To gain understanding (of Islaam) ..

Saturday, November 7, 2009

To gain understandings (of Islam) by deriving the issues of fiqh (Islaamic rulings) by applying the [comprehensive] principles (of the Sharee'ah)


Behind knowledge of the religion is gaining understanding, and its learner is the one who ties the rulings in with established concepts of the Sharee'ah. In the hadeeth of Ibn Mas'ood [we find] that the Messenger of Allah (salallahu 'alaiyhi wasallam) said: "May Allah illuminate [the face of] a person who hears my saying and memories it, understands it and conveys it as he has heard it; and many a time a person is a carrier of knowledge but he is not a person with religious understanding, and many a time a carrier of knowledge carries to to someone who has more religious knowledge than him."1 Ibn Kathyr commented in the explanation of this hadeeth: "...and in it is an indication that fiqh is extrapolation and comprehending the meanings [of the texts], and it implicitly illuminates the obligation of learning jurisprudence, and searching for the meanings of the hadeeth, and deriving its hidden secrets."2


Shaykh al-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah and his student Ibn al-Qayyim have had a major impact in this field. Whoever reads from the books of these two Imaams will be lead to the straight path of learning.


And amongst the fine extracts of Shaykh al-Islaam's saying is what he said in a gathering of learning: "To proceed: indeed we were in a gathering of learning, and reflecting upon the comprehensive rulings of the Sharee'ah; by portrating, establishing, founding, elaborating [on these rulings]; so the topic changed to...and he mentioned an issue....So I say: there is no strength or might save through Allah, this [issue] is based upon a principle and two side issues..."


And know, may Allah guide you, that before learning is contemplation; for indeed Allah called His slaves in many verses of His Book to move, by wandering with deep vision, into deep contemplation upon the dominions of the heaven and earth, and close examination of themselves and their surroundings. Doing this opens the doors of intellectual power to their widest, strengthens the faith, deepens the [understanding of the] rulings, and leads to achievement knowledge:

"Thus Allah makes clear His Ayaat (Laws) to you, in order that you may understand."

                              [Suraatul Baqaraah (2):242]

"Say: Are the blind and the one who sees equal? Will you not then take thought?"

                                  [Suraatul An'aam (6):50]


Therefore, gaining understanding is better in the long run than contemplation because gaining understanding is the fruit and product of contemplation, otherwise

"What is wrong with these people that they fail to understand any speech?" 

                   [Suraatul Nisaa (4):78]


But gaining understanding is protected by proof, secluded from greed and desire:

"And if you were to follow their desires, after what you have received of knowledge then you would have against Allah neither any protector nor any helper."

                        [Suraatul Baqaraah (2):120]


O seeker of knowledge! Adorn yourself with vision and contemplation, and understanding and the gaining of understanding; perhaps you will pass the stage of being a jurist to [the stage of] being Faqeehin-Nafs (a person with psychological understanding) as the jurists say. He is the one who ties the rulings to the established concepts of the Sharee'ah. And in the terminology of the muhaditheen he is referred to as Faqeehil-Badaan.3


So clear your vision when faced with new issues by deriving the issues of fiqh (Islamic rulings) by applying the [comprehensive] principles (of the Sharee'ah), and paying complete attention to the principles and regulations (of Knowledge). 


When examining an issue [you should] combine between the following it up [through research] and applying the general fundamentals of the Sharee'ah and its established principals, such as the principles of collective interest, deterring harm and hardship, and drawing [religious] ease [to the religiously obliged person], closing the doors of artifices (tricks used to escape religious obligations or to get around the prohibited affairs of the religion), and blocking the means (to evil). In this manner you will always be directed towards guidance in your affairs, and it will also come to your aid in difficult situations


So adhere to gaining understanding - as I previously mentioned - in the Religious Text, and gaining insight into that which surrounds the circumstances of [religious] legislation, and contemplating upon the overall aims of the Sharee'ah. If your understanding is free of this, or your hearing is distant from hearing it, then you are wasting your time and indeed the name of ignorance has fallen upon you.


