Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #002 Introducing Imam Zarnujis Etiquettes of Seeking Knowledge
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of the sharia and the source of pride in Allah's work, as it is the foundation of society and belief. They also discuss the transformation of the work of the first part of the book, which involves learning and being nurtured, and the work of the second part, which involves transformation of the work of the first part of the book. The speakers provide brief overview and encourage listeners to ask questions.
AI: Summary ©
The messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be
upon him, encouraged us to strive for uprightness
by seeking assistance in the early mornings, late
afternoons at and something of the depths of
the night. From this tradition, the scholars made
it a habit to briefly read text of
religious guidance in the late afternoon and often
term such readings the daily.
The term refers to the late afternoon, but
also to a time of rest from worldly
toils and reinvigoration of one's spirit.
In this day, Sheikh Harazrabani will be covering
2 texts, imam Zarnunji's primer on the etiquette
of seeking knowledge,
and imam Youssef An Nabhani's beautiful collection of
40 sets of 40 prophetic hadith.
Hadith.
In
our daily rowha,
where we we're looking at,
guidance
for,
seekers of knowledge,
We are covering
2 texts.
We gave an opening
yesterday
to the set
of 40 hadiths that we'll be covering from
Sheikh Youssef and Nabhani,
which is
a unique work because it it gathers 40
sets of 40 hadiths
on 40
fundamental topics
related to
Allah
and his greatness and praise
related there's a whole slew of
40 hadiths on the rank,
virtues,
unique qualities,
characteristics,
family,
companions
of the prophet
And that It's a beautiful collection. The author
himself said that no one has compiled anything
so unique.
Right? And and
the hadiths in it are taken from,
you know, carefully from sound sources.
So we we looked at a brief introduction
related to that.
The second text that we're going to be
looking at which we'll be introducing today
is
a text on the adab of knowledge.
A text on the adab of knowledge and
this text is called
instructing
the
the student
on the ways
of studying, on the ways of learning.
And
the author of this text
is Imam
Burhanuddin
Azarnuji.
And
Imam Azarnuji
was
they say there's certain ways
that a person is known.
Right? A certain ways
certain ways that a person is known. Right?
Socially,
in all traditional societies, a person would be
known would be known by their biological parents,
who is
Zaid Zaid is the son of
uncle Bilal.
K?
And that's how people would be introduced. And,
actually, people's names would be Zaid ibn Bilal.
Right? For example.
And
if someone would be introduced socially, say, oh,
he's so and so's son,
so and so's daughter.
And
in the sharia, this is considered very important.
Right? Because
the the family
is the building block of society,
but one of the of the sharia,
one of the foundational aims of the sharia
is
the preservation of lineage. And a lot of
guidance of the sharia has come with respect
to the preservation of lineage. Why? Because
sound
marriages,
sound families,
sound communities,
these are the building blocks of sound societies.
And without sound societies,
your good is not properly preserved whether worldly
or spiritual
for humanity.
That's in in a in a worldly way.
But how are people known
spiritually?
How are they known religiously?
They're known by their teachers. If you introduce
someone,
the most important thing is, whose student are
they?
Right?
And they
say, you know, a a scholar without a
teacher,
I say,
sheikh so and so. Who's who are the
student? Oh,
they don't have teachers.
That's like saying, oh, there's Zayed,
the son of
oh, he doesn't have a father.
Right?
That's,
you know, that that
just like it is socially unbecoming,
it is religiously unbecoming. So when it comes
to Imam Zarrnouji,
and that's of course a way of preserving
religious knowledge because the prophet said,
scholars are the inheritors of prophets.
Right? So how is knowledge,
the knowledge of prophets taken? Through inheritance.
And only the most immediate
relations
inherit.
Right?
Nephews don't inherit.
It's the children who inherit.
So the religious children of a teacher
are their students. And Imam
Al Marghinani, you can read about his biography.
And we'll we'll make it available.
With
just a brief biography.
Imam
Zarnooji,
it is sufficient
to mention
that his teacher
was
Sheikh Al Islam
Burhanuddin
Al Marghi Nani,
the author of the Hidayah.
