About Knowledge

It has been related from Anas Ibn Malik, in Bukhari, that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and give him peace, said: “Among the signs of the Hour (the end of this world), are the disappearance of knowledge, the establishment of ignorance, the drinking of wine and the appearance of fornication”. Abu Hurayra related from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and give him peace: “Knowledge will be withdrawn, ignorance and sedition will appear and there will be a lot of killing.”
The first of those signs of the deterioration of mankind and the approaching end of time is the disappearance of knowledge which we are commanded to seek in the words of Allah: “Say: Lord, increase my knowledge” (20:114).
The importance of knowledge and its consequences is expressed in the Qur’an: “only His slaves who have knowledge fear Allah” (35:28) and “only those with knowledge will understand” (29:43); and “And they say: ‘if we had only heard or used our intellects we would not have been among the people of the Fire'” (67:10).
The list of Ayats about this goes on and on.
Without knowledge, you will not be able to fear Allah and you will not understand and therefore you may end up in the Fire.
The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and give him peace, said, “If Allah wishes good for anyone, He gives him understanding of the Din. Knowledge is gained through learning.”
Abu Dharr pointed to his neck and said, “If you were to put the sword here and I thought I could finish saying a hadith that I heard from the Prophet before you finish me I would do it (say the hadith).
Ali stated, “Knowledge is better than possessions, because knowledge guards you while you guard possessions. Knowledge governs while possessions are governed. Possessions decrease by spending while knowledge increases with it.” People of knowledge are the ‘heirs of the Prophets’, as the Messenger of Allah said.
He also said, “Wisdom adds honor to the noble and exalts the slave until he reaches the level of kings.”
He, may Allah bless him and give him peace, also said, “A single ‘faquih’ is more to be feared by Shaytan than a thousand worshippers.”
This is because one who has knowledge can distinguish between haram and halal and see the dangers and machinations of Shaytan and thus avoid the traps he sets. But you must be careful with knowledge.
Knowledge can be dangerous.
It can be mistaken for information and can be misused. Hammad ibn Salama, who was considered one of the Abdal, said, “Whoever says a hadith for the sake of other than Allah, will be confused by it.”
A commentator pointed out that knowledge can confuse him because knowledge is like a fierce lion and Hadith is the core of knowledge.
This lion can only be tamed through the help of Allah, through fear of Allah and sincere intention.
Even if you tame the lion, you have to remain vigilant because if you neglect it, it will become rebellious again.
Then the lion will attack its owner and kill him.
Knowledge is a dangerous creature that requires caution and care.
This is reflected in what the Prophet, may Allah bless him and give him peace, said, which is narrated in Al Bukhari: “Allah will not take knowledge away from His slaves, but knowledge will be taken away with the men of knowledge who will be taken away until not a single man of knowledge is left. People will take ignorant people for leaders who will be consulted about things and give Fatwas without any knowledge. They will go astray and lead others astray.”
This does not mean that there will be no libraries or books of tafsir, hadith and commentaries.
Other hadiths speak of people who will know the Qur’an by heart but will not understand its meanings.
Their knowledge will remain in books and tongues but not in hearts and limbs.
Abu Darda related that he heard the Prophet say: “Allah revealed to one of the prophets: ‘Say to those who study fiqh for a purpose other than Din and to those who acquire knowledge for a purpose other than acting in accordance with it, that they have before the people the appearance of the lamb, but inwardly they are predatory wolves. Their tongues are sweeter than honey, but their hearts are bitterer than gall. They act deceitfully against Me and disdain Me. I will confront them with proofs that will confound even the most judicious”. Ibn Masud stated, “The Qur’an was revealed so that men may direct their lives in accordance with its teaching. Only if you do so, your life will work.”

Abu Allah ibn ‘Ata’ said, “Knowledge depends on acting upon it.”
This is how Imam Ash-shafi said, “Knowledge is not what is memorized. Knowledge is that which benefits.”
