Asalamu Alaikum, In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His
help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide,
and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear
witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear
witness that Muhammad (saws) is His Messenger.
Our journey starts with the pursuit of KNOWING things.This is the first thing we have to do in order to do anything. As in the Holy Quran the very first word in the in the first verse to be revealed was IQRA (iqra biismi rabbika allathee khalaqa Quran 96:1) , meaning "READ" ( Read! In the name of your Lord, who created). Here Allah (swt) has laid emphasis in very first instruction to us TO READ,PROCLAIM."Seeking knowledge is a duty on every Muslim." (Bukhari);.In another hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah(RA) said:“I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) saying: ‘This world is cursed and what is in it is cursed, except the remembrance of Allah (dhikr) and what is conducive to that, or one who has knowledge or who acquires knowledge.’”4112 Sunan Ibn Majah
We can exemplify this with the fate of a person who has no knowledge but acts according to his desires, thus all his actions are in vain , which will not benefit him but instead lead him to fire.If a person has to dig a well for which he uses a knife (thats funny) he would never be able to accomplish his task. We can see this in the matter of worship when a person does his own acts of worship which are never based on knowledge.Prophet (ﷺ) in one of the hadith narrated by Aisha(RA) said "If somebody innovates something which is not in harmony with the principles of our religion, that thing is rejected." Sahih al-Bukhari 2697.The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) stated repeatedly that: "Every newly-invented thing is a bid'ah (innovation), every bid'ah is a going astray, and every going astray will be in the Fire." (Reported by al-Nisaa'i in al-Sunan, Salaat al-'Eedayn, Baab kayfa al-Khutbah).
Many of us argue on the things like about the depth and dimensions well of Joseph AS ,colour of the staff of Musa AS,material of the ring of Solomon AS etc.This type of knowledge would never benefit us and Allah instructed in Surah Kahf (Some will say, ‘They were three, the fourth was their dog,’ and others will say, ‘They were five, the sixth was their dog,’ guessing at random. And yet others say, ‘They were seven, the eighth was their dog.’ Say, ‘My Lord knows best their number.’ Only a few know anything about them. Therefore, do not enter into controversies over them, nor seek information about them from any of them;[Quran 18:21]) about people who argued about number of men in cave, and it is upto Allah what He reveals to us and what not.But whatever he reveals to us only that is important. So we should ask Allah for the knowledge that is beneficial for us
A part of seeking knowledge is to gain it from authentic sources.Now there will arise a question which are the authentic sources ? Everything that is based on teaching of Quran and Sunnah from Sahih hadith.While as for knowing worldly things like working of a mobile phone, you will have to reach out to those people whom Allah gave knowledge (though some of them wont realize it) .
The scholars have summarized the etiquette of seeking knowledge as:-
1 – Patience
2 – Purity of intention in action
3 – Acting upon what you know
4 – Always being aware that Allaah is watching
5 – Make the best use of time
6 – Be cautious
7 – Precision and focus
8 – Studying books
9 – Choosing companions
10 – Finally, good manners towards the shaykh
Our journey starts with the pursuit of KNOWING things.This is the first thing we have to do in order to do anything. As in the Holy Quran the very first word in the in the first verse to be revealed was IQRA (iqra biismi rabbika allathee khalaqa Quran 96:1) , meaning "READ" ( Read! In the name of your Lord, who created). Here Allah (swt) has laid emphasis in very first instruction to us TO READ,PROCLAIM."Seeking knowledge is a duty on every Muslim." (Bukhari);.In another hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah(RA) said:“I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) saying: ‘This world is cursed and what is in it is cursed, except the remembrance of Allah (dhikr) and what is conducive to that, or one who has knowledge or who acquires knowledge.’”4112 Sunan Ibn Majah
We can exemplify this with the fate of a person who has no knowledge but acts according to his desires, thus all his actions are in vain , which will not benefit him but instead lead him to fire.If a person has to dig a well for which he uses a knife (thats funny) he would never be able to accomplish his task. We can see this in the matter of worship when a person does his own acts of worship which are never based on knowledge.Prophet (ﷺ) in one of the hadith narrated by Aisha(RA) said "If somebody innovates something which is not in harmony with the principles of our religion, that thing is rejected." Sahih al-Bukhari 2697.The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) stated repeatedly that: "Every newly-invented thing is a bid'ah (innovation), every bid'ah is a going astray, and every going astray will be in the Fire." (Reported by al-Nisaa'i in al-Sunan, Salaat al-'Eedayn, Baab kayfa al-Khutbah).
One of the important things one should keep in mind while seeking knowledge is the intention , why are you seeking knowledge.The Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever seeks knowledge in order to compete with the scholars or to prove himself superior to the ignorant or to make the people look up to him, Allaah will cause him to enter Hell.” (narrated by al-Nasaa’i, 2654; classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Nasaa’i).Knowledge is acquired by studying, then implementing it for Allah's sake
because He has ordered it and made it a means by which the Truth is
manifested. It is reported in a Sahih Hadith: Three types of people
will be admitted to the Hellfire first. Amongst them: The one who seeks
knowledge or recites Qur'an not for the sake of Allah, but in order for
it to be said: He is a scholar or he is a good reciter of the Qur'an.
There is neither might nor power except with Allah! [Sahih Muslim 3527]. Coming to the positive side one should seek knowledge with the intention of making people aware,spreading the truth and earning Jannah.It becomes clear from the hadith that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “Whoever follows a path to
seek knowledge, Allah will make the path to Jannah (Paradise) easy for
them.” [Sahih Muslim 2699; Sunan Tirmidhi 2945]
Many of us argue on the things like about the depth and dimensions well of Joseph AS ,colour of the staff of Musa AS,material of the ring of Solomon AS etc.This type of knowledge would never benefit us and Allah instructed in Surah Kahf (Some will say, ‘They were three, the fourth was their dog,’ and others will say, ‘They were five, the sixth was their dog,’ guessing at random. And yet others say, ‘They were seven, the eighth was their dog.’ Say, ‘My Lord knows best their number.’ Only a few know anything about them. Therefore, do not enter into controversies over them, nor seek information about them from any of them;[Quran 18:21]) about people who argued about number of men in cave, and it is upto Allah what He reveals to us and what not.But whatever he reveals to us only that is important. So we should ask Allah for the knowledge that is beneficial for us
the Messenger of Allah said: "Ask Allah for beneficial knowledge and
seek refuge with Allah from knowledge that is of no benefit." Sunan Ibn Majah 3843
The scholars have summarized the etiquette of seeking knowledge as:-
1 – Patience
2 – Purity of intention in action
3 – Acting upon what you know
4 – Always being aware that Allaah is watching
5 – Make the best use of time
6 – Be cautious
7 – Precision and focus
8 – Studying books
9 – Choosing companions
10 – Finally, good manners towards the shaykh
The topic that follows after Seeking Knowing is its implementation,realization and THINKING (which is the second part of my blog name), which I shall InShaAllah discuss in PART 2 of this post.
We ask Allaah to save us from the misguidance of personal whims and from all trials whether they are open or secret. And Allaah knows best.
