FOREWORD

All praise and glory belongs to Allāh taʿālā alone, Creator of the Heavens and Earth and all in
between, and much more that we do not know anything about.
When, in search of guidance, our Prophet Muḥammad—ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wassalam—
retired to the cave of Hirāʾ, Allāh taʿālā sent him the angel Jibrāʾīl with the words of the first
Waḥy, “Read, in the name of thy Lord who created.” Here Allāh subḥānahu wa taʿālā is
introducing Himself to the best of the best among His Creations. And how did He choose to
introduce Himself? His qualities and characteristics are such that the oceans turned to ink would
not suffice to describe them. Among all of these infinite qualities, Allāh taʿālā chose to
introduce Himself as the Creator of Man, the One who gave Man knowledge of that which he did
not know. The Waḥy itself begins with the command to Read, and shows the extreme
importance of knowledge, and of the transmission of knowledge by the means of writing and by
the heart to heart transmission which took place between the angel Jibrāʾīl and our prophet
Muḥammad—ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wassalam.
What was the impact of this knowledge which was given to the Muḥammad—ṣallallāhu
ʿalayhi wassalam—and imparted by him to his followers, the Companions? This knowledge
brought them out from the darkness of Jāhiliyyah into the Nūr of Īmān. There was a dramatic
transformation, an internal revolution, within the lives of the Companions. From the savagery of
the Jāhilliyah they changed to those who were praised by Allāh because they fed others while
being themselves hungry. This internal revolution was accompanied by an external revolution.
The Muslims spread over the world with a burning message from God, which charged them to
become the best of the communities, and to spread good, and to prohibit evil. This was the first
time in the history of mankind that swords were used to free mankind from oppression, on behalf
of the masses, and not for conquest, looting and luxury.
The dramatic transformation created by the teachings of Islām in the lives of the Muslims
changed the tides of history. For a powerful description, see the book, Mā Dhā Khasir al-ʿĀlam
bi Inḥiṭāṭ al-Muslimīn by Syed Abuʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī al-Nadwī. Not only did oppression, darkness,
and injustice of all kinds dominated the pre-Islamic world, but these were considered natural and
socially acceptable. The radical message of Islām brought concepts which were unknown to the
world at the time. The revolutionary effect of the teachings of Islām was foreshadowed in a
prophecy which is still contained in the Bible: “I still have much to tell you, but you cannot yet
bear to hear it. However, when the Spirit of Truth (Prophet Muḥammad) comes, He will guide
you into all truth.” Among the many truths which the world could not bear to hear, central to
Islam, is the equality of all human beings before God, of the responsibility of the strong to
protect the weak, and of the rightful share of the poor in the excess wealth of the rich.
Our Prophet who was sent as a Mercy towards all the Worlds was the founder of a
civilization built around the core values of concern, compassion and service for all of the
creation of God. “All creatures are (like) a family of God, and He loves the most those who are
kindest to His family.” The Islamic civilization was based on the ideals of generosity,
cooperation, good will towards all human beings, kindness towards animals, and care for the
environment as a gift of God to humankind. In contrast with dominant ideas about religion at the
time, excellence in conduct was declared to be the highest form of worship: “He who cares for
widows and the poor is like those who fight in the way of Allāh or those who spend their days
fasting and their nights praying.” The motivation for good deeds was not to be fame, glory,
popularity or wealth, but an internalized love of Allāh: “And they feed, for the love of Allāh, the
poor, the orphan, and the captive …” The prophet Muḥammad—ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wassalam—
was comforted in the Holy Qurʾān and told “not to kill himself with sorrow” because of his
concern and compassion for all mankind. This excellence in conduct is to be emulated by all
Muslims: “The believer loves and is loved by others.”
The dramatic achievements of the Islamic civilization over more than a thousand years
cannot be encapsulated in several libraries, let alone a brief forward. Unique features of this
civilization remain unreplicated and are ideals sorely and urgently needed by the world today. As
just one example, brotherhood and equality are vigorously asserted in both Ḥadīth and Qurʾān;
for example, in the last Sermon, our Prophet declared that:
All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab
has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over a black nor a black has any
superiority over a white except by piety and good action.

