10. THE MOST NOBLE OF SCIENCES AND SOME ADVICE TO STUDENTS OF KNOWLEDGE
There is proof for the nobility of gaining knowledge (sharf al-‘ilrri). Students however, differed on the most noble of sciences, with some of them claiming nobility of his specialty:
Some of them spent their entire lives on acquiring modes of reciting the Qur’an (qiraat). This is a waste of time because a person must only go by the most famous of qiraat, not the irregular ones.
How bad it is for a Qur’an reciter to be asked about a fiqh matter and not know the answer! He is too busy with acquiring qiraat from various directions.
Other students only busy themselves with grammar! And others still, with linguistics!
Others compile a lot of hadith but never take the time to understand what they have documented.
Some of our teachers in hadith used to be asked a question regarding prayer and not know what to say.
Similar was the case with some reciters, linguists and grammarians.
Abu Muhammad Ibn Al-Khashab was a master in linguistics and grammar. He was asked a question regarding raising hands in prayer and responded, ‘It is a pillar of prayer.’
Everyone was surprised at his lack of fiqh.
A student ought to acquire a bit of each science, then he should focus on fiqh, and then focus on the objective of sciences, which is connecting with Allah, knowing Him and loving him.
How foolish is the one who spends his life gaining knowledge of stars! He should only know a little bit regarding them; enough to tell the time. As for claiming to know judgment and ruling (by looking at stars), it is utter ignorance (jahl).
There is no way to know this for sure. In fact the ignorance of such claimers has been proven, even if some may coincidentally turn out to say what does occur.
Even worse are those who busy themselves in acquiring the science of chemistry (attempting to turn metals into gold). It is sheer delirium since it is impossible to turn gold into copper, and then the opposite is also impossible. Such a person is a deceiver of people.
A student of knowledge (talib al-‘ilm) must purify his intention (qasd). Lack of sincerity (ikhlas) prevents actions from being accepted.
He must also make effort to accompany scholars, contemplating different points of view and acquiring books because no book is free from benefit!
He must also focus on memorisation; once he becomes tired of memorisation he should then read.
He must be weary of accompanying people in power. He must follow the way of the Messenger and his Companions and their Companions. He must work hard on taming himself and acting upon his knowledge.
He who supports the Truth, the Truth will aid him.
(Source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
Comments
John Doe
23/3/2019Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
John Doe
23/3/2019Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
John Doe
23/3/2019Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.