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Thursday, June 28, 2018

Fadl al-Ilm as-Salaf ala Ilm Mun Khalaf (Pt.5): Astronomy and Nahw


-It's permissible to learn astronomy if it serves a purpose, such as learning distances and times. However if a person believes the stars has a benefit in themselves or it will lead to false beliefs then this is Haram; this is the view of Ibn Abbas, Abu Haneefah, Ishaq, Qatadah and others.

For example, if a person sees a road sign and it gives a distance to a particular place, no one would say that this would be Haram unless if a person takes the road sign as something that in and of itself can give information or benefit. 

Therefore, astronomy has three rulings:

-Shirk, if it leads to false beliefs and acts of worship.

-Haram, to learn it for the sake of learning it.

-Permissible, to learn routes and time periods:

'And landmarks (signposts, etc. during the day) and by the stars (during the night), they (mankind) guide themselves.(16:16) 
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-Abu Ubayd, bin Muthanna, Ahmad and others all said studying Arabic in too much detail is not allowed as it distracts a person from what is of greater importance.

Qasim bin Khaybarah said, "The first of it is hard and the last of it a distraction." 

Ibn Rajabc quotes Ibn al-‘Arabi saying, "Learning Nahw is like salt on food".

Shaykh Muhammad said in commentary: 

Therefore, we only need enough of Nahw to understand the religion as a tool. This goes for all sciences as we don't have need to go into detail into all disciplines. 

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