mizan avenue
Fortifying the Heart
Foundations of Islamic Aqidah, in ten Thursday evenings with Ustadha Sahar Dandan.
Ten Thursday evenings on the creed section of Imam Ibn Ashir's Al-Murshid al-Mueen.
The first class begins in
About
Knowing your Lord, in ten Thursday evenings
Join Ustadha Sahar Dandan for ten Thursday evenings on the opening section of Imam Ibn Ashir's Al-Murshid al-Mueen, The Reliable Guide. Sisters only, in the room at Mizan Avenue in Auburn, or live online wherever you are.
Muslims often struggle to anchor their core principles. Dismissive answers to modern spiritual struggles, like simply being told to pray more, fail to address the root issue: a profound disconnect from knowing Allah.
This course goes into foundational aqidah, equipping students with the individually obligatory knowledge of Ashari theology. For centuries this text has distilled our theological tradition into a logical, accessible framework, and this module moves beyond the misconception that theology is merely abstract philosophy. Instead it reveals how creed forms the very foundation of a Muslim's worldview, answering the ultimate questions of our origin, our purpose and our direction.
Reclaim your connection to the Divine. Equip yourself with the sacred knowledge that wards off despondency, builds conviction, and serves as the ultimate guide for navigating the complexities of the modern world.
Whether you are beginning your study of Islamic creed or looking to strengthen what you already hold, this course offers a structured exploration of Imam Ibn Ashir's foundational text. All are welcome.
The text we are reading
Al-Murshid al-Mueen, The Reliable Guide to the Necessary Sciences of the Religion, is a poem of a little over three hundred lines written by Imam Abd al-Wahid ibn Ashir. For four centuries it has been the first book a student is given, and in many households it was memorised before anything else.
It is arranged in three parts: what to believe, how to worship, and how to purify the heart. The creed comes first, and it is deliberately short. Ibn Ashir was not writing for scholars. He was writing lines a person could carry in their memory for the rest of their life and unpack whenever they needed them.
That shortness is why it needs a teacher. A single line of the matn can hold an entire argument, and read alone it passes under the eye without leaving anything behind. Read slowly, with the reasoning opened out, the same line answers a question you have been carrying for years.
Over these ten weeks we read the creed section from its first line to its last. Nothing is skipped, and nothing is left as a phrase you can only repeat.
What you'll learn
By the end of the ten weeks
State what is necessary, impossible and possible for Allah, and give the reasoning behind each.
Name the twenty attributes, group them the way the text groups them, and say what each one rules out.
Answer the questions that unsettle people about qadar, suffering and unanswered dua from within the tradition.
Read the two testimonies as a summary of the whole creed rather than a phrase said quickly.
Recognise where a modern argument about God has borrowed a false premise, and say plainly what is wrong with it.
Sit with a classical creed text and follow its structure without needing it rephrased for you.
Curriculum
Week by week
10 weeks · Thursdays, 8:00 pm
- 01Thu 10 Sep
Week 1: Why creed comes first
What aqidah is, why knowing your Lord is an obligation on every Muslim before anything else is asked of you, and why Ibn Ashir opens The Reliable Guide here rather than with prayer.
- 02Thu 17 Sep
Week 2: The three judgements
Necessary, impossible and possible. The one tool the whole text is built on, and how the mind is put in service of revelation rather than set above it.
- 03Thu 24 Sep
Week 3: Existence, and the God who needs nothing
That Allah is, that He had no beginning and that He has no end, and what each of those settles about the world you woke up in.
- 04Thu 1 Oct
Week 4: Nothing is like Him
Why every picture the mind reaches for falls short, and how to speak about Allah without quietly likening Him to His creation.
- 05Thu 8 Oct
Week 5: One, and one alone
Oneness in essence, in attributes and in acts, and the answer it gives to every rival claim on the heart.
- 06Thu 15 Oct
Week 6: Power, will and knowledge
The three attributes that meet us at the point of pain, and what they actually mean for qadar.
4 more weeks
- 07Thu 22 Oct
Week 7: Life, hearing, sight and speech
The four attributes that remain, what follows from each of them, and what it means that Allah hears you now.
- 08Thu 29 Oct
Week 8: What is possible for Allah
Why creation is a gift rather than an obligation upon Him, and how that frees a believer from bargaining with their Lord.
- 09Thu 5 Nov
Week 9: The Messengers, peace be upon them
Truthfulness, trustworthiness and conveyance. What is necessary, impossible and possible for the Prophets, and the human being who stands at the centre of the creed.
- 10Thu 12 Nov
Week 10: The two testimonies, and what comes after
The shahada read in full as a summary of everything above, the matters of the unseen the text closes with, and where to take this next.
Every date
The ten Thursdays
September 2026
Rabi' al-Awwal – Rabi' al-Thani 1448 AH
Thursday 10 September
28 Rabi' al-Awwal
Thursday 17 September
6 Rabi' al-Thani
Thursday 24 September
13 Rabi' al-Thani
How it runs
In the room, or over the livestream
In the classroom
The same room every week, with tea afterwards.
Or over video
Join from home on the same evening. The livestream link comes with every reminder.
