids & family, and mental health.

Submit your business →

Modest fashion

🧕Modanisa

The world's largest modest-fashion marketplace.

Shop →
👗Haute Hijab

Premium hijabs and modest essentials.

Shop →
🧥Alhannah

Islamic clothing for men, women & children.

Shop →
🥻Muslimah Collection

Abayas, hijabs and modest essentials.

Shop →
🛍Um Anas

Modest fashion and Muslim lifestyle essentials.

Shop →
🧵Birr Necessities

Ethically sourced, handcrafted Islamic apparel.

Shop →
🪡Darzah

Ethical fashion & hand-embroidered Palestinian tatreez.

Shop →
👔alqamees

Bespoke thobes and qamees for men.

Shop →
🧣Awraaf

Handcrafted Moroccan djellabas, qaftans & abayas.

Shop →
🧢Shukr Clothing

Contemporary modest fashion for men & women.

Shop →

Home & gifts

🎁Takva

Prayer mats, gifts and modern Muslim lifestyle.

Shop →
🏺Andalucia

Islamic gifts, prayer rugs and home pieces.

Shop →
🖼Islamic Wall Art

Calligraphy wall art for the Muslim home.

Shop →
Quran Trace

An authenticated tracing mushaf in naskh calligraphy.

Shop →
🧴Elegance Beard

Natural, handmade halal beard care.

Shop →
🌿Nayfeh

Plant-based Palestinian skin & hair care.

Shop →
🧺Sunbula

Handmade fairtrade gifts from Palestinian artisans.

Shop →

Books & learning

📚Zaytuna Bookstore

Curated books & gifts from Zaytuna College.

Browse →
📖Quilliam Press

Publisher of eloquent, spiritual Islamic works.

Browse →
📕Dar al Taqwa

London Islamic bookshop and publisher.

Browse →
📓The Dua Journal

Guided journals for dua and reflection.

Shop →
My Qalam Academy

Learn traditional Arabic calligraphy online.

Learn →
📗Tertib Publishing

Islamic books & educational resources from Malaysia.

Browse →
🗣Mango Languages

Learn conversational Levantine Arabic.

Learn →

Halal food & drink

🍫Peace by Chocolate

Handcrafted chocolate from a Syrian refugee family.

Shop →
🌴The Date Project

The finest Medjoul dates, delivered.

Shop →
🫒Zaytoun

Fair-trade olive oil & fine foods from Palestine.

Shop →
🐫Juba Farms

Pure camel milk & meat, ethically raised in the US.

Shop →
🍬Chewwies

Halal, sugar-free gummy vitamins for kids.

Shop →
🥩Halal Pastures

Organic, grass-fed halal meat shipped in the US.

Shop →
🔪The Halal Butchery

Premium halal meat, next-day UK delivery.

Shop →
🫙Al'Ard

Palestinian olive oil, za'atar & heritage products.

Shop →

Halal finance

📈Wahed

Halal investing made simple — Shariah-screened portfolios.

Invest →
🔍Zoya

Check any stock, ETF or fund for Shariah compliance.

Screen →
🏛Cur8 Capital

Sharia-compliant investment deals for Muslim investors.

Explore →
💹Amal Invest

Invest in halal versions of popular index funds.

Invest →
💳algbra

An ethical money app — spend, save, track responsibly.

Explore →
🏦UIF

Sharia-compliant home & commercial financing in the US.

Finance →
📊Musaffa

Shariah-compliant stock & ETF research platform.

Research →
🤝The LifeDAO

A community takaful alternative to life insurance.

Explore →
🏡Neeyah

Halal co-ownership home financing across the US.

Finance →
🔑Offa

The UK's first Sharia-compliant bridging finance.

Finance →
🏠Manzil

Halal mortgages & financial services for Canadians.

Finance →
🪙Minted

Buy & hold physical gold and silver, effortlessly.

Explore →
🔏pfida

Halal mortgages & savings — no debt, no interest.

