Scholarship and oversight
What we teach, and who checks it
Parents trusting a school with their children's faith deserve to know exactly what it teaches and how it guards against mistakes. This page sets out our creed, how we handle the four madhhabs, how every lesson is reviewed, and the rules we follow for sources and media.
Creed
Sunni creed, taught fairly
SII teaches Sunni creed as the Athari, Ash'ari, and Maturidi schools share it. Our younger grades' creed units use the framing of the widely accepted creed of Imam al-Tahawi, which all three schools share: we affirm what Allah affirmed for Himself, without likening Him to His creation and without denying. The questions the schools answer differently, such as how to read the verses on the divine attributes, how innovations (bid'ah) are classified, and how far reasoned argument (kalam) may go in matters of belief, wait for grades 11 and 12, where they are taught fairly, treating all three schools the same way, by teachers from more than one school.
No lesson in our Aqeedah (creed) course reaches a child until a scholar on our Scholarly Review Board signs it. Our review rules, written into our software, mark each unit by what it teaches. A younger-grade creed unit they mark as teaching Allah's names and attributes, the categories of tawhid, innovation, or how faith and reason agree needs two signatures, from scholars of different creedal schools, and so does every unit they mark as a question the schools answer differently. Creed also comes up in other subjects, such as character education, where a content reviewer checks every lesson and a scholar signs wherever our rules call for one. Our scholars are still reviewing the drafts, and we widen these rules whenever a review finds a unit they missed.
A correction we made. Our founder's original curriculum outline filed the Ash'ari and Maturidi schools under a heading about deviant sects. That was wrong: these schools are part of Ahl al-Sunnah, and they are the creed of a great many Muslim families. We corrected it before publishing anything. A later review found that some draft units for the younger grades still explained the divine attributes and innovation (bid'ah) in one school's terms. We retitled those units and rewrote their summaries in the Tahawi framing, moved the lessons on where the schools differ to grades 11 and 12, and wrote review rules that make each unit they mark on these topics need two signatures from different creedal schools. The lessons are still drafts, and none reaches a child until it is signed. The original titles are kept in our records, so every change can always be checked.
Worship
The four madhhabs, all respected
A child learning to pray needs one clear way to pray, and it should be the way their family prays. So each family records its madhhab, and our practical worship lessons (wudu, salah, fasting, and the time of Asr) show your family's school. We begin with Hanafi and Shafi'i lessons, with Maliki and Hanbali lessons to follow. Each version is checked and signed by a jurist of that school, never by the person who wrote it.
- Your child is never marked wrong for following a recognized position of the four Sunni schools.
- Nothing in a worship lesson is called a "mistake" unless it breaks the validity of the act or is disliked in all four schools. Matters of valid difference are taught as "the schools differ."
- Families with no preference see every version written so far, side by side and labeled. If a lesson does not yet have a version for your family's school, your child sees every written version, with a note that your school's position may differ.
Review
How lessons are reviewed
Review is tiered, so that serious questions get serious attention and routine lessons still get checked.
Every lesson
A content reviewer with formal study in the Islamic sciences checks every source and the wording. The Scholarly Review Board samples at least 10% of routine lessons.
Creed and rulings
Every creed lesson, every fiqh ruling, and every flagged unit needs a board member's signature. Contested units need two signatures, from different madhhabs or creedal schools.
Specialist review
Every unit in our Mental Health subject, and any unit elsewhere on anxiety, depression, self-harm, body image, trauma, or grief, needs a licensed clinician. Lessons for girls on purification and puberty need a woman scholar.
The Scholarly Review Board
The board is being formed. It will have 3 to 5 paid scholars, including at least one woman scholar, jurists of at least two madhhabs, and at least one member who has taught children in the United States. Members are named publicly only with their written consent and after their credentials are verified.
Credit lines show roles
Each lesson names the roles that approved it, for example "reviewed by an SII content reviewer; approved by the Scholarly Review Board," with the date. We show roles rather than names so no scholar is targeted for a lesson on a difficult topic.
Teachers refer questions they cannot answer to the board through our platform.
Sources
Every hadith shows its source and its grade
Every hadith, report of the Companions (athar), and du'a from the Sunnah in our lessons appears as a cited source: its collection, its reference number, and its grade. A scholar's words appear with the work they come from and where in it. If we cannot cite it properly, it is not shown.
- We never teach a weak report as the words of the Prophet ﷺ without saying so, and weak reports are never used to establish a ruling or a point of creed.
- A fabricated report appears only in a lesson that teaches how fabrication is detected.
- Our editors keep a list of well-known sayings that are weak or have no sound basis, including some that appeared on our own old website, and every lesson is checked against it.
- English renderings are labeled "translation of the meaning."
- Du'as written for a course are labeled as written for the course, so no child mistakes them for the words of the Prophet ﷺ.
The Qur'an text
Handled with care, and checked by machine
The text of the Qur'an is never typed into a lesson. Lessons refer to ayat by surah and number, and the text is shown from a verified Uthmani text with its matching font, checked character by character by an automatic test, so no mark is ever lost. Qur'an text is never written by AI. We teach the recitation of Hafs from 'Asim.
Personal rulings
We teach; we do not issue fatwas
SII teaches Islam; it does not issue fatwas on personal matters. For a ruling about your own situation, please ask your local imam or a scholar you trust.
Sensitive topics
Held back, taught with care, or taught at home
- Topics that need maturity and careful framing (including criminal penalties in Islamic law, sexuality, rulings on warfare, apostasy, declaring others unbelievers, other contested events in early Islamic history, Israel and Palestine, and comparisons between creedal schools) are held from younger students. They are taught only in grades 11 and 12, and only after two board signatures.
- The civil wars among the Companions (the Battles of the Camel and Siffin), the events around them, including the rise of the Khawarij, and Karbala are taught from grade 9, never earlier, and only after two board signatures, in the Sunni way that honors all the Companions.
- Every unit in our Mental Health subject, and any unit in another subject on anxiety, depression, self-harm, body image, trauma, or grief, needs a licensed clinician's review. Every such lesson ends by reminding the child they can talk to a parent or advisor, or call or text 988, with a "Talk to someone" link once the child has their own sign-in.
- Puberty and purification are taught in grades 4 to 6, in single-sex groups, with a 14-day parent preview and an "I will teach this at home" choice.
- Reflection questions never ask a child to reveal family conflict or their own mental-health struggles.
AI drafting
Where AI helps, and where it never goes
Some lesson drafts are prepared with AI assistance. Every such lesson is checked line by line by a qualified reviewer and approved before any student sees it, and it says so publicly: "Drafted with AI assistance; reviewed and approved by our Islamic studies reviewer," with the date. Qur'an text, hadith text, and our new Qur'an and Arabic lessons are never written by AI.
No AI ever sees your child's work or information, and no AI grades, tutors, or listens to your child. Our AI policy.
Media standards
What you will never see or hear in our lessons
- No depiction of any prophet, of the family of the Prophet ﷺ, or of the Companions, in any form, including drawings, silhouettes, and AI images.
- No figurative images of angels.
- No instrumental music in any lesson, video, advertisement, or sound in our software. Voice-only nasheed and Qur'an recitation are welcome.
- Printed pages that contain ayat carry a note asking that they be handled and disposed of respectfully.