The transmission of these radical ideas from the advanced civilization of Andalus, Islamic Spain,
to the primitive Europe of the time transformed their Dark Ages into the European
Enlightenment. Among many recent writings, the books, The Enlightenment Qurʾān, Is Science
Western in Origin? and The Theft of History, document both the transmission and the
concealment of the Islamic origins, of the revolutionary body of knowledge from the Muslims to
Europe. The slogans of Rousseau “Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality” which inspired the French
Revolution and ushered in the modern age are directly borrowed from the teachings of Islam, and
are strongly in conflict with the previous history of Europe based on aristocracy. Because these
Islamic teachings are powerfully aligned with human nature (fiṭrah), they have carved out a
place in Western thought. Recent resurgence and rising popularity of racism, the “Black Lives
Matter” movement in USA, and anti-immigrant sentiments in Europe, show that these ideas have
not yet been fully assimilated.
Today, after a long and complex historical process which cannot be detailed here,
darkness has again fallen upon the world, and the spirit of the pre-Islamic Jāhilliyah dominates.
By the early 20th century, the West had conquered about 85% of the entire world, killing off
more than 20% of the entire world population, and expropriated natural and human resources of
the entire planet on an unprecedented scale. This conquest and exploitation was accompanied by
the rise of fabricated Eurocentric histories, philosophies and social thought processes built to
justify and glorify these achievements. There is no Islamic thinker parallel to Machiavelli, who
argued that the ends justify the means. For obtaining, solidifying, and extending power, he
preferred cruelty to love, and advocated the use of all means foul and fair, including mass killing
of innocents, and ruthless punishments to terrify the populace into submission. He is widely
considered to be the founder of modern political thought, and the dramatic effects of his political
theories and policies can be seen globally in the past century, which has been by far the bloodiest
in human history.
Today, entire nations are destroyed and millions killed because of some profit to be had
from this death and destruction and because the West has the power to bring it about. His lessons
about using fear instead of love for control, have been absorbed in the form of domestic
propaganda to keep the populace terrified by phantom threats, and wars based on the shock-and-
awe strategy of inflicting massive damage on civilians to crush the spirit of resistance. Instead of
being condemned, these acts of unparalleled barbarity are conducted openly on the world stage
and celebrated, while the killing of a handful of men by some madmen is the subject of global
discussion and condemnation.
 Whereas Islam condemns the pursuit of wealth for its own sake, this is precisely the heart
and soul of capitalism. Instead of viewing wealth as a means to obtaining legitimate and
permissible comforts and pleasures, everything, including human lives, are just resources for the
production of wealth. In a capitalist society, everything is for sale: surrogate mothers, kidneys,
adopted children, caring for ones parents, etc. Due to the reversal of means and ends, in nearly
every dimension of life, vices have become virtues, while virtues are vices. Hollywood
celebrates and popularizes torture, killings of innocents, prostitution, homosexuality, infidelity,
and countless other types of misbehaviors and madness. Instead of considering our planet as a
sacred trust to be cherished and preserved, all natural and human resources are being exploited to
produce wealth, resulting in a looming environmental catastrophe. Wall Street ideas that “greed
is good” and all is fair in pursuit of profits, are destroying species of plants and animals which
have inhabited the biosphere for ages, and the composition of the seas and atmosphere is
changing due to pollution by industrial wastes. While human life on the planet is at risk, multi-
million propaganda campaigns to sow doubt about climate change are being carried out, in order
to protect corporate profits. All the evils and vices of the pre-Islamic Jāhilliyah and many more
not conceived of in those simple times are present in the modern times.
Darkness is nothing more than the absence of light. The presence of ignorance and evil
cannot be blamed on the West. As the light of knowledge brought into the lives of Muslims
dimmed and darkened, the forces of darkness grew and became stronger. It appears that we live
in times which fulfill the prophecy that a time will come when Islām remains only in name, and
the Qurʾān remains only in the written form (and not in the hearts and actions of Muslims). In all
dimensions of life, Islāmic ideas and ideals have been forgotten. The form of government based
