Shaykh Abdul-Kareem bin
Abdullah al-Khudayr [May Allaah Preserve him]
He's a loser and his applaud will be
exchanged with regret
Therefore, it is incumbent upon us not to
lose our intention, do not make your intention homeless. A person may come to
study and gain knowledge but then he may become negligent about his intention,
thus his intention becomes missing. So
the one seeking knowledge must seek knowledge out of sincerity to Allaah, the
Exalted and Glorified, seeking the reward of Allaah, the Exalted and Glorified,
and a place in the Hereafter. He should be careful and be warned about showing
off and been seen by people.
Member of the Senior
Committee of Scholars, Saudi Arabia
The knowledge of Shariah is
something which is directly and purely connected to the Aakhira, therefore it
is not permissible for us to do Shirk when seeking it. Seeking this knowledge
means we must have a better intention than merely seeking knowledge for the
sake of showing off, reputation or wanting people to talk about you. There has
come a very stern warning against this as it is from the worst situations one
could die upon. It has been narrated that three people will be brought on the
Day of Judgment; the first of them that will be casted into the Hellfire is one
who was learned and taught others. He spent his whole life learning and
teaching and involving himself with knowledge, maybe he lived a hundred years,
fifty years learning and fifty years teaching. After all of this, he still
became one of the three that were casted into the hell fire, what happened to
this man!? He learned and gained
knowledge to teach the people - No - he gained knowledge so that people would
call him a scholar, and this is what they did!
And to Allaah we complain.
Shaykh Haafidh al-Hakamee
[May Allaah have Mercy on him] gives the student of knowledge some precious
advice in his treatise al-Meemiyyah. In fact, this treatise was written
especially for the student of knowledge so that they may memorise it, he [May
Allaah have Mercy on him] says (in poetic form):
If a person seeks knowledge so that people
talk about him
The student of knowledge should also be
careful about being filled with pride, meaning he should not be proud that he
has been given more than others. He shouldn’t think he is better than others
and has a better status than others. He should not be proud or arrogant towards
others in the least bit. This is because, pride nullifies the very
reason why one seeks knowledge, and it nullifies its benefits. Especially if
one studies the Noble Quraan as the Quraan is the source for all disciplines
and sciences, it says:
"I shall turn
away from My Ayat (verses of the Qur'an) those who behave arrogantly on the
earth"
[A'raaf 7:146]
The
one who is proud and arrogant turns himself away from benefitting from
knowledge, this is why the Muftee of Hadramoat [a well known place in Yemen],
Shaykh Abdur-Rahmaan bin 'Ubayd Allaah as-Saqqaaf, refuted those who accused
Shaykh al-Islaam of being a proud person. Some people who have written
biographies of Shaykh al-Islaam have accused him of being proud and arrogant,
however he is Shaykh al-Islaam, he is an Imaam from the Imaams of the Muslims.
He is an Imaam who had knowledge and he acted upon this knowledge, he was
humble, he had Taqwaa, and he spread his knowledge and strove for the sake of
Allaah in doing so. And then someone comes and accuses him of such a thing! So
what did the Muftee say in his defence? He has a lecture which he discusses the
difference between one who acts upon on his knowledge and one who doesn’t, in
which he defends and refutes allegations that Shaykh al-Islaam was arrogant and
proud. It maybe that you differ with
Shaykh al-Islaam in certain issues, however the truth remains, he was free from
pride and arrogance.
How
can the Quraan be made easy for you if you are proud? Imaam Bukhaaree narrates
from Mujaahid that he said, “The person who is too shy or too proud will not
learn anything.” Shyness here refers to being shy in your social ability not
shy in a religious sense because shyness in a religious sense is something
praiseworthy, but what this is referring to is you being shy and not being able
to mix will mean you will not learn. You will not be able to forbid wrongdoings
when you see people commit them, you will not be able to give advice if you are
sought to give it, you will not be able to guide people, all of which is
blameworthy. Therefore, this type of
person will not learn. A person may sit and study but if he has a problem in
understanding something, he is too shy to ask a scholar. Or even worse, he is
too proud to ask a scholar, so he remains and continues upon these doubts and
problems. So how can these doubts and problems in understanding be lifted if he
doesn’t ask?
So
don’t be proud, being proud and anti-social can lead one to feel he is better
than people, as a consequence it may seem to the people that he is better and
no need of asking question and thus because of his attitude he is prevented
from attaining any knowledge.
Another
thing that the student of knowledge must be wary of is not to think he is
something special, don’t give yourself any status. There is no doubt that this
is a type of a severe disease. If a person thinks highly of himself based on
the worldly affairs, then he will live for the worldly life. He will be given
and expect to be given in this worldly life and his benefit will only be placed
in this life alone, so when will he be humbled? If a person transgresses, when
will he be transgressed over? If a person thinks he is special and feels that
he has no need of others…so there is a student of knowledge who thinks he is
better than anyone else and that he doesn’t need others, he thinks himself to
be special so because of this he will be destroyed. If a person has this type
of attitude then there is no doubt that he is suffering from a chronic illness
and he is need of a substantial cure. He
is deflected from having any knowledge or acting upon it.
So
it is upon the student of knowledge that he doesn’t lose his heart. All of the
aspects of Shariah revolve around one thing, which is a person’s heart:
‘Verily! There is a part in your body, if it is healthy then the rest of the
body is health but if it is corrupt then the rest of the body is corrupt,
verily it is the heart.’
"The Day whereon neither wealth nor
sons will avail; except him who brings to Allah a clean heart [clean from Shirk
(polytheism) and Nifaq (hypocrisy)]"
[Shu'araa 26:88-89]
So
the heart, for the student of knowledge, is where the knowledge is. All
sickness and diseases will be averted because of his heart.
Also,
the student of knowledge must pay attention to another affair, which is that he
should not be lazy. He should always be serious in learning and studying
because knowledge doesn't come about by one relaxing. Imaam Muslim narrated
from Yahya bin Abee Katheer, that he said, “Knowledge will not come by a
relaxed body.”
If
this was the case then everybody would be a scholar, all of the people would be
raised in their status to be form the scholars, without even having planted any
seeds. So it is necessary that the student of knowledge strives hard. It is
imperative that he checks himself and cleanses himself from all desires. The
scholars didn’t get what they got except by staying up late. So if a person
intends to be a scholar, then he needs to behave in this manner and take the
relevant precautions. He must free himself from anything that would prevent him
from being a scholar, as we have highlighted above, and take the measures he
needs to prevent this from happening. He should seek a path to be with the
people of knowledge, align yourself with the established scholars, those who
teach you in an organized fashion so that you may benefit in your knowledge and
actions, based on the Kitaab and the Sunnah and the ‘Aqeedah of Ahl as-Sunnah
wa al-Jamaa’ah.
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