The author of the Hidayah.
And
the Hidayah of course being
the masterpiece
of legal writing in the Hanafi school.
So
and and
Imam Zarnouji
studied with a number of other very distinguished
scholars of his
time as well.
The One of the interesting things in the
Hanafi school
is
that,
arguably, of the 4 schools of Sunni Islam,
the school
in which we have the fewest biographies of
its scholars
is the Hanafi school,
which is quite strange.
Because if we look at
the corpus
of
manuscripts
in Islamic
law, historically,
and there's a number of projects where they've
tried to
do a
a meta index
of
Islamic manuscripts.
About 55 to 60% of the manuscripts in
Islamic law
that we can find in the major libraries
in the world are in the Hanafi school.
Hanafis
were were
were right above all.
But yet,
they
generally avoided
biography. Like, you you find biographies of them,
but you don't find that much. And there's
some several reasons.
So we don't have that much information about
Imam
al
Bu in Zarnouji
directly,
but
you see throughout the text a number of
observations. One of which which is I found
very interesting is how
closely attached he is to his own teachers.
He consistently
quotes
from Imam Al Marginani for example.
And he consistently quotes
from
and frequently quotes from a number of other
teachers as well.
And he was a 6th century,
scholar.
And
what is it that distinguish what makes this
work very
very unique?
There's
a few tangible reasons.
One of which
is
that
it is brief.
Right? It is brief.
You
know, one of the you know, they're
most of the copies
someone have a physical copy on them?
It it's
in any edition, it's less than a 100
pages.
Actually, comfortably less than that. Some of the
editions like one I have an older edition,
it's only in 40 pages. Right? But that's
a slightly
older edition.
So it's not a very
long work. So it's accessible.
Another benefit of it is
point of distinction is that it is comprehensive.
It is comprehensive. We will be looking in
the introduction how he looks at the major
things that that
need to be it's comprehensive in terms of
scope. Right? In terms of scope
That he looks at the major
things that a student of knowledge needs.
Right? So it is brief yet comprehensive.
Right?
In scope.
But it is selective.
It is selective.
So he doesn't say everything that needs to
be said about everything. And that's part of
the edab of knowledge as he will himself
instruct. He begins with a little bit and
he builds
step by step.
Right? So in any of the chapters, you
could you could if you pause, you could
say, well, a lot more could be said
about such and such. But
part of
the way of
nurturing
scholarship,
right,
is that one takes knowledge
a little at a time.
Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala commands in the Quran,
be lordly scholars.
Literally be rabbis.
Right?
And any
and and and and al alimur rabbani is
the is the scholar who themselves
are scholars who themselves are strongly attached to
their Lord
that he is their purpose.
They are devoted to him and whose teaching
is out of their
commitment
to their lord.
But
it is also someone
who is characterized
by
the the quality
of They are
they
are a. Right?
Which is
nurturing. Right? Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is our
nurturing Lord. The
the, you know, the the meaning of Lord
of of rub in the Arabic language
is not simply
Lord as master.
Right? Rab, actually,
is from the the the divine names
of mercy
and concern
rather than majesty
and
awesomeness.
I mean, it's majestic and awesome,
but it connotes the sense of
divine mercy.
Right? Which is why some people it's very
hard to translate in one word, but sometimes
it translated as the cherisher of the world.
Like,
what does that mean? Right?
Or
the
merciful Lord. But then it becomes redundant because
the merciful Lord who is merciful and
the one
who is is
is master to his servant, but who is
concerned for his servant and who takes his
servant
or is concerned for his creation and who
take and who takes his creation
gradually, stage by stage, towards
what is of ultimate good for them.
So that's tarbia. Right? And this is the
sunnah of Allah in creation.
It's to take things gradually step by step.
So,
Alright.
When Allah commands us in the Quran, be
lordly scholars.
Ibn Abbas explained
and this is mentioned by Imam Bukhari in
his Sahih, in the book of knowledge
under chapter heading
that
The
lordly scholar or the nurturing
scholar is the one who teaches people
small amounts of knowledge before large amounts.
