Abu Taymiyyah – Shaykh Saleh As Suhaymee Virtues Of Knowledge & The Scholars [Day 1 Session 1]
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Respected
brothers and sisters. We have a great opportunity
today,
to be together
in a house
of Allah
to study the knowledge of Islam and to
remind one another whatever is to do with
it.
And I ask Allah
to
benefit us with this, gathering
and with the following gatherings inshallah
and to teach us and to grant us
beneficial knowledge
and also to grant us good deeds.
And we seek refuge with Allah
from the type of knowledge that does not
benefit
and from a heart that does not submit
to Allah
and from
dua supplication
that is not answered.
As well as thanking
after that, after thanking Allah,
we thank the brothers who have made this
possible.
And we also thank our respected chef Faisal
and his helpers and brothers in Kuwait as
well as the brothers present here
and others who have made every effort to
make this conference happen.
And also, we ask Allah to give us,
sincerity
and following of the prophet
in all of these
endeavors.
Respected brothers and sisters and our beloved brothers,
we will inshallah
divide the following lecture
in relation to the virtue of the of
the scholars and the knowledge into 3 parts.
The first one to do with the knowledge
and the second to do with the virtue
of the knowledge, and the third to do
with the virtue of the ulama, the scholars.
As for the first point of the importance
of knowledge and the fact that we must
build everything upon sound knowledge and that we
must, start everything with knowledge, then I say
the following.
A chapter heading which was explained by Sheikh
Mohammed bin Abdulwahab Rahimahullah
saying chapter knowledge comes before any sayings and
actions.
And Sheikh Mohammed bin Abduloha
said,
no. May Allah have mercy upon you that
it is an obligation upon every Muslim
to learn 4 issues. The first is that
it's necessary to get sound knowledge.
2nd is to act upon that knowledge. 3rd
is to call to that knowledge. And 4th,
to be patient upon calling to that knowledge.
So he started with,
the knowledge before anything else.
And what, we have in the book of
Allah in relation to this topic is the
saying of Allah,
the know that there is no deity worthy
of worship except Allah
and seek forgiveness from your sins, which means
that the person
must act upon
with his heart and tongue and his body.
He must say it with his tongue and
believe it in his heart and act upon
it with his body. But before all of
that comes knowledge
that must precede any words or actions.
And the ulama considered the first condition of
to be knowledge, which
is contradicted and opposed by ignorance.
And this why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said
that no one possesses the dominion except
those who,
do do no one,
gives,
Shahada.
No one gives witness
except the one who knows
and the the one who witnesses with truth
and he knows.
And that means that Allah does not accept
the intercession of anyone
except someone who testifies to the truth, which
means
and he knows the meaning and acts upon
it. And they know
that and they have knowledge of it.
And the very first portion of the Quran
that was revealed upon the prophet
was a command and encouragement to learn.
Allah
said, to the prophet,
read in the name of your Lord who
created
created man from a clot of blood.
Read and your Lord is the most generous,
the one who taught man what he didn't
know, and he taught through the pen. So
he commanded him to remember that great favor
and to learn and to teach.
And the companions of the prophet alayhi salatu
wasalam
never used to do
anything except after making sure that they had
proof for what they're doing or saying or
believing
And one of the great tabi in the
generation after the companions, Abu Abdul Rahman as
Surah Mirahmahullah
said
that those who used to teach us the
Quran,
the likes of and and
They used to teach us 10 ayaat
verses from the Quran,
and they would teach us how to understand
them and to act upon them. And therefore,
we wouldn't go to the other 10 ayat
until we have learned how to understand those
first 10 ayat correctly
and how to act upon them. So we
learned knowledge and action together.
And Mujahid Rahimahullah
said that I stopped Ibn Abbas and studied
with him every ayah of the Quran
three times how to know and understand and
act upon it.
Therefore, it's an obligation upon us to start
to learn before we say or do anything.
And the companions, may Allah be pleased with
them
They used to take turns
since they were busy. Some of them had
agriculture and, different,
kind of,
gardens to look after.
