4. FOLLOWING THE CLEAR AND PRECISE ISSUES – LEAVING THE UNCLEAR AND DOUBTFUL ONES ALONE
It is imperative (wajib) for a sane person (‘aql) to follow the clear proof (dalil) and not to look at something that brings about hardship.
For example, it has been established by irrefutable proof the wisdom of the Creator (Khaliq), His kingdom and plan.
So when one sees a scholar who is impoverished and an ignorant that is wealthy, then the proof establishing the wisdom of the Creator should outright impose one to submit to Him, while the inability to understand the wisdom should be asserted to oneself.
A group of people did not do that due to their ignorance! How do you think they made their judgment about this plan? Is this plan not as per the demands of their intellects? Are their intellects not a part of His favours?
How can a judgment be formulated against the Divine wisdom and plan, by using some of his creation, which in respect to His Grandeur, is full of defect?
Ibn al-Rawandi was once sitting on a joist. He had a piece of bread in his hand that he was eating. When some horses and wealth went past, he asked about their owner. He was told, ‘that belongs to a certain worshipper.’ Then some more horses and wealth went past, he again asked, ‘who does that belong to?’ He was told that it belonged to that same worshipper.
When the worshipper went past, he threw the piece bread to his side and uttered, ‘What is this? This belongs to that certain worshipper? What type of wealth distribution is this?’ (i.e. how can it be that the worshipper get so much wealth compared to others).
If this critic thought awhile, some of the reasons would have become clear to him. The least being his ignorance of the Being he claims to have knowledge of and his little magnification of that Being; perhaps forcing him to his further impoverishment. Such a thought is actually inherited from Iblis who believed in a mistaken plan concerning the preference of Adam (‘alayhi as-salam ).
This is a disappointing act of a student who pretends to know more than his teacher, and of a slave who thinks to be bigger than his master!
Among the things where the proof should be followed without considering the circumstances is knowing that knowledge (ilm) is the best (ashraf) profession.
A group of ignoramuses see that scholars are less fortunate in terms of having worldly possession, so they criticise knowledge, stating, ‘it is not worth possessing’. This is due to their ignorance about the value of knowledge. On the other hand, one who follows the proof is not bothered as to what difficult or unfriendly circumstance he has acquired. The test becomes apparent with the loss of interest.
If it was not among the proof on the truthfulness of our Prophet except his disinclination from worldly pursuits and his deliberate impoverishment— after all, he did not leave behind anything and prohibited his family to inherit from him— this would suffice as a proof of the truthfulness of his pursuit for a different higher requirement.
Many a times, an ignorant person sees the scholars committing mistake, thus he criticises the knowledge and claims it to be incomplete. This is again a major mistake.
An intelligent person should fear Allah and follow the demand of the intellect that commands obeying Allah and acting upon the knowledge. One should understand that the test of patience is during the missed demands, thus he should follow the proof, even if it brings about undesirable hardship.
(Source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
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