It is this characteristic in particular that gives you precise distinction, and the correct gauge as to the extent of your acquisition [of knowledge], and the ability to derive [rulings]. Hence the jurist is the one who, when faced by a case for which there is no text, he adapts a ruling for it. In just the same way a person associated to the art of composition in the Arabic language is not the one who can give you the categories [of this knowledge] and its branches, rather he is the one whose insight into eloquence penetrates the Book of Allah, so he extracts from its hidden knowledge many angles, and if he writes or gives a sermon; he will organise it like the beads of a necklace. And likewise in all subjects.

Footnotes:

1. Narrated by Ahmad (no. 4157), at Tirmidhee (10/124), Ibn Majaah (1/85) with an authentic chain of narrators and it is mutawaatir.
2. Fihrist Ibn al-Khayr, p.9.
3. Refer to their saying in Faqeeh al-Badan, Ma'aalim al-Eemaan (2/336, 340), and ath-Thiqaat by Ibn Hibbaan (9/242)

* Taken from the Etiquette of Seeking Knowledge by Shaykh Bakr Abu Zayd

Occasional revision of knowledge.

Occasional revision of knowledge.
Occasionally revise your knowledge from time to time because lack of revision is a sign of forgetting knowledge under any circumstances.' Abdullah ibn 'Umar narrated that the Messenger of Allah (salallahu 'alaiyhi wasallam) said: "The example of the carrier of the Qur'an is like no other than the owner of a camel whose [camel's] feet are bound by a cord; if he guards over it, he will keep it under control, but if he releases it, it will run away." Narrated by al-Bukharee, Muslim, and Maalik in his Muwatta.

Al-Haafidh ibn 'Abdil-Barr said: "In this hadeeth is a proof that whosoever does not revise his knowledge will lose it, whoever he may be because their knowledge at that time was the Qur'an and nothing else, and if the Qur'an which has been easy to remember is lost without revision, then what about other types of knowledge?! And the best type of knowledge is that of which its foundation is perfected and its branches are memorised, and that which leads to Allah and that which pleases Him." It was said by some [scholars]: "Every glory not emphasised by knowledge then humiliation is its destiny."1

Footnotes:

1. Sharh al-Ihyaa', (1/93)

* Taken from the Etiquette of Seeking Knowledge by Shaykh Bakr Abu Zayd

We have utterly wronged Allah and ourselves..

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Ibrahim ibn Adham (d.160H) - rahimahullah - said, when he was asked about the verse:

 "Call upon Me and I will respond to you." 

[Surah Ghafir 40:60]

They said: We call upon Allah, but He does nor respond to us. So he said:

"You know Allah; yet you do not obey Him. You recite the Qur'an; yet you do not act according to it. You know Shaytan; yet you continue agreeing with him. You claim to love Allah's Messenger 'alaiyhis-salam; yet you abandon his Sunnah (guidance and way). You claim to love Paradise, yet you do not work for it. You claim to fear the Fire; yet you do not stop sinning. You say, Indeed death is true; yet you have not prepared for it. You busy yourselves with the faults of others; yet you do not look at your own faults. You eat the sustenance that Allah provides for you; yet you are not grateful to Him. And you bury your dead; yet you have not heeded its lesson." 

3. Al-Hafidh Ibn Rajab related it in al-Khushu fis-Salah (p.62).

The Order for Ikhlaas and the Warning Against Riyaa' and Shirk

Know - my brother and sister Muslim - that it is vital to accompany actions with intentions. Allah's Messenger (salallahu 'alaiyhi wasallam) said: 'Indeed actions are (judged) by the intentions (behind them) and every man shall receive (only) that which he intended.'15

It is also vital to make the intention sincerely for Allah due to His saying:

'And they were not commanded except to worship Allah making the Deen sincerely for Him and being uprigth and true (in faith), to establish regular prayer and to practise regular charity. That is the right and straight Deen.'16

Allah the Exalted also said:

'And whether you hide what is in your souls or make it manifest Allah knows it.'17

Allah the Exalted has already warned against riyaa' when He said:

'And if you associate (partners with Allah) vain and useless will be your work.'18

The Messenger (salallahu 'alaiyhi wasallam) used to say when making talbiyyah19 for the Hajj: 'O Allah! A Hajj in which there is no showing off in it or seeking to be heard of.'20

