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S1E9 - Why Do Muslims Experience Doubt? | DoubleTake
It can often be unclear what causes someone to struggle with their faith and identity as a Muslim. The roots of religious doubt can vary from person to person, and they manifest in ways that may be contrary to popular belief. To better understand this phenomenon, Dr. Youssef Chouhoud fielded a survey of over 600 Muslims across America and asked them to share their opinions on various social, political, and religious issues.
In this episode, host Mohamad Zaoud sits down with Dr. Chouhoud to understand his findings on the sources, subjects, and manifestations of religious doubt outlined in his Yaqeen Institute paper "What Causes Muslims to Doubt Islam? A Quantitative Analysis."
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Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. It's not uncommon to experience doubt in your faith at some point in your life. In fact, it's an experience that a lot of Muslims can relate to. But why does it happen? What are the things that can cause Muslims to doubt Islam, to the point that they no longer identify as being Muslims? And what can we do about them? Welcome to Double Take, a podcast by Yaqeen Institute about the questions and ideas around Islam and Muslims that give us pause. Remember to subscribe to the show on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. I'm Muhammad Daud and today on the show, we're exploring why Muslims experience religious doubt. You may have a friend or a child going through some serious religious doubt, or you yourself may be going through a cycle of doubt. So with me is Dr. Yusuf Shuhud, who's done proper quantitative research on the topic and published his findings in the Yaqeen Institute paper, What Causes Muslims to Doubt Islam? A Quantitative Analysis. Dr. Shuhud, welcome to Double Take and Assalamu Alaikum. Walaikum Assalam, Mufti Lala Barakatuh. Thanks for having me. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us. Dr. Shuhud, you're an assistant professor of political science at Christopher Newport University. You've got a PhD and master's in political science and you've done a fairly diligent job on the topic of religious doubt within Muslims. So thank you so much for joining us. It's my pleasure. As Muslims, we aim to be certain in our faith and to build Yaqeen, pardon the pun, certainly it's about building certainty in our faith. But of course, we're human. So it's natural to have questions and doubts and we're in the process of learning. I want to know what are the causes of these doubts. But before we get into that, can you help me just quantify or qualify
what is religious doubt? What's that point of religious doubt that you went out and looked for? Sure. Yeah, that's always a great place to begin. It's where I think we fail to really appreciate how much we take certain things for granted in terms of our understanding of a term versus somebody else's understanding of a term. And so it's really important to kind of lay the foundation before we get too deep into the conversation. And as you can imagine, the notion of religious doubt can take on a number of different forms. And so for this initial study, where we were basically just trying to create a baseline understanding of religious doubt, our conception of religious doubt was that kind of doubt that really takes you to the cusp of leaving Islam to where you're really just kind of shaken and you're a man and you're not really you're not really too sure what the road has ahead for you. And so that's the conception that we settled on. Certainly, there are different conceptions of doubt that you can go ahead and study. There's a version of doubt where it's actually kind of encouraged in a way in Islam, in that a doubt that's more akin to, say, curiosity, where Islam doesn't shy away
from questions and from seeking knowledge, obviously. But there are the doubt that we wanted to focus on initially, if for no other reason than the fact that it's a bit easier to really kind of wrap your head around and ultimately quantify, is this kind of extreme form of doubt, where it really is that you're kind of on the precipice of perhaps kind of leaving the faith. So what really kind of pushes you that far? That's what we sought to get a handle on with the initial qualitative study, where we asked imams and community leaders what their experiences are, and then ultimately the follow-up quantitative study that you mentioned. So there's no doubt, if you don't mind. So the way we're defining religious doubt for the purpose of this podcast and for your research is it's not the general curiosity that someone has, it's what basically pushes people over the edge or takes them to the edge, and that edge is the edge of their identifying as Muslims or practicing Islam. Is that correct? Yes, no, that's absolutely correct. And even in that definition, which I would say was spot on, even there you can kind of poke holes a little bit. The notion of identifying as a Muslim, I mean, do you need to kind of identify consciously as a Muslim in order to... All this is to say that the conversation that we're having today has a very kind of defined
scope, but there is a whole ocean of information that we still have yet to plume. And I think that's kind of important to just kind of put on the table right at the beginning. Fair enough. In preparation for this podcast and just following your works, you have a serious frustration with the way people talk about doubts and the way people generalize generally in Muslim communities. So before we even go through the doubts that you looked into and the sources of doubts, I'd like to ask you a question, which is what are those areas around religious doubt in our Muslim communities that you feel is so problematic? What is it that frustrates you about us discussing religious doubts? So I guess I could best answer this in kind of a general sense. I think what frustrates me a lot about the discourse that takes place within our community really writ large is that there is simply too much confidence in the way that certain leaders believe that they kind of understand the community and what is kind of going on in the community. And that confidence is not born out of much in the way of really kind of systematic engagement with the issue or with the experiences of the community. It's just an educated hunch and an informed opinion in the sense that they are perhaps a knowledgeable person.
