The Method for Seeking Religious Knowledge for Those Who Cannot Access Scholars

Question:
A woman asks: I want to seek religious knowledge, but I do not know how to start, and it is not easy for me to contact scholars or go to places of learning. Please guide me to the method by which I can seek knowledge, and may Allah reward you with good.

Answer:
We said that seeking knowledge is of two types: knowledge that is obligatory, which is what a person’s religion does not stand without, and this is made easy, praise be to Allah, through concise and clear treatises that a person can read, either with a scholar or by himself, and if something is unclear to him, he asks the people of knowledge about it so that he knows how to be upon a correct creed and how to maintain the prayer, zakah, fasting, and Hajj. As for what goes beyond that, it is a collective obligation; if those who are sufficient perform it, the sin falls off the rest. The one who is unable to learn this second category is excused. He is excused. So the woman who is unable to learn the rulings of transactions, the rulings of inheritance, and the rulings of bequests is excused, and so is the man.