Recordings
Emailed the next morning, and yours for the whole term.
What a class is like
How the hour goes
- 0 min
Opening, and the week's lines
We begin together, and the lines of the matn for that evening are read aloud in Arabic and translated.
- 10 min
The text itself
Ibn Ashir's own words, unpacked phrase by phrase. This is the bulk of the hour and the reason the course exists.
- 35 min
Where it meets your week
The doctrine put against something real: a doubt someone raised, a loss someone is carrying, an argument someone met online.
- 48 min
Questions
From the room and from the livestream both. Questions typed in from home are read out and answered aloud.
- 57 min
Closing
What to revise before next Thursday, and a closing dua.
Enrolment
Enrol for the whole term
One payment covers every week. If you miss a class the recording is emailed the next morning, and your place is held for the rest of the term.
0 of 45 enrolled
The whole term, in the room
All ten Thursdays at Mizan Avenue in Auburn, with the livestream and the recordings included.
$50
The whole term, livestream
All ten Thursdays live from wherever you are, with the recording emailed the next morning.
$50
Your teacher
Ustadha Sahar Dandan
Teaching all ten weeks
Sahar Dandan is a senior executive, Islamic educator, and community practitioner with experience spanning engineering, organisational leadership, Permaculture, and the not-for-profit sector. Her professional experience includes executive management, governance, and program development, and consultancy work supporting organisations to strengthen their processes, systems, and strategic and operational planning frameworks. She has advised boards and leadership teams on organisational design, governance maturity, compliance, and sustainable growth. In 2023 she became Chief Executive Officer of Greendale Garden Cemetery, which opened in October 2024 as Greater Western Sydney’s newest cemetery. <br />Her work has focused on building sustainable values-driven organisations, strengthening community engagement, and guiding initiatives through periods of growth and change. Alongside her professional work, Sahar is engaged in Islamic education and studied under scholars in Mauritania, she currently teaches jurisprudence, spirituality, purification of the heart, women’s scholarship, and living Islam in contemporary life.
Weeks
10
The text
Ibn Ashir
Taught
Live, weekly
Taught live, online
A real class, from wherever you are
One teacher, live, every Thursday. Not a recording and not a webinar. The livestream is part of the class, and questions typed from home are read out in the room.
The livestream runs the full hour, every week, from the room itself.
Your questions are typed in and answered aloud in the same class.
The recording is emailed the next morning and stays yours for the whole term.
Miss a Thursday and you are not behind. Watch it before the next one.
Nothing is asked of your camera. Listen however you like.
The same fifty dollars, whether you sit in Auburn or at your kitchen table.
Where
Auburn, or online
When
Thursdays, 8:00pm
Recording
Next morning
Getting there
Mizan Avenue, Auburn
Mizan Avenue
8 George Young Street Auburn NSW 2144
Parking
Street parking around George Young Street. Come a few minutes early on a Thursday.
Which door
The Mizan Avenue entrance. Someone is on the door from 7:45pm.
Running late
Come in anyway. The class does not stop and nobody will look up.
Good to know
Before you come
- Sisters only, all ten weeks, in the room and on the livestream.
- Doors from 7:45pm. The class starts at 8:00pm on the hour.
- Livestream and recording included with every place.
- Taught in English. The Arabic of the matn is read aloud and translated.
- No previous study of aqidah is assumed.
- Tea afterwards for anyone who can stay.
Questions
Asked before
Do I need to have studied aqidah before?
No. This is a first course and week one assumes nothing. If you have read creed before, Al-Murshid al-Mueen is the text you would return to anyway, and the commentary goes further than a summary.
Can I join from outside Sydney?
Yes. Every class is livestreamed at 8:00pm Sydney time and the recording is emailed the next morning, so a place is worth having wherever you are.
What if I miss a class?
Watch the recording before the following Thursday. Your place is held for the whole term whether you are in the room, on the livestream, or catching up.
Is this course for sisters only?
Yes. All ten weeks are sisters only, in the room at Auburn and on the livestream.
What text are we reading?
The opening section of Al-Murshid al-Mueen by Imam Abd al-Wahid ibn Ashir, a teaching poem that has carried the essentials of the religion for four centuries. We read its creed section in full, line by line.
Which school of theology is this?
Ashari, which is what Ibn Ashir names in the text itself and what the great majority of Sunni Muslims have followed for a thousand years.
Do I need Arabic?
No. The class is taught in English. Each week's lines are read aloud in Arabic and then translated, so you will finish the term able to follow the text with a translation beside you.
How much work is there between classes?
About twenty minutes. Read the week's lines, look over a short revision sheet, and bring one question.
Where exactly is it?
Mizan Avenue, 8 George Young Street, Auburn NSW 2144.
What if the course is full?
Join the waiting list on this page. You will be written to first when a place opens, and again when the next term is announced.
Duas
Leave a dua for the class
No one has written yet. The first du‘ā left with a booking appears here.
There is no gift as invaluable as knowing your Lord.
Ten Thursdays, one text, and a different relationship with the words you already say every day.
Keep in touch
Hear when the next term opens
One email when enrolment opens again, and nothing else in between.
Bookings close Wednesday 9 September.
From
$50.00