They would take turns
in going to the prophet
and visiting him and learning from him. So
the person whose turn it was to go
to the prophet
he would go and learn and come back
to his,
brother and teach him. And the second one
would go and learn in the same way,
inform the first of what,
he missed.
There now we turn our attention to the
second point of the lecture, and that is
the virtue of Islamic knowledge.
First of all, we must know that
from the great virtues of Islamic knowledge
is that it is the only way to
properly know this religion.
Therefore, it's not permissible for us to do
anything
except based upon knowledge taken from the book
and the sunnah.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said in the Quran,
say, this is my way.
I call to Allah upon knowledge and upon
Basira,
me and those who follow me. And Allah
is exalted and free from any imperfection,
and I'm not one of the polytheists,
which means that we must,
base everything upon correct Islamic knowledge before we
call or before we do anything or say
anything.
And from the greatest of the greatest of
virtues of this Islamic knowledge
is that it takes the person
directly to paradise if he or she learns
it sincerely for the sake of Allah
and upon the way of the scholars. The
prophet said
that whoever seek follows a path seeking knowledge
therein,
then Allah makes his path to paradise easy
through that
path.
And one of the virtues of Islamic correct
Islamic knowledge is that it is a light
that guides the person to the straight and
the right path so that he knows how
to worship his lord.
Allah said addressing his prophet
that you did not know what the book
was
and what,
knowledge was. But we have guided you and
have given you light so that you may
guide to the straight path.
And also from that is that knowledge Islamic
knowledge has no,
end and no limit to how much a
person can learn. And a true student of
knowledge,
he's never satisfied with how much knowledge he
has, and Allah told us to seek addition
of that knowledge
from him. And he said, say, oh, my
Lord, increase me in knowledge. And the prophet
said, 2
people are never,
satisfied,
That therefore a person who seeks knowledge does
not stop
seeking knowledge
until he meets Allah.
And some of the Salaf used to say,
continue seeking knowledge from the time you are
born until you die. And it is not
a hadith that is, that goes authentically back
to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam as
some people think.
And one of the virtues of Islamic knowledge
is that the person is in a position,
meaning the person who has knowledge
is in a position to distinguish
between, for example, Tawhid,
correct Islamic monotheism,
and shirk, disbelief
or a polytheism,
and between sunnah,
following the prophet
and Bidai, whatever opposes it, and between being
guided and being misguided,
and between things that harm and between things
that,
are beneficial,
between good things and bad things.
And one of the greatest virtues of Islamic
knowledge
is that its reward
continues to be counted
for the person who taught it or,
took part in implementing or spreading it. The
prophet
said, when the son of Adam dies, the
reward of his actions stop except from 3
sources.
Shadrachai, charity that continues
to be used and to be to give
him reward
and knowledge that is beneficial,
and or,
pious,
offspring that makes dua, makes supplication for him.
So this includes anything that the person may
have authored
or may have given in gift or for
the sake of the students of knowledge of
or scholars
or whatever
schools or institutions that he may
have initiated
or whatever books or knowledge that he may
have published or took part in any of
these and helped others.
And from the virtue of correct Islamic knowledge
is that the person
worships his Lord upon clear knowledge
and does not have any ignorance
or is not confused.
Allah said, say, this is my path. I
call to Allah,
upon,
knowledge, me and those who follow me. And
Allah is exalted from any imperfection,
and I'm not one of the.
This means that the person worships his lord
upon clear proof, clear knowledge,
and he does so with knowledge. When he,
worships Allah, he does so with knowledge. When
he distances
himself
from shirk and Kufr, he does so with
knowledge. When he prays, he prays upon knowledge.
And when he fasts, he fasts upon knowledge.
When he performs Hajj pilgrimage,
he does so with knowledge as the prophet
alayhi
salatu wasalam said,
take from me your rights of Hajj, your
pilgrimage.
And mostly,
people fall into
confusion,
and they do not know what to do
due to the fact that they do not
have correct knowledge or correct understanding in Islam.