on Khilāfah and Shūrā has been replaced by Western parliamentary forms, and the Muslims have
learned to idolize Western democracy. Our economic system is based on capitalistic forms. Our
social norms are deeply affected by lifestyles depicted by Hollywood. Individualism, pursuit of
pleasure, rebellion against conventional social structures, and other western values in conflict
with traditional Islāmic values of obedience and respect for elders and parents are becoming
more common. Our systems for provision of health and education, and the substance of the
education provided, are deeply influenced by Western models, and in dramatic conflict with
Islāmic ideals. In particular, the idea that one could make profits by caring for the sick, and that
children must pay to get an education is repugnant and alien to Islamic values.
Even the religious institutions retain only their form, but not their spirit. The madrasahs
were the center of learning of all types, at the forefront of knowledge in all fields. Today it has
become confined to religious learning by rote memorization of problems which concerned our
ancestors. Our ancestors applied Islamic principles to produce creative solutions in the Islamic
spirit to constantly emerging new problems created by the processes of historical change.
Emulating them means using their methodologies to solve our contemporary problems, not
copying their solutions to different problems. Extreme emphasis on neighbors’ rights and regular
community gathering at the masjids were meant to create living communities, which are central
units of organization in an Islāmic civilization. Today the mosques are purely centers of worship
where people perform ritual prayers without the required intense engagement of mind and heart,
and without any understanding of the purpose of the mosque.
The decay and decline of the Ummah, and the rise of the West, is a problem which has
concerned all Muslim leaders, ever since the early 20 th century where liberation movements
succeeded in freeing the Muslim lands from colonial rule. Different leaders have come up with
different diagnoses, and accordingly proposed different remedies. The vast majority of the
Muslim leadership has placed emphasis on following the West, adopting their systems in
economics, politics, education, as well as science and technology, as the sole route to revival.
More religiously minded leaders have placed emphasis on different dimensions of Islam. The
Salafis and Wahhabis felt that our current decline is due to the adoption of bidʿah and
weaknesses in ʿaqīdah. The Ikhwān felt that political rule must be grasped by the Muslims. A
more extreme form adopted by certain groups felt that we must re-establish the Khilāfah as the
first priority. The Jamāʿah Tablīgh waʾl-Daʿwah feels that the main responsibility of the Ummah
is to spread good and prohibit evil by the means of daʿwah. Some Muslim groups have
emphasized service. Others have emphasized dhikr, yet others religious education.
Other groups are working on creating harmony, tolerance, as well building the character
of Muslims and creating distinctly Islāmic forms of education. Just as there are seventy seven
branches of Īmān, so the Islāmic civilization is built on a wide variety of essential components.
Strong differences of opinion exist between different Islamic groups in terms of which of the
branches should be our first priority. These differences reflect the mercy of Allāh, because
Islamic revival requires coordinated efforts on different fronts at the same time. When different
groups prioritize different necessary dimensions, they all work together, without conscious
realization, towards the much-needed revival.
Despite difference in priorities among different thought leaders in the Islamic civilization,
there is no doubt that our first priority must be the revival of Islamic Knowledge, which is at the
root, and provides guidance for all efforts of the Dīn, as well as defining the dimensions of along
which such efforts must be made, and providing priorities. However, as we will explain in
greater detail, there are very serious and major obstacles in the path of creating a revival of the
Islāmic Sciences of Knowledge. Translating, understanding and implementing this important
volume of Imam Al-Nawawī regarding the principles for seeking knowledge is an essential and
fundamental element in overcoming these obstacles.
The greatest obstacle to revival of Islamic knowledge is the loss of self-confidence of the
Ummah due to about two centuries of repeated defeats on numerous fields. This has led
enormous awe and respect for Western knowledge, and unthinking and uncritical acceptance of
Western views and ways. The Ummah has forgotten the Quranic imperative:
َ‫ض ِل هَّللا ِ َو ِب َر ْح َمتِ ِه فَ ِب َذلِكَ فَ ْليَ ْف َر ُحوا ه َُو َخ ْي ٌر ِم َّما يَ ْج َمعُون‬
ْ َ‫قُ ْل ِبف‬