And that's the nature of this work.
It is also
with that,
it is built
on
the guidance and counsel and wisdom
of the scholars before.
Most of the book
consists of
quotes
and examples and stories
from the great scholars before.
The great scholars that he himself learned from,
most notably,
Sheikh Islam Al Marghinani, the author of the
Hidayah,
and a number of others.
And so, these are some of the distinguishing
qualities.
Right? So what will we what we will
be doing in the
upcoming
lessons is that each
each of the rohas will be reading from
both texts. We'll be reading from
the
the
the
the collection of 40 hadiths and we begin
with 40 hadiths on,
The 40 hadiths that
are a hadith could see. They're sacred,
hadiths.
And
the second part will be reading through,
the the work by imam
al Marheen, imam Zarnoji on
Talim al Mutale.
Today, we're just going to look at the
opening
of imam
Zarnoji's
text.
Right?
So he says,
in the name of Allah merciful and compassionate.
All praise is due to Allah who granted
preeminence
to the children of Adam
through knowledge
and action
over all
creation.
And what is it that distinguishes the human
being
over others? Is that Allah has sent has
granted us in choice,
given us intellects,
granted us the capacity
to gain beneficial knowledge and to act on
it seeking Allah's
pleasure. And that's what distinguishes us over the
rest of creation
potentially.
And
all
blessings and peace
be upon our master, Muhammad.
The master of
both Arabs and non Arabs.
The are
non Arabs.
And upon
the prophet's
family and companions,
the springs
of knowledges and wisdom.
The springs
of knowledges and wisdom. And the family of
the prophet
refers directly to the family itself of the
prophet alaihi wasallam
when we
when it is a context of dua,
the entire ummah is meant.
Right? But here,
it it's the actual prophetic household
because as Saidna
Abu Bakr said,
be mindful of Muhammad with respect to his
household. And
the
the learned
and righteous of the prophetic household are a
source
of
exemplars and guidance for the believers,
just as,
the companions of the messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam
are a source of
exemplars for us in our lives and guidance.
So he says
so he begins by explaining
why he wrote this work.
So we'll just look at that briefly. He
says
to proceed.
This is all
Right?
This is a conditional statement from till
there, this is the whole
conditional statement
and its dependent clauses.
The the response is
right? So he says
When I saw
so many
seekers of knowledge in our time and he's
talking about the 6th Islamic century.
Right? The 6th
Islamic century.
So many seekers of knowledge in our time
striving
to seek knowledge, but not attaining.
And from its benefits
and its fruits,
they are debarred, they are prevented.
Why?
Because they have erred
in the ways
of its
pursuit.
And they have left its conditions.
And anyone
who errs
on the path that they take
is lost.
So they do not attain
unto the goal.
Whether that goal is small or large, Anything
you want to pursue, there's a right way
of pursuing it. If you pursue that way,
in the right way, you should expect the
right result.
Doesn't matter what you want to seek, if
you don't seek it in the right way,
it's foolish to imagine that you will attain
it.
So he says,
I
sought
and wished and liked
to make clear for them the way
of learning.
Or al Qutub, it can be pronounced both
ways.
In accordance with what I have seen
in
the
books,
and from what I heard from my teachers,
the possessors
of
knowledge
of
and
wisdom.
Seeking thereby
for dua
for
me from those avid for it
and those sincere.
That Allah grant me
salvation
and safety.
On the day of reckoning.
After, I made
I made the prayer of seeking guidance to
Allah in it.
And I named it
instructing the student
regarding the ways of learning.
And I made it into sections.
So, tomorrow in the next class inshallah, we
will look at the overview of the chapters.
We'll look at the overview of the chapters
and just give you a brief reality of
knowledge and and its virtues.
We'll be reading the text itself in Arabic
and trying to explain some of the words
as well as we go along.
Thank you for listening to the daily
guidance for seekers with Sheikhar Azrabbani.
Help us continue to give light to millions
around the world by becoming a monthly donor
at seekershub.org/
donate.
Your donations are tax deductible in the US.