And they're immersed in the community, but a certain part of the community. They're interacting with just their followers, right? No, absolutely. I mean, basically what it comes down to is, I guess the best way to kind of get this across is to talk to you a little bit, if I can kind of go off on a quick tangent about why exactly I became a social scientist. And the reason why I became a social scientist is in part, but in no small part, due to the fact that I would kind of go to Jum'ahs, I would go to these Halakas, and invariably, almost, there would be a point where somebody standing on the minbar would say something with such confidence that I knew to be far more complicated than they are presenting it, or just flat out wrong. And not with regards to Islam. Yeah, I was gonna say, we're not talking about them quoting a hadith or a verse from the Quran and being confident about that. It's about their analysis of the Muslim community, right? Absolutely, yes. So their analysis, their interpretation of the social aspect, right, of being a Muslim in America, or the political aspect of being a Muslim in America, right? Because you have expertise in the religious aspect of how to be a Muslim does not necessarily translate into those other spheres. Certainly, you can inform those other spheres and inform our understanding of those other spheres. But you are not just by dint of having a degree from Al-Azhar, a political scientist, right? That you understand the complexities of American Muslims. That's just not how it works. And so it was very clear to me that there was a lot of that going on.
And I would always, you know, it would just kind of irk me. And so what I try to do is, I try to be very kind of systematic in the way I approach an issue. I try to be very qualified. And, you know, for better or worse, you're going to hear a whole lot of qualification on my part throughout the next few minutes. Because I know that, you know, the deeper I get into an issue, the more humility I have with how much I actually know. Because there's just, you know, you come up to a body of water and you think it's, you know, like a puddle and you realize it's an ocean. And so this is, you know, how I think we should approach our understanding of these very kind of complex and complicated issues. And a lot of times what happens instead is that we get offered these very neat narratives, very, you know, just so stories about, you know, this is why the youth is, you know, going astray. Without really, you know, kind of interrogating, you know, yes, you know, that could be part of what's going on. But, you know, that could actually be causing harm. You know, that kind of, you know, very, very well packaged explanation about what's going on. Because a lot of times, you know, what really we need to pay attention to is kind of the nuances, right? The kind of the gradations of our community, right? We are the most diverse religious community, right, in terms of racial and ethnic background. And how we believe that that diversity just kind of falls by the wayside when we give these kind of blanket prescriptions about what's going on with American Muslims is just beyond me, right? So we need to be kind of cognizant of that diversity, of that complexity, when we speak about these issues, including
religious stuff. And the risk, I guess, of those blanket statements being misinterpreted is even like, is even worse when your khutbah or your sermon is recorded and people are listening from very different contexts. Like someone listening to a recording from Dallas about specific issues related to the Muslims in Dallas, and they're listening to it from the UK or from East Africa, wherever, right? So, absolutely. Yeah, no, context matters. Absolutely. So I haven't done the research that you did. But I'm going to throw a few statements, right, as to what I think, you know, or I've heard, leads Muslims to the edge, right? And the way I'm going to pose these statements, I want you to kind of qualify them or assess them. We, so I'm going to do it in a little bit of a different way. We had a Prime Minister in Australia a couple of years ago, and she was standing, Julia Gillard, she was at a press conference. And she was asked a question point blank. And her answer was, I'm not saying it's everything. I'm not saying it's nothing. I'm saying it's something. Okay, it was a true, good political answer. And so, so that's the spectrum I'd like to use today, if that's okay. No, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just told you, I love qualification. Yeah, so this is perfect. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna say a few statements. Either that I think lead Muslims to the edge, or that I've heard people say, that's what's leading Muslims to doubt their faith, and therefore, either leave Islam or just not practice. And then after we do this exercise, I want to hear from you. In comparison to that, what were what were your findings with the proper study? So I'm gonna, I'm gonna start off with