The Messenger (salallahu 'alaiyhi wasllam) also warned against riyaa': What has been reported from Abu Hurayrah (radiallaahu ta'aala 'anhu) makes this clear. He said: 'I heard Allah's Messenger (salallahu 'alaiyhi wasallam) say: "The first people against whom judgment will be pronounced on the Day of Resurrection will be a man who died a martyr. He will be brought and Allah will make known to him His favors and he will recognize them. Allah will say: 'And what did you do about them?' He will say: 'I fought for you until I died a martyr.' He will say: 'You have lied - you did but fight that it might be said: "He is courageous." And so it was said.' Then he will be ordered to be dragged along on his face until he is cast into Hellfire. [Another] will be a man who has studied [religious] knowledge and has taught it and who used to recite the Qur'an. He will be brought and Allah will make known to him His favors and he will recognize them. Allah will say: 'And what did you do about them?' He will say: 'I studied [religious] knowledge and I taught it and I recited the Qur'an for Your sake.' He will say: 'You have lied - you did but study [religious] knowledge that it might be said [of you]: "He is learned." And you recited the Qur'an that it might be said [of you]: "He is a reciter." And so it was said.' Then he will be ordered to be dragged along on his face until he is cast into Hellfire. [Another] will be a man whom Allah had made rich and to whom He had given all kinds of wealth. He will brought and Allah will make known to him His favors and he will recognize them. Allah will say: 'And what did you do about them?' He will say: 'I left no path [untrodden] in which You like money to be spent without spending it for Your sake.' He will say: 'You have lied - you did but do so that it might be said [of you]: "He is open-handed." And so it was said.' Then he will be ordered to be dragged along on his face until he is cast into Hellfire."'21

Abu Hurayrah also reports: 'I heard Allah's Messenger (salallahu 'alaiyhi wasallam) say: "Allah the Exalted said: 'I am so self-sufficient that I am in no need of having an associate. Thus he who does an action for someone else's sake as well as Mine will have that action renounced by Me to him whom he associated with Me."'22

The Messenger (salallahu 'alaiyhi wasallam) also said: 'Whoever learnt knowledge by which the Face of Allah the Mighty and Majestic should be sought, but did not learn it except to gain a portion of the world will not smell the fragrance of Paradise on the Day of Judgment.'23

Footnotes:

15. Part of a hadeeth reported in the Saheehs of Muslim and al-Bukhari.

16. Suraatul Bayyinah (98):5.

17. Suraatu 'Imraan (3):29

18. Suratu-az-Zummar (39):65.

19. Ritual supplication made whilst circumambulating the Ka'baah in Mecca. The worshipper proclaims aloud: لبيك اللهم لبيك، لبيك لا شريك لك لبيك. أن الحمد و النعمة لك والملك، لشريك لك (Labbayk Allahumma labayk. Labbayka la shareeka laka labbayk. Innal-hamda wan-n'imata laka wal-mulk. La shareeka lak).

'Here I am O Allah, here I am. Here I am, you have no partner, here I am. Truly, all praises, grace and dominion is Yours, You have no partner.'

20. Reported by ad-Diya' with a saheeh isnad.

21. Reported by Muslim.

22. Reported by Muslim.

23. Reported by Abu Dawud with a saheeh isnad.

* The Book of Sincerity by Hussayn al-'Awaa'ishah

Preservation (of knowledge) through paying attention to it

Preservation (of knowledge) through paying attention to it
Do your utmost to preserve the knowledge by implementing it and following it. Al-Khateeb said: "It is incumbent upon the seeker of knowledge to purify his intention in seeking knowledge, and it should be achieving the pleasure of Allah. He should beware of making it a way to achieve materialistic gain, and a way of gaining [worldly] compensation; for the penalty of such has been set aside for the one who seeks that with his knowledge.

He should beware of boasting or showing off with it, and making his intention in seeking hadeeth for the sake of leadership and to gain a following or to summon gatherings (where hadeeths are narrated), for these were the flaws that some scholars fell into. He should preserve hadeeth by paying attention to it, and not just by narrating it, for the (verbal) narrators of knowledge are many and those who preserve it (by action) are few, and many-a-time a person who is present (physically and absent mentally) is as good as an absent person, and a knowledgeable person is as good as an ignorant person, and a carrier of hadeeth who has noting of it in his possession due to his rejection of its rulings is on the same level as one does not know it or rejects learning it.