Say: Let them rejoice in the bounty and mercy of God;

that is better than what they amass.
(Yunus; 58)

Allāh taʿālā’s greatest gift and blessing to mankind is the Qurʾān, and the knowledge within it is
far greater than all that can be gathered by mankind. After having been granted this gift, to look
elsewhere for guidance is the greatest ingratitude and disrespect, as well as ignorance which
harms only us. Neglecting the Qurʾānic command not to do so (3:196), most Muslims have been
deceived by the apparent wealth and power of those who have rejected the message of God.
The West holds that the purpose of life is to acquire wealth, and the power and glory of
nations are defined by who has the most wealth. Most Muslims have accepted these criteria.
Most Muslims think that the path to recovering the lost glories of the Ummah lies in imitating
the West and in pursuing wealth and power just like they counsel us to do. This has led to a
perversion in the concept of knowledge, that useful knowledge is that which allows us to earn
money. Increasing commercialization of the Western educational sector has led to the
widespread understanding that knowledge which does not lead to wealth (like that of the Qurʾān)
is useless. Also, the worth of human lives is evaluated in terms of their ability to earn money.
This capitalist way of thinking has now infected the minds and hearts of the Ummah, who have
forgotten that the riches of this world are so worthless that (43:33) Allāh taʿālā would have built
the houses of the unbelievers from gold and silver, but did not do so to save us from a strong
temptation to reject the Dīn.
To appreciate the treasures of knowledge of Islam, a radical change of perspective is
required. This was among the first lessons taught by the Prophet to the Companions when he
asked them about two passersbys. The first was a man with high status, who commanded the
respect of the community, while the second was a poor Muslim with no social status. The
Prophet S.A.W. told them that the second man had greater status in the eyes of Allāh than a
whole world full of the first kind. It was the internalization of this reversal of status that created
an internal revolution in the lives of the Muslims, and led to an external revolution in the whole
world.
Today the path to this revolution remains open to Muslims. The first step is to reject the
western definition in favor of the Islamic definition of useful knowledge as that which enters the
heart. This knowledge brings us closer to Allāh and leads use to maʿrifah and awe of Allāh
(35:28). This book of Imam Al-Nawawī deals with the vitally important topic of how to
recognize, value, and take steps towards the acquisition of such knowledge. The first step in this
direction is the preparation of the heart with the right intention, which is both essential and
difficult. The book provides a guide to the preparations a student must make to embark on this
lifetime journey towards knowledge, and towards the fountain and source of all knowledge,
Allāh subḥānahu wa taʿālā.
Although understanding, absorbing, and implementing the substance of knowledge
contained within this book is of essential importance to all efforts for the revival of Islam, by
itself this will not be sufficient. This is because the rivers of knowledge have become polluted at
the source when all teaching being done in schools and universities throughout the Islamic world
is based on western principles. It is the urgent need of the hour to revise the syllabi to put the
style and substance of all knowledge being taught into the format described in this book. In all
our courses, we must ensure that the teachers and the students make the intentions to seek
knowledge for the sake of the pleasure of Allāh. Instead of using knowledge for personal benefits
and earning wealth, we must use our knowledge to serve the Ummah, out of the love of Allāh. It
appears difficult to convert or adapt existing courses copied from atheistic Western sources for
this purpose, but there are many ways that this can be done. Making such an effort is vital for the
future of the Ummah.
I have created a course called “Introduction to Statistics: An Islamic Approach” to
illustrate how this can be done, in the hope that parallel efforts can be made in all fronts of
knowledge. Thousands of scholars will be required for this task, but with the help of Allāh, this
task of Islāmization of knowledge can be accomplished successfully.
Perfection and Excellence belong to Allāh alone. I close with a prayer that Allāh accept
our humble efforts, forgive and overlook our faults and defects, and make our works to be of
value and benefit to the Ummah, and protect the Ummah from any harms arising from errors and
mistakes in our understanding, actions and expressions.

Professor Dr. Asad Zaman

Vice Chancellor
Pakistan Institute for Development Economics
Islamabad, Pakistan