The Advice to the seeker

Adab on studying – leads us on a path that will give us fortune in this world and
hereafter, especially the hereafter.

Covers those aspects which a student can use and benefit from and help to get more
from their studies.

In Islam need respect for the area, the book, the scholars, Allah and His messengers as
well as be prepared as ilm is a nur. It is not given to anybody, the indepth benefit is
what is sought, the fortune of both worlds.

Students trying to attain knowledge but not reaching the goal as they have deviated
from its path, abandoned its condition, and any who deviates is lost and will not
receive its objective. Knowledge is gained in its full amount.

Teaching the student the way of study

Fardiyatul ‘ilm: ‘Seeking knowledge is an obligation upon the muslim man/woman.’

Fard to study ‘ilmul Haal, all that knowledge which every responsible person that will
correct his state in terms of his aqeedah and his being nurtured in the correct path.

What is the fadeelat of knowledge?

The most virtuous is that of ilmul haal, and the best of action is protecting the
minimum required of a person everyday.

The zaahid is who is careful and cautious of the doubtful and the disliked aspects in
all matters of trading and selling and likewise in all transactions. And anyone who
occupied himself with something, it becomes necessary upon him to learn and abstain
from its haram aspects.

Ilmul Qalb
Need to have knowledge of the inner action. Can be learned via the reaction of
people. Also there is obligatory knowledge of the heart i.e. reliance upon Allah etc.

Nobility of knowledge
It should not be foreign to anyone; all other aspects except knowledge are all aspects
which we share with other animals and people. Through learning Allah revealed the
superiority of Adam (a) over the angels.

Learn for learning is an adornment for one, who possesses it,

A virtue and a prelude to every praiseworthy action,
Profit each day by increasing your learning and swimming in the seas of beneficial
knowledge,
Give yourself up to the knowledge of jurisprudence,
For the knowledge of jurisprudence is the best guide to piety and the fear of Allah,
And it is the straightest path to the ultimate goal,
It is the milestone leading to the ways of proper guidance,
It is the fortress that saves one from all hardships,
Indeed one godly righteous person versed in jurisprudence is more powerful against
shay tan than a thousand worshipers who do not have the knowledge.

Two types of sciences:

1. Fiqh - Action
2. Medicine - Body
Everything else is to do with making clear the above/big discussion and way to pass
your gatherings.

Fiqh literally meaning understanding. It is to get the subtleties of knowledge.

True knowledge is when you act upon it, otherwise it is just information.

Hence man must seek out what is useful and avoid what is harmful to the soul lest it
be against him on the day of judgement…gathering always know more than others, is
that the reason so you could have the prestigious position? The punishment will
increase if we use the knowledge wrongly.

Intention while studying – Purpose of Study

Especially during studying our niyyah needs to be correct. This makes the science
different from other sciences, niyyah has to be for Allah, then the information we gain
will become true knowledge so we can have action, this is true knowledge. Otherwise
is becomes raw data, raw information.

We should try to please our parents as much as possible without compromising our
deen.

Niyyah is the origin in every state of ours. It is such an asset for us, that even a
mundane action can be blessed.

How many actions are considered to be worldly actions, but because of the intention it
can be rendered to rewarding actions. The Scholar, Rich and Martyr will be among
the first to enter the hell fire.

Hukm: Correct your intention. But what should our intentions be?

It is necessary for the muta’alim to make the following intention:

1. Pleasure of Allah

If primary intention is to others/benefit them this is not good. The most we need is for
ourselves, we don’t take others to paradise at the expense of yourself. IF one is
standing in the first row, and one behind him to be more respected and the first row
person offers to change places, many scholars say since 1st row is more deserving of
reward then you should not give the row up. Others have said out of his respect
maybe Allah will bless you. Again, when making dua make dua for yourself first and
then others.

2. For the hereafter

Even before Jannah we want the pleasure of Allah. IF Allah is pleased with us then
the Jannah will come.

3. To remove ignorance from oneself.

How do we remove ignorance? We cannot act upon our ignorance with ilm this way
we are removing our ignorance.

4. Remove ignorance from every ignorant person.

Everyone is ignorant to some extent.

5. Reviving the religion

6. To continue to solidify Islam, or to keep it going.

Through knowledge you will keep islam up as the standing of islam is through
knowledge. Without knowledge nobody will practise.

Fear of Allah cannot be correct or valid without knowledge.

