Further resources

wa alaykum as salaam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu!

Thank you for your question! As you said, there is a dearth of English resources. There are some efforts to present Zaydi material in English and other languages, but much of this effort is voluntary and not funded. You have this forum, Zaydiportal.com as well as a couple of facebook pages. Nafs az-Zakiyya has a Youtube page with translated short videos. Other than the various individual efforts, there's not much in the way of English resources.

as for the Arabic sources, there are obviously a lot more. Just anazaidi.net alone has extensive resources. You can also go to their links page and get even more resources. Kaadhim az-Zaydi regularly responds to questions on his blog . There is also an extensive Zaydi library at the athaqaleen site .

InshaAllah, this can be a great start for you!

And Allah knows best!

IRS

Thank you for your questions! I think that there are sufficient resources although relatively, there are not as many as other madhaahib. As I mentioned before, we are currently in the process of producing and translating materials from Arabic to English. However, our efforts are not funded by anyone; they are strictly voluntary and therefore, very slow. Our efforts towards authoring a book on Zaydi theology , for example, has not been widely accessed although it is ten years old now. We realise the necessity of translation efforts, but we are basically playing catch-up to others who have had decades of a headstart.

We sincerely pray that our humble efforts are seminal and a starting point for others to follow and do even more, inshaAllah! But we are at where we are at right now. I would urge others who are interested to make similar efforts. Go and study the language, sit with our scholars, and share what you have learned with others. Write, edit, publish! Do what you can to forward the madhhab of Ahl al-Bayt.

We are fighting from multiple fronts: the dying off of our scholars, the limitation of resources in other languages, the political/economical/environmental situation in Yemen, the lack of interest on the part of Yemeni Zaydis to reach beyond their tribal affiliations and borders to spread Zaydism, the lack of funding, the spread of Salafism/Sunnism/12 Shiism and monetary advantage they have had for decades, etc.

Despite all of the above, Allah has seen fit that non-Yemeni, non-Arab, non-Zaydi Muslims are still attracted and drawn to it! We have only Allah and the baraka of Ahl al-Bayt to thank for that!

As for your concern about practicing Zaydism in a somewhat hostile environment, I would say that I know that it is a challenge to do so. There were times when even I didn't want to stick out form the mainstream around me. However, I would base my actions on the validity or invalidity of the obligation. By that, I mean that if I were in a predominately Sunni mosque and I was asked to call the adhaan, I would not call the Zaydi adhaan as this would be a source of possible conflict and not appreciated or even known about. The adhaan doesn't affect the validity of the obligation of the prayer. On the other hand, if it is time for iftar at a Sunni mosque, I would usually disappear to go to the bathroom until the proper time for iftar has come in. Then I would reappear and break my fast. I would not break my fast before then because this would affect the validity of the obligation of fasting and it would be an intentional act. Such is not permitted unless your life depended on it.

There are various things that you can do to alleviate these types of matters. For example, if it would cause a disruption for you to pray with your arms by the sides in the congregational prayer, you could pray your fard alone with your arms by the sides and then when you are in public, mimic the actions of the others without intending the congregational prayer. You would just stand there and do the actions without intending the prayer. This would allow you to maintain the principles of your madhhab without offending those around you. You must try to be creative.

On top of everything, make sincere dua to Allah to help you. Allah will make a way of escape for those who sincerely make dua to Him. You will be surprised with the ways that Allah will assist His slaves!

Hopefully, this answered your questions and concerns!

And Allah knows best!

IRS