Muslims doubt their faith, or they stop practicing because they just want to feel like they just want to fit in and get approval from mainstream society and non Muslims. It's not nothing. But I would say it becomes closer to something, if you are of a certain age, right? I mean, because, I mean, listen, one of the things that that that that similarly kind of confuses me about, you know, anybody trying to analyze American Muslims is that they think that they are the this, this, this kind of unique community that isn't kind of susceptible to the social forces that act upon everybody else in society. And so listen, we are going to be teenagers at some point. And teenagers are very kind of angsty, very insecure. And and that's just because they're not being a teenager, regardless of where you are. And so yeah, so perhaps, you know, this notion of fitting in and everything, you know, it acts upon you perhaps a bit more, right when you're in those those kind of formative, you know, adolescent, you know, kind of late teen years. But perhaps I think it is it is less of a consideration. Once you become kind of more yourself, like everybody does, right? Once you kind of hit your 20s, hit your 30s. Sure. So it's so it's a maybe a something, right? Maybe? Yeah, yeah, maybe a something. Okay. So Muslims leave Islam because they're too lazy to learn about their religion. Oh, that's nothing. That's nothing. It's not that they're too lazy to learn, perhaps they are too
lazy to learn your particular interpretation, or they are too lazy to learn in the way that you think is the way to learn about Islam. But you got to meet people where they are, right? You can't just you got to, you know, to put it differently, you got to know your audience. If I was going to give a talk at a masjid, I'm not going to start, you know, kind of quoting political scientists and you know, citing esoteric research from, you know, the early 1920s. No, I'm gonna, I'm gonna talk to them like a person, right? So if you're gonna, you know, if you think somebody's being lazy, perhaps you're being a little too lazy, and not thinking of a different way to reach them. So another reason some people think that Muslims doubt their religion is that they're just not practicing enough. They're not praying enough. They're not reading enough Quran. That is something from one perspective, and everything from another perspective, I would say. Because, I mean, one of the things that I always want to try to make clear when I talk about these issues is that I study Muslims. I do not study Islam. Right? So everything that I am saying is just a reflection of what the data is telling me about the lived experiences of American Muslims. I don't make any normative judgments on what Islam says or anything along those lines. So what we do know, right, from, you know, basic teachings of Islam is that, yes, the more you, you know, you practice, the closer you get to Allah, the perhaps easier your road will be then to perhaps accept the faith. Obviously, at the end of the day, everything comes to Hidayah, and Hidayah is from Allah, right? You know, so that is, so from that perspective, it's everything.
Putting solely my social scientist hat on, I think it's something, but I really qualified something in that there's no way that I can really kind of pinpoint, right, a particular act, a particular behavior, having an impact on one's belief, absent all the other behaviors, right? Because I'm not going to, you know, put an experiment and say, listen, I don't want you to fast. I don't want you to make Salawat. You know, just kind of pray Fajr and let's see how that works. And then we'll have you pray Fajr and pray Duh. And then we'll see, you know, if you improve, right? I can't do that. Right? And so absent that, if somebody is playing, they're probably doing some other things. And so it's really hard to disentangle what's going on there. Okay, last one before we get to the actual results, right? Muslims feel, or those who doubt Islam within the Muslims, and those who are on the edge and want to leave Islam or don't practice, just feel like Islam is irrelevant to their lives, and that they feel that Islam needs to be modernized and reformed for it to be relevant. That, uh, it's, it's something in that, but not, not in the way I think that some people think it is. It's not in the, in the way that these very prominent, you know, ex-Muslims kind of make it out to be, you know, that they took this very kind of rational course that led them to realize, right, that Islam was not the way. It's not, it's not, it's not, I don't think that's, that's, that's what's motivating a lot of folks to kind of, you know, doubt. I think, I think what is, like, put differently, you know, it's not that they are articulating it in that, in that way,
right? But perhaps their actions speak louder than, you know, that articulation. And at the end of the day, yes, if you do not think that Islam kind of fits into your conception of what makes, you know, a good life, then yeah, that's going to be a really big problem for you to, to remain Muslim in that sense, right? So, so it's something, but not in the kind of, you know, kind of high minded way that some, you know, kind of prominent folks talk about it. So, I mean, the reason we went through that exercise is just for our listeners, to appreciate the level of nuance you've given this topic, right? Mashallah, you've done the research, quantitative research and qualitative. And I think, you know, I think, you know, and so I'm anxiously awaiting the results from you to hear them directly from you. Just help us understand the categories based on your research that, that lead people to the edge. What are the causes of doubt in Muslims that lead people to the edge? Sure. So I mentioned that we did two studies. And so before the quantitative study, what we did was we reached out to leaders in the community and, you know, put to them this notion of doubt that we started off the conversation with, right? The kind of doubt that really pushes you, you know, kind of all the way to the edge, and ask them to consider the times when they spoke to somebody in that state, and then ask them, okay, what, what, what were the circumstances around them coming to you? Right?