Fitnatun Adheema: Hidayah, Burhan ud Deen

An immoral man of learning is of great evil (a transgressing person of knowledge

can be misleading others in fatawa or action)
Yet a greater evil is an ignoramus leading a Godly life (Alim will one day come,
without the ‘ilm he could be lead further and further in greater ignorance and bidah.
Whereas the Alim, then knowledge can benefit later on. Knowledge comes in and
fights with the person to act. If he keeps subduing it, it may be lost and completely
subdued, but it is so strong that one day will give him the guilty conscious and will
return to knowledge.)
Both are a great trial everywhere (both the Alim or the innovator. Ignorant following
the ignorant)
To whom ever cling to his religion (someone is trying to cling on his religion but the
one who gives wrong fatwa can cause this person to go astray)

What a person should abstain from in his intentions:

1. He must not intend for people to turn to him for his knowledge i.e.
personal fame (One must intend with his knowledge to be thankful to Allah, a
healthy mind and a sound body and benefit himself)

2. He must not do it to reap the benefits and vanities of the world (ref. to
bani Israel, how scholars will sell/manipulate verses and give wrong
interpretation based on the whims and desires of the person asking and giving
a payment etc. If a person intention by studying the deen is to get a good job,
earn some money, learn and produce books, is a business venture, then this is
incorrect. Your are belittling the deen and the knowledge of Allah. The
rewards of it are so great but we are distracted by the dunya. Everything is
cursed except for the dhikr of Allah, the Alim and the Muta’Alim. Then why
 give preference to that which is cursed over that which isn’t cursed. Study to
gain the worldly gain or you do it for the sake of Allah and you will naturally
get the worldly gain. No point in adulterating the intention and the reward,
which will not increase our provisions.)

Mohammad ibn Hasan: One of the greatest fuqahaa, had the capability of starting
his own madhab. ‘If the people all of them were my slaves, I will emancipate them
and I will free myself of their patron.’ Why? Because he who finds pleasure in
knowledge and acting in accordance to it, rarely does he desire worldly possessions.
Those who love Allah and have tasted the pleasure will do the nawaafil act, as they
want to connect and speak to Allah. They will find excuses to talk to Allah.
‘This is because whoever experiences the pleasures of knowledge and acting upon
it… rarely does he desire worldly possessions’

Knowledge naturally has this property of being elevated; the persons rank is raised,
whatever the knowledge is. So when a person gains knowledge he will naturally feel
pride. You have to be careful with it, that you don’t begin to humiliate someone else.

‘Whoever strives of knowledge for the hereafter, obtains great gains in

righteousness. But he is in utter loss who seeks knowledge to gain advances over
people.’ (Must be very in line with what you’re doing and shouldn’t go in excess with
intention so can enjoin the good and forbid the evil, you may seek the knowledge and
to promote the truth and strengthen the religion. But never in order to satisfy ones
egos and desires, the repression of selfish aims becomes more possible the more the
learned takes to enjoin the good and forbid the evil)

It is essential for one who strives for knowledge to reflect on what we have said on
this, one should seek knowledge with great personal assiduity and not apply it to this
base, small and perishable world. As the poet said:

‘The world is more worthless than the worthless for those who understand
the reality of it.
And its lover is baser than the base, it renders people deaf by its magic and
makes them blind for sure, so they become perplexed with no guide.’

(i.e. they are hayraan-as the confused/perplexed person who doesn’t know his way
around and he has no guide and so he is stumbling around the darkness.)

No point in putting on such a noble thing for the sake of the world but reserve it for
the hereafter.

Raf’atul Alim.

Knowledge incites a person to act proudly so we are to subdue this. However at the
same time an Alim must not do things which are below his position. And sometimes
that is more effective than speaking the knowledge. To act out the knowledge, act on
the dictates of the knowledge and carry yourself as a sensible, god fearing person. A
person can recognise a person of knowledge by looking at how the person carries
himself.
It behoves one who seeks knowledge not to debase himself by desiring what should
not be desired, by coveting what should not be coveted. Selling his knowledge etc.

He should abstain from that which degrades learning and its bearers; i.e. to be seen in
places where a person of knowledge should not be seen.

One should also be modest for modesty lies between arrogance and self abasement,
chastity too is like this can be learned from the book Kitaabul Akhlaq.

A person of knowledge should be wary and careful that his knowledge can lead him
to hell if he doesn’t do it properly or overcomes him in the negative sense.

Verily Allah can support His deen through a faajir.

Imaam RuknDeen:

Indeed modesty is a quality of the God fearing and by it do the pious ascend to
sublime heights. A wondrous thing is the wondering of the ignorant about his
condition whether he is happy or retched or his wondering about how life will end
or whether his soul on the day of his death will descend or ascend. Truly pride
belongs to our lord an attribute peculiar to him so avoid it and fear Allah.

Allah looks upon the servant, and if the servant is not challenging Allah, Allah
honours him, or otherwise Allah puts him down.

Greatness and might belongs to Allah alone. If one tries to act very humble, giving
others the benefit of the doubt, then Allah sees this and elevates him in the sight of the
people.

‘Oh Allah make me small in myself, and make me big in the sight of people.’