And from the virtue of correct Islamic knowledge
is that it is the inheritance of the
prophet,
and whoever takes from that knowledge, then he
takes from the inheritance
of those great people. The prophet
said,
indeed, the scholars
are the inheritors of the prophets alayhi musalatu
wa salam, and the prophets did not leave
any monetary
units like dinar or dirham.
All they left is knowledge, and whoever takes
of it, then he takes his fair share
of that inheritance.
And also from the virtue of correct Islamic
knowledge is that the person is in a
position the person who has Islamic correctly,
Islamic knowledge, he's in a position to not
be affected
by the doubts and the ideologies
that
enemies of Islam bring against Islam.
He's able to see the truth from falsehood,
and he's able to refute those doubts.
Not unlike the person who has no knowledge
or understanding,
He may be the victim of those doubts
and those ideologies.
They may misguide him. They may make him
confused,
and some of them may even leave the
religion of Islam
due to the fact that they they do
not have a proper answer to these issues.
And some of them, their religious following
and their religious practice may become extremely weak.
And as for the 3rd part of the
lecture, and that is the virtue of the
scholars of Islam,
then we have a lot of proof to
show that Allah has raised their status
tremendously.
First of all, Allah raises their status in
this world
and in the hereafter
by the virtue of them having knowledge and
understanding of the deal.
The first,
proof that we have, Allah shall raise those
of you who have believed
and have been given knowledge
to high degrees,
and that is due to the fact that
the scholars teach
and they make people
understand truth from falsehood
in this world.
And Allah
hinted and show showed that those who know
are not equal to those who know not
by saying,
say, do those who know equal
equal
And from that, from the virtues of the
of the scholars of Islam
is that Allah has raised their status
by making them the torches of guidance for
the mankind.
The prophet alayhis salatu wasalam said that whoever
guides to goodness,
then he is in the same
guidance, he will receive the same reward as
the person who is guided,
and that will not decrease from their rewards
anything.
And from the virtue of being a scholar
in Islam is that Allah multiplies
their reward manyfold
from the great reward that they get due
to the fact that they call to the
path of Allah
and they clarify any doubts to the people
who follow that path. And Allah has informed
us that the person who does it, there
is not a single person who is better
in than him in,
action and in saying. He said in the
Quran, and whoever is better in statement or
in saying than the person who calls to
Allah
and he does good and says he's one
of those submitted to Allah, which means that
it the the answer to that is very
simple. It's a rhetorical question that does not
require an answer. There is no one better
than him. That's why the prophet, alayhis salatu
wasalam, said
to Ali, radiAllahu anhu, may Allah be pleased
with him, that
if Allah guides through you only one person
is better for you than the red camels.
And of
course, the red camels used to be very
priced possessions
of the Arabs until even now.
And now we can say that better for
you than many expensive cars, airplanes,
and other things.
And one of the greatest virtues of the
scholars of Islam
is is that their reference points in times
of difficulty
and fitna
and times of,
great,
historical events.
They know the answers to new things
that may have never occurred before, and they
give those answers
to the Muslims and to the world.
Looking into the Quran and Sunnah
and
extracting correct rulings
based upon that. And Allah said in the
Quran,
if those people
were to refer that affair to the messenger
and to the people who are in charge
of the affair, which means the scholars,
then those who extract rulings
would have known the answer to those issues.
And, one of the greatest,
features of the correct scholars of Islam
is that they
follow the truth and they call to the
truth,
and they are the ones who follow what
they preach.
And they teach those who do not know
the affairs of their religion
so that they know the difference between truth
and falsehood.
That's why the prophet
said that this knowledge will be carried by
the best of every generation, meaning the scholars
of every generation.
They will protect this knowledge
from the distortions
of the people who go to extremes,
and they will protect it from the misinterpretation
of the ignorance.
Because there are people who go to extremes
like the,
like those who deny
the
do do not accept
some or all of the,
attributes of Allah
Those who have no knowledge, they try to
interpret
the Quran and the Sunnah
according to their desires, like the people who
worship graves
and they use some hadith and some,
ayat from the Quran
that they think actually supports their their practices.