Finance →
🧾Tamara

Sharia-compliant instalment payments.

Explore →
🎓Islamic Finance Guru

Plain-English financial education for Muslims.

Learn →

Apps

🎙Tarteel

AI that follows your Qur'an recitation and aids memorisation.

Get app →
🕋Salam App

Prayer times, adhan, qibla and an offline Qur'an — free, no ads, no tracking.

Get app →
🔔Bayaan

Islamic adhan & daily teachings for your smart speaker.

Get app →
📱Quranly

Build a daily Qur'an reading habit, one streak at a time.

Get app →
🎬Qalbox

A streaming library of Islamic films & series.

Watch →

Travel

Halal Travel Guide

Trips and guides for Muslim travellers.

Travel →
🏝HalalBooking

Halal-friendly hotels and holidays worldwide.

Book →
🕌Islamic Landmarks

Discover and learn about Islamic heritage sites.

Explore →
🧭Pilgrim

Guides and instant answers for Hajj & Umrah.

Explore →

Community & charity

🤲LaunchGood

Crowdfunding for the global Muslim community.

Give →
💝Feeling Blessed

Simple, transparent donations and sadaqah.

Donate →
🦯Islam by Touch

Free Braille Qur'ans for the blind community.

Support →
💬Muslim Youth Helpline

Free, confidential support for young Muslims (UK).

Get help →
💻Deen Developers

A tech-for-good community building beneficial products.

Join →
🤲🏽ImamConnect

Find trustworthy, faith-based service providers.

Connect →
🧑🏽‍🏫Here For Youth

Training & coaching youth workers in the UK.

Learn →
🎟MuslimEventz

A marketplace and ticketing platform for Muslim events.

Explore →
🌎El Encuentro

Community for Spanish-speaking Muslims.

Join →
📔Towards Faith

Guided Muslim productivity journals & planners.

Shop →

Kids & family

🧱Ummah Blocks

Lego-compatible sets of the Kaaba & Masjid an-Nabawi.

Shop →
🧩Muslim Blocks

Educational building sets of Islamic landmarks.

Shop →
🌙Noor Kids

Islamic children's books & stories kids actually enjoy.

Shop →
🎈Imaan Kidz

Faith-inspired gifts, toys & activity kits for kids.

Shop →
🔤Quranle

A daily word game that teaches Qur'anic Arabic.

Play →
📘Muslim Children's Books

Fun, relatable Islamic books for children.

Shop →

Mental health

🕊Safa Therapy

Personalised online counselling for mental wellness.

Book →
☎️Naseeha

A non-profit helpline supporting Muslim mental wellness.

Get help →
🌱Maristan

Holistic mental & spiritual health for Muslims.

Explore →
🕌Your business here

Muslim-owned? Get listed in the Courtyard directory.

Apply →
Giving Well

Give with your eyes open

Where to give, how to check a charity before you do, and how to support the people whose free work fills this library. We link and explain — we never take a cut, and we never calculate your zakat for you.

Start here

🌍LaunchGood

The largest Muslim crowdfunding platform — thousands of campaigns you can filter by cause and country.

Browse causes →
🤍Ehsan · إحسان

Saudi Arabia's national donation platform — government-regulated, with vetted campaigns.

Give →
🧮National Zakat Foundation

UK zakat collected and distributed to Muslims locally — plus a zakat calculator run by specialists.

Calculate & give →
🕌Zakat Foundation of America

US zakat and sadaqah, with their own calculator and a clear breakdown of the eight categories.

Calculate & give →

Support the work in this library

📄Yaqeen Institute

The research papers behind much of the Debate Hall — free because donors pay for them.

Support →
🧠Sapience Institute

The Divine Reality and the free dawah training courses this library sends people to.

Support →
📗Quran.com

Ad-free, no tracking, 90+ translations — run by a non-profit on donations alone.

Support →
🌐iERA

The dawah research and street-outreach training in the Dawah Desk.