So, basically, you know, after going through a set of, you know, I believe it was 32 interviews, with a really wide swath of religious leaders, we were able to kind of analyze those interviews, and kind of put the various reasons, the various motivations for doubt into three general buckets. So the first one, the first category is moral and social concerns. So these are things such as, you know, perhaps you're uneasy with how it, you know, the teachings about how the role of women in Islam, right, how that has been taught to you, right? You're kind of uneasy with that, right? Or it could be, you know, something along the lines of the actions of certain people, right, or the hypocrisy of certain people that claim to be representing Islam. Obviously, in a post 9-11 context, that bears large. Do you mind if we just drill a little bit into those just so I can understand them? Sure, of course. So you're saying, in one bucket that leads people to the edge, falls people's understanding of the role of women in Islam, right, or in Muslim life? Yeah, so that's one of the things, yeah, so that's one of the things that can fall into this general bucket of kind of moral or social concerns, as we put it. Like, is that the whole kind of message that, oh, this is a misogynistic religion, that this is a religion for men, not for women? Yeah, no, absolutely. Or that the hijab is repressive and things like that, right?
So, again, you know, it can be one's perception of that teaching, or it can be, you know, perhaps one's value set has made it so that, you know, women's liberation, however they understand that, is placed above, you know, kind of the value set with regards to women in Islam, right? So it's a complicated kind of dance there, but really what it comes down to is that how they understand the role of women in Islam does not align with how they understand what the role of women should be in society. So in that first bucket also, so there's the role of women, there's also, you mentioned the bad actions that some Muslims do in the name of Islam. So I'm assuming, you know, terrorism or things of that matter. So people are really turned off by that and therefore equate that with the religion or the practicing of the religion and therefore turn away. Is that what it is? Yeah, I mean, you know, so one thing that we weren't able to do, again, this is kind of the ocean that I was referencing earlier, is really dig into kind of the mechanism, like here's the stimulus, right? You see these terrorist acts. Okay, now how does that act upon you, right? So we weren't able to really map the mechanism per se, but what we were able to do is kind of pinpoint that this was, you know, something.
Exactly, yeah. So identifying kind of that initial push, right? And yeah, so it could be, you know, terrorist acts, but it could be things of a slightly lesser nature, you know, the way we talk about, you know, perhaps honor killings or, you know, the way we talk about other issues that Muslims do that perhaps kind of chafe against, you know, what we perceive to be, you know, proper action. Okay, so you've got moral and social concerns, that's like, you know, stuff like the role of women, the way, you know, some Muslims do certain things in the name of Islam. Anything else that we need to cover in that point? Because I'm really keen on seeing the full spectrum. Sure. So I guess the only other thing that I really want to highlight is this notion of, you know, being taught that there is only kind of one way to regard Islam, right? When you make Islam kind of very rigid, a lot of times we imagine that what we're doing is making Islam very strong. But really, a lot of times what we're doing is making it, you know, somebody's understanding of Islam very brittle, right? Because, you know, if you don't have a little bit of that flexibility, right, then that, then, you know, when those challenges come, you know, it might actually kind of undermine your faith, as opposed to, you know, kind of absorb it and strengthen your faith. So that's the only other thing I would kind of highlight in that bucket. But there are two other buckets, as I mentioned. So the second one is kind of broadly speaking, philosophic and scientific concerns. So this is where some of that high minded stuff comes in. I didn't mean to entirely dismiss it earlier. But it's an important component when you're talking about, you know, for example, Muslim students going off to college and university.