The seeker of hadeeth should also be distinguished in his general affairs from the common people by implementing the narrations of the Messenger of Allah (salallahu 'alaiyhi wasallam) as much as he can, and implementing the traditions upon himself; for verily Allah said:

"Indeed in the Messenger of Allah (salallahu 'alaiyhi wasallam) you have a good example"

                           [Suraatul Ahzaab (33):21]

*Taken from "The Etiquette of Seeking Knowledge" by Shaykh Bakr Abu Zayd (rahmatullaahi 'alaiyh)

Preserving knowledge through writing [it]

Preserving knowledge through writing [it]1
Do your utmost to preserve the knowledge in written form, because binding knowledge by way of writing is a safeguard from losing it and a shortcut in the time it takes to search [for it] when it is needed, especially regarding issues that are not be found in their likely locations. Perhaps its greatest benefit is when you became old aged and weak: you will have at your disposal material from which to draw other material without any toil in searching and without having to carry out thorough research.

For this reason set aside a scrapbook, or a notebook for yourself where you can write the precious benefits and random topics that are not found in their likely locations, and if you use the cover of your notebook to index the contents, then this is fine. Then you would transfer what you have gathered into a [different] notebook, organise it according to subject, and write the heading of each issue, the name of the book, and the page and volume number. Then write above what you have written (in rough) "transferred" so as not to confuse it with that which has not been transferred, just as you might write: "reached page such-and-such" in that which you have read from the book, so as not to miss out what you haven't read. There are a number of works written by scholars in this manner, such as: Badaa'i al-Fawaa'id by Ibn al-Qayyim, and Khabaaya az-Zawaaya by az-Zarkashee, and al-Ighfaal, and Baqaayaa al-Khabaaya and many others.

Therefore bind the knowledge with writing,2 especially unique benefits that are not found in their likely locations, and things that are hidden in corners which are out of context, and scattered pearls which you see and hear that you fear will pass by and so on; and also because the memory will weaken, and forgetfulness is frequent. Ash-Sha'bee said: "If you hear anything, write it, even on a wall," narrated by Khaythamah.

If that which Allah willed to grant you (from knowledge) is gathered before you, then organise it in a notebook or scrapbook according to subject; for it will come to your aid in times of constraint in which even a very reliable person will be helpless in achieving anything.

Footnotes:

1. Al-Jaami' by al-Khateeb, (2/16, 183-185).
2. There is also a hadeeth to this meaning authenticated to the Prophet (salallahu 'alaiyhi wasallam). Refer to al-Silsilah as-Saheehah, (no. 2026).

* Taken from The Etiquette of Seeking Knowledge by Shaykh Bakr Abu Zayd (rahimatullaahi 'alaiyh) 

Emigrating for the sake of seeking knowledge

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

 Emigrating for the sake of seeking knowledge
"Whoever is not strong enough to travel, will never be travelled to [by the seekers of knowledge]."

So whosoever does not emigrate to seek knowledge in search of teachers, and travel to acquire from them, then it is very unlikely that he will become qualified enough to be travelled to because these scholars (who passed [their] time in learning and teaching, and being acquired from) possess knowledge (attained through research), precision, subtle points of knowledge, and experiences, that are very rarely found in the depths of books.

Beware of desisting from this (i.e. emigrating) as the idle members of the Sufi community do: those who prefer the knowledge of "rags"1 over the knowledge of "paper". It was once said to one of them: "Will you not travel to listen from 'Abdur-Razzaaq?" So he replied: "What do I want with listening from 'Abdur-Razzaq when I can listen to the Creator?"!

And another one said [in poetry]:

"And if they quote me from the knowledge of paper
                     I will excel with the knowledge of rags."

So beware of these people; for they did not give triumph to Islaam, nor did they defeat kufr, on the contrary there were amongst them those who were a burden and a tribulation to Islaam.

• From the Etiquette of Seeking Knowledge by Shaykh Bakr Abu Zayd