Support →
🎙Muslim Central

80,000+ lectures, free and ad-free, for 300+ speakers. Entirely donation-funded.

Support →
📚Ummatics

Research on the ummah's collective future, linked from the Study Hall.

Support →
🎧The Thinking Muslim

Listener-funded — the podcast at the top of the Listening Room.

Support →
🌸Rabata

Women's Islamic scholarship and teacher training, by women, for women.

Support →

Check before you give

🇬🇧Charity Commission

Look up any registered UK charity: accounts, trustees, and whether filings are overdue.

Search the register →
🧭Charity Navigator

Independent US ratings on finances, accountability and transparency.

Check a charity →
🔎GuideStar / Candid

Raw US non-profit filings — read the Form 990 rather than the marketing page.

Look up filings →
🇨🇦CRA Charities Listing

Canada's official register — confirm a charity is registered before donating.

Search →

On zakat: we deliberately don't host a zakat calculator. The nisab threshold, whether it follows gold or silver, and what counts as zakatable wealth — pensions, crypto, business stock, debts owed to you — genuinely differ between the madhhabs. A calculator has to pick one school to produce a number at all, which is a ruling wearing the costume of a tool. Use a calculator run by people who state their position, and ask a scholar for anything unusual.

The Answer Desk

Where to send your question

If two of these give you different answers to the same question, neither is necessarily wrong — they are usually answering from different schools. Each service below is labelled with the school and orientation it answers from, so you know what you are reading before you act on it.

One thing worth knowing: a fatwa is an answer to a specific person in a specific situation — it is not legislation. A ruling given to someone else may not transfer to you, and a service answering from one school may differ from your own. Where your circumstances are unusual, ask a teacher who can hear the details rather than searching for the answer you prefer.

The Front Desk

Questions about this library

What Maktab Ul-Islam is, who it is for, and how the shelves are put together.

What is Maktab Ul-Islam?

Maktab Ul-Islam is a free, curated Islamic library. It gathers the best of Sunni Islam online in one place: video lectures picked daily, podcasts, sourced answers to common doubts, thousands of free books and Quran study tools, structured courses, dawah resources, and a directory of Muslim-owned businesses. There is no paywall and no account is required.

Is everything on the site free?

Yes. Every resource in the library is free to read, watch or listen to. Maktab Ul-Islam does not sell courses or memberships. The videos, books and courses belong to their original creators and institutions, who keep full credit for their work; the library simply builds the shelves.

Which school of thought does the library follow?

Everything is curated from mainstream Sunni scholarship (Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah). Where fiqh is concerned, material is drawn from the four recognised madhhabs — Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali — and legitimate differences of opinion are presented rather than flattened into a single ruling.

I have doubts about Islam. Where should I start?

Start in the Debate Hall. It covers the questions asked most often — the existence of God and the problem of evil, the preservation of the Quran, the Trinity and the place of Jesus (peace be upon him) in Islam, hadith scepticism and orientalist claims, and modern objections about women and sharia. Each topic links to sourced scholarly responses from Sapience Institute, Yaqeen Institute, the Islamic Discourse Initiative and others, so you can read the claim and the answer side by side.

I just became Muslim — what should I read first?

Begin in the Study Hall. The New Muslim Guide is written for the first days after taking shahada, How To Muslim covers the practical first years in plain language, and Nawara Academy offers a free structured video curriculum in Aqeedah, Tafsir, Seerah, Arabic and Fiqh when you are ready to study in order.

How are the resources chosen?

Every item is hand-picked rather than pulled in by an algorithm. A resource is included when it traces its claims back to the Quran, authentic hadith or recognised scholarship, when it is freely accessible, and when it treats the reader as capable of handling evidence. Video picks refresh daily; the reference shelves are reviewed as sources change.

Can I suggest a resource or list my business?

Yes. Suggestions for the library and applications for the Courtyard business directory can both be sent to elnahwyo@gmail.com. Listings in the Courtyard are free for Muslim-owned businesses serving the community.