You know, they're going to be encountering a lot of different understandings of what constitutes morality, what constitutes knowledge, right? And so, you know, this could, you know, be something kind of in the scientific realm, for example, the debate about, you know, evolution, right? You know, how does the scientific understanding of the theory of evolution, how does that kind of fit into, you know, the Islamic conception of, you know, how life began. So somebody that has a really tough time reconciling that, you know, that might, you know, kind of, you know, lead to something kind of festering in them. You know, along those same lines, you may just simply not be able to kind of wrap your head around the problem of evil in the world, right? This has been, that's kind of a perennial issue with, you know, people of faith, you know, kind of going back millennia, right? You know, how do you kind of understand evil in the world and kind of reconcile that with how your understanding of God, right? So somebody who's unable to do that, you know, I use this term, I'm going to continue to use this term because it really does, you know, it's this notion of reconciliation, right? Like how you have these seemingly competing notions, right? And if you're not able to, you know, make the round peg fit into square hole, well, then you're going to have some issues. A lot of times, though, that square hole is because you made it square, right? But there is, you know, a proper understanding would make it a bit more rounded, right? So that's something to kind of keep in mind along the way.
So that's the philosophical, so stuff like the existence of God, like the existence of hellfire and punishment, stuff like Islam's view on evolution, philosophical questions that sometimes or many a time are at odds with what some people are taught at university or at school. Yeah, yeah. Or just generally speaking, if you know, your kind of personal sense of what is quote unquote rational, just doesn't jive with, you know, what your understanding of religious practice tells you to do. Fair enough. Okay, so I think we've covered two buckets. And the third one was what? So yeah, so the third one, third one is really interesting, because the third one is personal trauma. And it could be that, you know, kind of experiencing a personal loss of some sort, you know, kind of really challenges your beliefs, just, just, you know, like directly because of that, because of that event. But the notion of kind of being unwelcomed in your community can also be, you know, a bit traumatic, right? If you feel like, you know, an outsider in your own community, right? So, so trauma can can come from, you know, a personal direct loss, or it could come from, you know, just, you know, kind of being socially almost ostracized or not feeling like you fit into your community, or not feeling like you have a community to kind of fit into.
And, and what's, what's, what's, what's, what's kind of notable about this, you know, third bucket is that oftentimes it kind of informs a lot of other issues as well. So, you know, it can, it can, it can go along with something from, you know, like a philosophical concern or something of a moral or social concern. Perhaps it either goes along with it, or perhaps what's really going on is that personal trauma, and it's manifesting as one of those other concerns. So, and also, can I add to that? Is it people who have gone through a traumatic experience and feel like, you know, Allah has let them go? And therefore, you know, why should I believe in a God that's let me kind of reach, reach this low point? Yeah, no, it could be and or it could be, you know, like, you know, how, like, how could this happen? You know, just, just, just, just really being unable to kind of process that event, right, through a kind of Islamic lens, right? You know, it kind of shakes you, you start thinking, oh, you know, this is just all random, you know, something like something along those lines, right? And what's interesting is that, you know, I mean, we've all known people who have gone through that personal direct trauma and actually come out the other side as a stronger Muslim, right? You know, so that really highlights personal trauma, as well as all these other kind of concerns, you know, kind of really highlight how the way that you kind of process these things that come to you in your path, right?