And they also protected
from the false
religious interpretation and following of the people who
are upon falsehood.
So they are the people who protect the
knowledge
from being misunderstood
and misinterpreted
and misrepresented,
in the history of Islam.
And from the virtues of the true scholars
of Islam
is that they build build their call and
their practice
upon the correct beliefs
and upon the correct
practice.
They do not fall into extremes
of either neglecting
or doing too much. So they follow the
sunnah in whatever they preach and whatever they
do,
and they follow the path, the straight path
described by Allah
as the path of those whom Allah has
bestowed his favor upon
from the truthful
and, from the prophets and truthful
and those who are matters
and the,
pious people and what an excellent company those
are.
And the from the virtues of the scholars
of Islam
is that the people, when they want
an answer to a religious question, which we
call in Arabic fatwa
in in religious sense,
they go to them. Whatever
religious question they have, they will go back
to them, and they will ask them whether
it is a small issue or big. And
the real scholars,
they do not hurry to answer those questions
due to the fact that they know
how much it is and how important
it is to to give a correct answer
that does not go against the book and
the sunnah
because they fear Allah and they fear to
give the wrong answer on behalf of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And from
the virtue of the scholars is that they
seek the right path, and they do not
say
about Allah and his religion
anything
not based on knowledge.
Since saying about Allah something not based upon
knowledge is extremely serious,
and Allah has mentioned it
alongside
associating
partners with him and disbelieving in him and
committing grave sins.
Allah
said that
my lord saying the prophet
relayed to us
saying that indeed my lord has made haram,
has prohibited
in severest of terms,
lewd sins, whatever is apparent
from them and
whatever is hidden,
and that you associate
anything in worship,
with him and that you say,
about Allah
that which you do not know.
That is why respected brothers,
when we have no scholars or few scholars,
ignorance spreads among the people.
And
that is why it's extremely important
for people to be close to the scholars
and follow their understanding.
And here we have a very dangerous point
which was mentioned in the hadith of the
prophet in
which he said that knowledge meaning of Islam
is not snatched away by Allah
by taking it away from the chests of
men,
but rather it's taken away
through the death of the scholars.
Until
when there is not a single scholar left,
people will take as their leaders
ignorant people,
and they will ask them and they will
give them answer without knowledge.
And therefore, they will be misguided,
and they will misguide others.
Why? Because when we have no knowledge, no
scholars,
people come and pretend to be scholars,
and they pretend that they know when they
do not have knowledge.
And they are quick to give fatwa
to answer religious questions,
and they therefore are misguided themselves
and they misguide others.
And from the great praise of Allah upon
the scholars of Islam
and their virtue
is that no one truly fears Allah except
them.
And that is why the prophet
who is the leader
and the one who is,
taught who taught everyone who came after him.
He said about himself since
he was the one who feared Allah the
most. He said, indeed, I am by the
by Allah. I give an oath by Allah.
The one who fears Allah more than anyone
of you,
and the one who has taqwa of Allah
more than anyone of you.
And there is no wonder in that. Allah
described the scholars as the ones who who
the only ones who have true fear of
Allah. He said, indeed, only the scholars,
fear Allah from his slaves.
And from the great virtue of the scholars
of Islam
is that
even the fish in the depths of the
oceans
seek forgiveness for the scholars.
Meaning that all of the creation of Allah,
even the smallest and the biggest, they seek
forgiveness
from Allah for the scholars.
And that is due to the fact that
Allah is pleased with them and with what
they do in teaching and guiding
the people to the right path.
And from the great virtue of the scholars
of Islam
is that
the likeness
or the superiority
of a scholar above a simple person
is like the superiority of the prophet
above the lowest
of the people.
And, also,
the prophet
said that the virtue
and the position,
the lofty position that the scholar occupies,
is the likeness of the moon in relation
to the other stars, and that is the
position that the scholar occupies above the other
people.
And from the virtue of the scholars
is that the angels,
they fold their wings to the student of
knowledge
being pleased with what he does. And there
is no doubt that if the angels are
pleased with what this the student of knowledge
does, then their creator, Allah,
is also pleased with them because Allah described
the angels
as being those who do not disobey Allah
in what he orders them, and they do
as they commanded.
