9. THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE ARROGANT
The best of all things is to further acquiring knowledge (ilm) because he who happens to be content with the knowledge he has acquired and assumes it is enough, is with a doubt, a self-centered person whose views are arrogant resulting in his high opinion of himself.
He therefore becomes an obstacle averting himself from receiving any further benefit. It can also happen that a person has a discourse where his mistakes are evident, but will never be corrected because people fear to do so as they hold him in high esteem. However, if he was humble enough to accept taking benefit (istifada) from others and learning, people would have alerted him of his mistakes leading him to correct himself.
Ibn ‘Aqil narrated that Abu’l-Ma’all al-Juwaynl once said: ‘The knowledge of Allah is general and not specific (i.e. He does not know or convey the details of events and things),’ which is a statement this poor man made. I do not know what kind of a doubt (shubha) was casted in his heart confusing him to make such a terrible statement.
The same can be said when Abu Hamid al-Ghazali said: ‘[Allah’s] descending means relocating and that [Allah’s] istiwa means touching [the throne].’
How could I ascribe understanding (‘fiqh) or asceticism (zuhd) to either of them, when neither of them knows what can be or cannot be ascribed to Allah?
But, if either were humble enough to overlook their great status, even the novice would have refuted them and thus they would have realised their mistakes.
The same happened with Abu Bakr Ibn Miqsam who authored a book titled Al-Ihtijaj in the field of diverse Qur’an recitations (qira’) and included in it good gems, but he corrupted his knowledge in this book when he approved odd recitations that are not supported by traditional reports, and worse still, he allowed reciting that changed the meaning of the verses. For example, he misinterpreted the verse,
“So when they had despaired of him, they secluded themselves in private consultation.” [Yusuf (12) :80]
saying, ‘it is possible that this verse means that the brothers of Yusuf were declared innocent from the incident of thievery.’
Evidently, this is a clear misunderstanding of the story because the person who was accused of stealing and then turned out he had the stolen item was not released!
Rather, this verse came to show that they retired to confer together in private about what to do and how to return home while their young brother is in prison! Obviously, this verse speaks not about their safety (and innocence) from anything at all.
Reading his book carefully will let you notice numerous ugly mistakes of this kind. And if he listened to the advice of the scholars at the time and humbled himself, he would have realised his mistakes and came to know the truth. Yet, when the insistence on sufficing with what a person knows is combined with thinking highly about oneself, it will cause one to fail in noticing the truth.
We seek refuge with Allah from such a calamity.
(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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