That really is a function of, you know, your kind of individual personality and individual characteristics as well. You know, we're not saying that, you know, somebody who experiences trauma is going to have, you know, these, these doubts, it could be that somebody who experiences trauma has their doubt kind of removed, has their heart kind of, you know, softened, because, you know, that brings them to a closer relationship to Allah. So how that happens, right? So there's various kind of endpoints, right? Once you kind of, you can imagine this as kind of a fork in the road, right? For each one of these things that we just mentioned, and sometimes that fork can lead you towards doubt. Yeah, to a net positive experience as well. You've, because there's clearly a lot to digest, there's three buckets and within those is a whole heap of stuff that lead people to the edge. You actually highlight some of the top causes of doubts in your research and you mentioned that it's mainly, or the top four I think it was, that are part of the moral and social concerns. So it's, it's the stuff like, you know, the role of women, is that correct? So this is now getting into the quantitative end of things. So after having, you know, kind of better understood the landscape of doubt through that initial qualitative survey, when we talked to the leaders in the community, exactly, the imams, the chaplains, then we were able to, you know, take a survey to, you know, the mass public, you know, the American Muslim community. And we were able then to kind of formulate a survey that reflected the learnings that we got out of that initial qualitative study.
And so we asked those who have ever experienced doubt to what degree certain things, right, certain events, certain behaviors, certain beliefs were a contributing factor in their doubt. And as you mentioned, you know, the top of that list was very much, you know, kind of populated by those moral and social concerns. So the top one was the way that some insist there's only one right way to practice faith, the bad things that people do in the name of religion, the intolerance that some religious people show towards other faiths, and the non-religious behavior of supposedly religious individuals. And so in each one of these, right, we see how, you know, it is how an individual is experiencing Islam in the social world, and not so much their kind of unfiltered understanding of Islam, right? It's their actual experiences with individuals, with their community, you know, with the way that the media portrays Muslims that ends up really affecting them. There's a saying by the late Muhammad al-Ghazali, the sheikh from Egypt, who said, what's the effect of like half of the reasons that lead to disbelief is the bad actions of Muslims that portray Islam in a negative light, effectively. So I can see how, you know, our actions or our misinterpretations of the faith lead people to the edge.
So look, given your research, there's a lot to digest for imams, for chaplains, if you were to go back to them and say, look, this is the result of your research, now do something about it. Like, how are they even supposed to, I guess, digest this list of doubts? And, you know, how are they supposed to respond to these doubts? Yeah, so I guess, you know, so a few communities, you know, I feel very fortunate, you know, have kind of reached out to me after these studies have been published. And, you know, asked me, you know, kind of something along those lines, right, or have sat down and kind of, you know, gone through the report in a kind of holocaust setting. And I think, you know, really what it comes down to is first acknowledging, right, that this kind of exists. I think there is this kind of tendency, perhaps, to believe that, you know, this is a very kind of minute population. And yes, in the very grand scheme of things, perhaps. But that's not to say that, you know, that we should just simply ignore, right, you know, these circumstances. But perhaps we should do more by addressing some of these concerns, right? Perhaps we will not only kind of, you know, alleviate the concerns of those already on the cusp, but, you know, kind of block the pathway for those who may have been kind of going down that road, right?
And the second also of that is to recognize that, you know, you as a community, you know, you are providing, you know, you are the main conduit for the way that, you know, an individual kind of understands Islam. And so you have to really kind of present Islam in a way that allows that individual to best apply those learnings to their lives right now, right? And I think that's something that we need to recognize that, especially in this pandemic, you know, everybody's, you know, all interested in, you know, self-help. People are like buying these books off the shelves, right? They're clearing libraries of all these self-help books. I mean, what is Islam if not, you know, telling you how to help yourself lead a better life, right? If you can't, you know, present Islam in a way that allows people to understand like how they can, you know, truly better their lives, right? You know, through a proper understanding of Islam, you know, then you need to kind of, you know, reconsider, right? Like how it is that we're presenting this din of ours. And aside from that, you know, you need to kind of make sure that you're creating an environment where individuals can really come to you, right? If they have doubts, right? I mean, the worst thing you can do is kind of dismiss people's doubts. Because that is almost assured, right? To kind of lead them deeper down that pathway. And to their credit, you know, the vast majority of the imams that we spoke to were very willing to kind of engage, right? It's just, you know, a matter of kind of learning how to better engage. And, you know, not to be a bit of a homer here, but honestly, like what Yaqeen is doing is equipping, right?