Abu Hanifa (R)

(two wasiyaah – aqeedah/commonsense)
‘Make your turbans ample and enlarge your sleeves, so scholarship and its bearers
will not be slighted by the people.’

It is compulsory for he who seeks knowledge to acquire the kitaabul wassiyah.

Don’t ever condemn another’s opinion to prove your opinion as you are attacking
him. So he will not listen to you. A taalib ‘ilm when he studies should not be married.

What sciences to study

The teacher

Companion in studying

Steadfastness in studying once you go in the path

When undertaking the pursuit of knowledge it is necessary to choose among the
braches of learning those that are the most beneficial to oneself. One should also
select what is essential according to the stage one has reached in ones religious
development. And finally should choose what will be essential to one in the future.
With this the individual will perfect himself in the knowledge of the oneness of Allah
and learn about Allah the exalted through sound evidence for the faith of one who
blindly follows authority even though it may be correct in our view is still defective
because of his failures to seek out proofs. It is essential to choose established
traditions before newer things. It is said cleave on to established traditions while
avoiding new things.

Beware of becoming involved in disputes that come about after having cut loose from
traditional authorities, for such dispute keeps the student away from knowledge,
wastes away his life and leaves him with nothing but solitude and hostility. The
prevalence of disputes is one of the indications of the coming of the hour and is the
annihilation of knowledge and doctrine.

What is the most important to study; studying the religion is not a study of a subject
that you want to make your career. It’s a way of life, a need and a responsibility as a
believer one study the sciences to the extent needed to understand his faith. And to get
the true picture of what is essential for a person

What to study
Halal and haraam. To know Allah, the correct knowledge about Allah, and to reach
that ultimate in that regard as to be able to understand that Allah’s ability and qudrat
and power is in everything that we see. This is the knowledge of tawheed.

Once a person has correct understanding of Allah, then following that everything
becomes easy as they have the ground cleared for everything to be absorbed.
Otherwise may have problems in understanding the halal and haraam as the will have
a problem with faith, their logic may tell them something else.

It will be easy then to follow the halal, the fard, the obligation and abstain from the
haram and unlawful aspects if we recognise Allah. We will not allow anything to
come before Allah.

Its okay to follow what someone else tells you as long as your trust that person to be
on a position of understanding and level of education and insight into the religion, you
can follow what they tell you in regards to Allah, theology etc. It is okay to do
taqleed.

However, sometimes if a person becomes confused then to give himself the

conviction and to dispel any doubts in his mind then sometimes he needs to go
beyond than just reading without evidence, and to try to go beyond that in
understanding the reason for it. It is through evidence and daleel that you heart finds
contentment in it. i.e. the story of Ibraheem (s)

Two steps of conviction process

1. Hear and believe
2. See and experience
Gained the haqqul yaqeen, so no way can be changed.

Try to stay, cleave on to that which has been firmly established in the past, rather than
take on new discoveries or new ideas because they are prone to many things, not
tested by time etc. If you have to follow someone, then follow someone who has
passed away and his understanding and his position has been established.

In regards to the one who is alive, then he is not safe from fitnah, we don’t know what
will happen to him in the future. The dead are an established authority.

Doesn’t mean we only ready the books of the past predecessors, only means to take
the ultimate authority. The current teachers are to present the material of the past
scholars in a way we can understand it.

In Aqeedah there are a lot of issues that came up due to philosophy and then there
were many different schools who differed on their approach to Aqeedah. Some
strictly adhered to Qur’an and Sunnah and left no room to interpret and explain.

Abu Ashari, has opposition from muhadditheen as they said you cannot use
philosophy, rhetoric or anything to explain the Islamic understanding and the oneness
of Allah. He took the middle course, away from mutazilites who would complete rely
on rhetoric and philosophy. Neither did he take the approach which is just to say
Quran and Sunnah and not explain in a away that people can understand at that time.
Keeping in mind people were influenced by philosophy and therefore things had to be
explain via a though process. If imam Ashari didn’t use the approach he did, he may
not have been able to bring the people back to the correct belief.

Be careful don’t go into side rhetoric once understanding has been achieved. Don’t
indulge in the ‘ilmul kalaam if it is not necessary.

What kind of teacher to learn from

Important to select the most learned, the most pious (knowledge without practise will
not benefit as much as it is just the raw knowledge without the spirit of it being there),
and the most advanced/experienced in years in this way that Abu Hanifa chose
Hammad after due deliberation and reflection.

Abu Hanifa: ‘I found him venerable, with a serious, mean and gentle patience. I was
on a safe ground with Hammad and under him did I grow’

It is important to make mashwara. A way of the Prophet (s) even though he’s affairs
were guided. Ali ibn Abu Talib ‘no man ever perished from seeking advice.’