In other words, that which has results. The aim of Muslim Knowledge is to seek Allah’s pleasure and to create and maintain an environment in which one can act without interference to please Allah, to worship Allah as He is to be worshipped and to follow Allah’s commands and avoid that which He has forbidden. It is extremely difficult to put knowledge into practice if one is drowning in a sea of usury, deprived of any leadership to teach you how to swim there, let alone how to get out of it. From this derives the need to recognize the destructive and haram nature of usury and the need to establish the emirate, the Muslim leadership, to help put action with knowledge into practice. Action is necessarily broader than the sphere of the individual. It is very important not to reduce Islam to the narrowness of a private religion, separated from the realm of political and social action, as the Reformation did with Christianity, demolishing the political unity of Christianity and replacing it with a nebulous area of private consciousness. In fact, the tendency of modern reformers of Islam is to try to insinuate that very thing within Islam, along with the view that if one’s spiritual state is correct, or seems so, then there is no pressing need to bring the matter into the social arena. This results in complacency and the gradual weakening of Islam, and the erosion of its economic, political and social strength. Thus, what started as a small fissure, soon becomes a huge crack. Allah says: “You have a good model in the Messenger of Allah” (33:21). The word Allah uses for model is ‘uswa’ which means example or exemplar and the root of the word also connotes cure and comfort. Cure, according to the root of the word ‘asa’ is a cure with surgery. The cure here is surgical in nature; it is cutting the root of the evil to cure the body. The body in this case is the Muslim Ummah that has failed to act according to what is known. The truth is that action is failing because self-styled leaders are stifling action and other ambitious leaders are leading people in the wrong direction. The Muslim Ummah is definitely in need of healing, but the question is where to find it. The answer is: in the pattern of behavior taught by the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, which continued to be practiced in Medina where most of the Companions were. ‘Abdellah ibn ‘Umar said, “When a sedition occurs, if people refer the matter only to the people of Medina and if they agree on something, then the matter will be put in order. But when a dog barks, people follow him.” This is because, as we have said, the Hadith is a lion: The jurist ‘Abdellah ibn Wahb said, “The Hadith misleads people who are not people of knowledge. Had it not been for Malik and Al-Layth, I would have been lost.” They asked him, ‘How is that?’ and he said, ‘I knew a lot of Hadith and it confused me. I used to present them to Malik and Al-Layth and they would say, ‘take this one and leave that one’.” From this derives the importance of following those who know the meaning of the hadith and whether it was generally acted upon or not. ‘Umar ibn al Khatab, said, “I have forbidden, by Allah, The Exalted, The Exalted, for a man to convey a hadith that differs from the action on that matter.” That is to say that he says something different from what the confirmed practice of the people of Medina was. Malik Ibn Anas said, “The men of the people of knowledge among the Tabi’un related hadiths that had been transmitted to them and said, ‘We are not ignorant of them, but the action of the Companions was different.'” Ibn Mahdi said, “Often, I have many hadiths on a particular matter, but I see the people of suffa, the people of Medina, acting otherwise. Therefore, in my opinion, those hadiths become weak.” Ibn al-Mu’adhdhil said, “I heard a man ask Ibn Majishun, ‘Why do you relate the hadith and then leave it?'” He replied, “So that it will be known that we leave it with full knowledge about it.” It is important to note that none of the seditions and sects that developed did so in Medina because they applied this criterion. The process they followed is described in a letter from Malik bin Anas to al-Layth ibn Sa’id: “After the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, passed on to the hereafter, the people followed those of their community who were given authority after him. When something happened about which they had knowledge, they would carry it forward, but if they did not know, then they would consult about it and follow the strongest of what they found about the matter in question, through Ijtihad aided by the proximity in time of their contact with the Prophet, may Allah bless him and give him peace. If someone objected to it and said something stronger than the rule they had set, and better than it, then they would leave it and act according to the latter. Afterwards, the Tabi’un who followed them, followed that path and followed that sunna. Since the matter of Medina was external and acted upon, I have not seen anyone objecting to this on account of the inheritance they have received upon which no one is allowed to plagiarize or pretend. If people from other cities had started saying ‘this is the practice of our city and this is what those who preceded us did, they would not have been certain about it’.” Part of this path is to be extremely careful about rushing into declaring something haram. Malik said, “Nothing is harder for me than when I am asked something about halal and haram because this is absolute in Allah’s judgment. I have known people of knowledge and fiqh in our land and if any of them was asked about that, it was as if he would rather die than receive that question. But I see people now, wanting to argue about it and give fatwas. If they had understood that this is what they are leaving for tomorrow, they would have done little