And from the virtue of the true scholars
of Islam
is that they
seek the path
of the salaf of the pious predecessors,
and they call others to seek that path
and the understanding of the pious predecessors.
And they enjoying what is good and forbid
what is evil, and they call to the
goodness.
Allah said in the Quran,
let
there be among you a group of you
calling to goodness,
in joining the good and forbidding the evil,
and those are the ones who are successful.
And through that, they get the multiplicate
multiplication
of their reward which they gain through teaching
people the goodness that they teach.
Also the scholars of Islam, Allah has made
them the best example for the Muslims to
follow in goodness.
And Allah said in the Quran,
and whoever opposes
the messenger
after the truth has become clear to him
and follows a path other than the path
of the believers,
we shall keep him in that path and
burn him in * and what an evil
destination that is.
And Allah said in relation to the prophets
and addressing the prophet, Alayhi,
those are the people whom Allah has guided.
So take example
and follow them in their guidance.
Therefore,
the scholars are inheritors of prophets, and if
they inherit the knowledge and understanding,
then therefore,
we are commanded to follow them
in their knowledge and in their understanding.
And Insha Allah, we conclude this
short lecture
by a very important question.
We say, who are the real scholars and
the ones who gain, who are deserved to
be called scholars in Islam.
And from the distinguishing features
of the real scholars of Islam
is that firstly,
they do not go beyond what is said
in the Quran and the sunnah.
Secondly,
they seek the truth by following
the proof that is found in the Quran
and the Sunnah.
Therefore, they do not learn or teach knowledge
not based upon the Quran and sunnah.
And thirdly,
they are extremely cautious
in giving fatwa.
They do not give
fatwa
or answer religious questions
except after thorough research
and after
finding proof that they can use
correct proof from the Quran and Sunnah. And
if they differ with other
scholars,
like them in the issues of the branches
of the faith, and each one of them
has proof.
They accept that, and they do not make
enmity between them and those scholars.
And from there also qualities
is that they spread the truth and they
call
to it with the the beautiful preaching and
correct understanding
and correct arguing.
And one of the features and distinguishing characteristics
of of the scholars of Islam
is that they keep far away from any
fitna, trials and tribulations
and trouble,
and the prophet alayhis salatu wassalam
said that the truly,
happy person
and correct person is the one who's been
taken far away from Fitan, and he repeated
it three times.
And some of the Pi's predecessors
say that the Fitna,
when it's about to happen or when it's
happening,
only the scholars, the true scholars understand it
and know it, and therefore, keep away from
it and warn others. But when it has
happened,
then even the ignorant people know it.
And from the features of these great scholars
is that they're
said, whoever humbles himself for the sake of
Allah will be raised by
And from their characteristics
is that they love for their brothers
what they love for themselves.
And the prophet, alayhis salatu wa sallam, said,
none of you truly believes
until he loves for his brother what he
loves for himself.
And also
these scholars, they have the feature
and the characteristic
of being upon the
treating people,
as best as they can. The prophet
said and behave towards people in a good
manner. And he also said, I've been sent
only
to perfect good manners.
And Allah described the prophet
by saying that through the mercy of Allah,
you
were gentle with them. And if you were
to be harsh to them
and your heart would be hard upon them,
they would have run away from you.
Finally,
we would like to conclude this lecture
by saying that
it is,
paramount
for all the Muslims
to go back to the true scholars of
Islam
and take them as points of reference for
themselves.
Those who protect the book of Allah
from the distortion of those who go to
extremes
and the false religious following of those who
follow falsehood
and from the misinterpretation
of the ignorant,
those who try to follow the truth,
those who understand
the the book and the sunnah, and they
call to it. And we warn
everyone
from following and taking their religion from those
who pretend to be scholars, but in fact,
they are not. Finally, we ask Allah to
grant us beneficial knowledge
and good deeds
and sincerity
in our actions
and the correct following.