Giving those imams that toolkit, right? To best deal with these engagements. Yeah, if nothing else, like a problem identified is a problem solved. So, it's important to acknowledge the pathways that lead people to the edge. Look, honestly, the biggest takeaway for me is, like I understand the whole philosophical piece, which is like, you know, people questioning, you know, the existence of God and hellfire, etc. I get that and I've heard that a lot. Trauma is new to me and that leading people. But the big takeaway for me was that. As an imam or a community leader, a spiritual leader, your actions just in day to day life are just as important as your teachings. And people don't delineate between the two. That if you're kind of practicing or just going about your everyday life in a way that is contrary to Islamic teachings, that actually leads people to doubt their faith. And that stuff, I think, is probably overshadowed by the philosophical things, but I think is clearly just as important, if not more. Absolutely. So, I'm going to ask you a couple of questions that, let's say, my nine-year-old niece has. Usually we ask one, but I'm going to ask three in the hope that we can kind of summarize. That's a very inquisitive niece you got there. A lot of questions, a lot of questions. So, number one, if my nine-year-old niece came to you and said, what are the causes of doubt amongst Muslims, how would you respond to her? She has a couple of follow-up questions too.
Of course she does. A budding social scientist, I'd say, your niece is. So, I would say, you know, like so many things in this world, that the answer to that is complex. But generally speaking, it is a matter of how Muslims actually act and how those actions reflect on the religion more broadly. Because people, you can't expect people to do all the work on their own and understand, you know, deeply understand, you know, what Islam is all about. We can't all be imams, right? And so we turn to the imams, we turn to those who represent our faith as a representation of the faith. And so when they fall short, those shortcomings, unfortunately, reverberate back onto us. And so it's upon us to, you know, kind of build up the ability to, you know, kind of better understand that, you know, people are going to make mistakes. And we need to understand that, you know, the actions of any one individual are not indicative of, you know, the faith at large. Okay, and what if I have these doubts? My nine-year-old niece goes to you and says, okay, I know the sources of doubt and I'm starting to have these doubts. What do I do? So, you know, so we actually went ahead and, you know, asked, you know, our sample in the quantitative analysis, you know, what have you done when it comes to these doubts?
You know, have you kind of gone towards those who know or have you gone towards, you know, those who kind of proclaim to know something about Islam in the kind of ex-Muslim circles of the world? And, you know, by and large, our sample says that, you know, they go to their imams, right? So there is that door still open to them, which is, you know, normatively a positive sign. And so I would say that, you know, as with so many things, go to somebody that you trust, whose judgment you feel, you know, kind of properly reflects an understanding of the deen. And ask them, you know, genuinely what, you know, tell them what's on your mind. If, you know, for whatever reason, you don't feel completely satisfied, well, that's one person. Try to see if you can go to another person, right? I mean, you know, so we can't simply think that, you know, Sheikh Google is going to have all the answers or Sheikh Fulain is going to have all the answers, right? We have a large enough community now in the United States and we're able to reach enough different individuals to where, you know, make use of all the social media and the positive ends of social media and email and such, and all these communication technologies. Reach out to those who know, if they are truly who you think they are, they'll be more than happy to respond to you. Last question from my niece. She says to you, actually, I don't have these doubts. I'm a practicing Muslim, alhamdulillah, and I believe in my religion and I have certainty in my religion. And nor am I really interested in any of these sources of doubts or your study. Why should I even care?
First of all, I'd say, man, harsh. But, but, hey, listen, I know where you're coming from. None of us want to do any extra work these days. We are all kind of done with all the digital PDFs that we have to read on a daily basis. Fair enough. But what I would say is that you may be missing out on one of the biggest takeaways, which is that even if you are very confident in your understanding, realize that, you know, nobody else really gets that you're confident in your understanding. All they see is the way you act out your understanding. Right. And so just as we might imagine, you know, our kind of interactions over time with a non-Muslim, perhaps leading them, you know, by the will of Allah to accept Islam. We also we also have to keep in mind that our actions over time may actually dissuade people from entering Islam or persuade people to leave Islam. And so this study, if nothing else, serves as a reminder that we need to continually be living and and our our Islam, not simply reading it, not simply kind of thinking about it in private. Fair enough. Dr. Youssef Shahood, Jazakallah khair for your time. Those those who haven't read the study or the results of the study, I really recommend you go on to Yaqeen Institute website and read the study. It's honestly essential reading for anyone who's leading a Muslim circle or standing on the minbar. So thank you so much, Dr. Youssef Shahood. And hopefully we get to see you again on Double Take. My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
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