of this. As for ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, ‘Ali and the best of the Companions, and the best generation to whom the Prophet, may Allah bless him and give him peace, was sent, when questions came to them, they would gather the Companions of the Prophet, and ask. Then and only after that, they would give a Fatwa on the matter. The people of our day pride themselves on their knowledge and fatwas. It was not the business of those before us who were followed and upon whom Islam was based, to say, ‘This is halal and this is haram’ but they would say, ‘I dislike this and I think this’. But as for halal and haram, this is inventing things against Allah.” Malik also forbade arguing about the Deen. He said: “Disagreeing or arguing about matters of knowledge, takes away the light of belief from the heart”. And he also said, “disputes harden people’s hearts and create rancor”. Malik was asked: “Should a man with knowledge of the sunna argue about it?”, he said: ‘no, he should inform people about the sunna if they accept it from him. If not, he should remain silent.’ This does not take away active discussion on fiqh matters in the spirit of finding the truth, but it excludes debate for debate’s sake. For it leads to hardening of positions and disqualification of the opponent in the heat of discussion. So we have three types of people in terms of knowledge: – The one who follows true knowledge and applies it. – The one who seeks to satisfy his appetites. – The one who seeks to make people follow his opinions. Incidentally, Plato also divided mankind into these three categories according to the element of the soul prevailing in them. As for what concerns true knowledge, there is the following story of Hatim al-Asamm and the knowledge he acquired from his teacher Shaqiq al-Balkhi. It has been related that Shaqiq asked Hatim how long he had been with him, Hatim replied thirty-three years. Shaqiq then asked: and what have you learned during that time. Hatim said: ‘eight things’. Shaqiq exclaimed, “To Allah we belong and to Him we shall be returned, I have spent my whole life teaching you and you have only learned eight things?”. Hatim replied, “I have not learned anything else and I do not want to lie about it.” Shaqiq said, “Say then what are those eight things.” Hatim replied, “I have looked around me and I have seen that everyone has something or someone they love and stay with until death comes to them. And then that which they loved leaves them. That is why I have made good deeds the object of my love, so that when my time comes, that which I have loved will accompany me to the grave.” Shaqiq said, “You have done well, Hatim, what is the second thing you have learned?”. Hatim said, “I have reflected on the words of Allah: ‘For him who fears the station of his Lord and keeps his being with his back to passions, the Garden will be his dwelling place’ (79:40-41). I know that what Allah says is the Truth and therefore I have striven with myself to repel passion (hawa) until I was well established in obedience to Allah. “As for the third point, I looked at the people and saw everyone treasures and exalts whatever of value he has in his possession. Then I examined the words of Allah: ‘That which you possess will vanish, while that which is with Allah will continue’ (16:98). Then I began to give to Allah everything of value that came into my possession so that it would remain in His preservation. The fourth thing is that I looked at the people and saw that everyone put their trust in wealth, offspring, honor and lineage. When I examined those things I found them without substance. Then I considered the words of Allah: ‘Verily the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is he who has the most taqwa (Awareness of Allah)’ (49:13). So I dedicated myself to having Taqwa, so that I might have honor in the sight of Allah. The fifth thing is that I looked at the people and saw that they were slandering and cursing each other out of envy. Then I examined the words of Allah: ‘It is We who distribute the provision that they enjoy in the life of this world’ (43:31). Then I abandoned envy and became a brother to the people, knowing that everyone’s portion comes from Allah. Since then I have not felt the enmity of people. The sixth thing is that I saw men fighting among themselves and oppressing each other, so I turned to what Allah says: ‘Shaytan is an enemy to you, so take him as an enemy’ (35:6). Thus, I took Shaytan for my only enemy and I strived hard to be on guard against him because Allah has testified that he is my enemy. Accordingly, I stopped hating anyone else. The seventh thing is that I saw everyone running after his daily bread, stooping down and entering into all kinds of unlawful things to obtain it. Then I examined Allah’s words: ‘There is no creature on the face of the earth whose provision is not the responsibility of Allah’ (11:8). Then I realized that I was one of those creatures whose provision is Allah’s responsibility and I occupied myself with what is due to Allah and left my provision to Him. The eighth thing is that I looked at the people and saw that they all put their trust in something created, one in their land, another in their wealth, another in their work, and another in their physical health. They were all putting their trust in what has been created in the same way that they have been created. I turned to the words of Allah: ‘Whoever puts his trust in Allah, Allah is sufficient for him’ (65:3). So I put my trust in Allah and He is sufficient for me.” Shaqiq exclaimed, “Hatim, may Allah give you prosperity. I have studied the sciences of the Torah, the Gospel, the Psalms, and the Immense Qur’an and I have found that all the good contained in all of them revolves around these eight things. Anyone who practices them has put the four Books into practice”. Aisha Bewley