Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #082 Sacrifice in Seeking Knowledge Scrupulousness of the Student
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You're listening to the Roha, daily guidance for
seekers with Sheikh Farazrabani,
who will be covering Imam Yusuf and Abiheni's
beautiful collection of 40 sets of 40 hadith
of the prophet, peace and blessings be upon
him, as well as Imam Zarnouji's guidance for
seekers of knowledge regarding the ways of seeking
knowledge.
At some of the guidance of the prophet
and
from Imam Zanuji's work on the adab of
seeking knowledge.
And
we looked in the previous lesson
at
some of the keys to attaining knowledge. Right?
Some of the keys
to attaining knowledge and
things that facilitate it. Right?
And he closes this section by
saying,
It is absolutely
necessary for the seeker of knowledge
from bearing
burden
and
humiliation
in seeking knowledge.
Absolutely necessary. Why? Because it's a basic
it's a basic principle
that
anything precious
requires
effort and sacrifice to attain it.
Right? That's just one of the sunnah of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in creation.
Right?
It applies to worldly things. You want to
you want to become a doctor, you kinda
say, okay,
please choose me to be the doctor. There's
effort.
And if you really want it, you have
to prove it.
Right?
And the same thing applies
to
matters
of spiritual
worth
of religious worth. And from them and here,
of course, we're talking about attaining religious knowledge.
And religious knowledge being more precious than anything
else.
The whole purpose of creation.
I've not created jinn or humans except that
they may worship me, except they may know
me And worship is not possible without knowledge.
Right?
The most precious
meaning
in existence
is
knowledge of Allah,
and that's from knowledge.
Right?
So being the most precious of things, it
requires
the greatest of sacrifice.
Right?
So that's just a given. That's a given.
And then if you look at what is
the substance of knowledge, the substance of knowledge
is majia abihir Rasoolullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
what the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam has come with. And he's come with
all that benefits creation
in every way
with respect to every aspect of their reality.
Right?
So naturally,
it is vast.
It is deep.
So the attainment of it requires effort
just given what its content is.
And because the final revelation is preserved,
there are tools
to ensure its preservation
of the sciences of the Arabic language
and the sciences
of sound
understanding
and the principles
related to the various subject matters of knowledge
that ensure
that we have
objective measures of what is sound and unsound
knowledge in all the various aspects of knowledge.
So this requires effort to attain because we
have religion is not by mere
whim,
but it is based on truth and principle.
And all of this requires effort. Right?
But then
because
knowledge
is
the seeking of knowledge entails a stepping away
from
from the world of customary means.
Right?
You're worldly and social,
then what does
what do people normally do? Normally people
get a job. The first question someone's asked
if they want to be a seeker knowledge,
go get a job. Go get a real
job.
Okay.
Right?
And then
if they're not seeking knowledge full time, what
do people do normally with their discretionary time?
But not everyone has to be a full
time seeker of knowledge to attain knowledge. Very
possible to attain knowledge through
part time study even a little consistently.
Right? Many of the great scholars never studied
full time.
Right?
The time in Damascus where
the the mufti of Sham
was
a doctor and a surgeon.
The the
the sheikh ul Qurra was a surgeon
and the mufti of the shafais was a
shirts was a surgeon.
Right?
And this was not uncommon. Well, that's an
exceptional circumstance at that time, but it's not
uncommon that they, yeah, that they had a
profession as well and they continued studying. In
our time, Sheikh Samir Nas
and others.
So
someone who's seeking knowledge part time, people after
work, what do they do? They relax. They
hang out with family.
They watch,
you know, they watch,
you know, something on Netflix or do this
or do that.
Yeah. Just relax.
Or you do worldly things. But someone
is going off to study. They're sit staying
home and reviewing.
People think you're a bit weird.
You don't do many things that other people
do because it's not entailed by, you
know, trying to be an inheritor of the
prophet
So people will think you're a bit weird.
Whether you're a dedicated seeker or that you
know, you want to gain
knowledge.
So there's a certain
humiliation in it, right,
of a certain type.
But also,
normally people want to affirm
their self worth.
My opinion counts.
I know.
Right?
To gain any knowledge, you have to realize
that, you know, to be honest, your opinion
doesn't really matter very much
until you have something to say.
K? Until you have something to say, your
opinion really doesn't matter very much.
Right? Until you have something to say. So
you have to sort of let go of
that a a certain type of sense of
self worth.
Me,
my opinion,
I think.
Of course, you have to you have to
think, but not in just
pontificating.
Right?
But then he explains what is this humiliation,
what abasing oneself is blameworthy except
except in seeking knowledge.
Because it it's necessary to humble oneself
before one's teacher.
And one's companions.
But of course, this is not to
to humiliate oneself or to leave
one's
one's
divinely granted dignity,
but that exaggerated sense of self.
Well, that's what I prefer.
Right?
Right?
And even with companions.
Right? Because,
you know, there's,
you know, in be each of you is
a shepherd and each of you is responsible
for for for their flock, as the prophet
said.
So I'm gonna point a very interesting
fact about that, that in shepherding,
shepherding is not just done
by the shepherd.
Within the flock, there's some sheep
that shepherd other
sheep, even though they're not the shepherd.
Right?
And you'll see here some sheep
will
be like
yeah. They'll get the the flock going in
the right direction.
Right? So but you have to be patient
with that. You just you you you know,
you want to go you want to sit
and study, but sometimes you there's a review
session. So you kinda have to nudge the
other person, say I'll pick you up. I'll
do this and that. Right? And sometimes you
have to sort of let go of your
ego. Right? So the humiliating oneself here is
to leave the sense of self.
I.
Right?
And,
you know, and to embrace
humility.
Even if you feel like
you know, sometimes you have to, like, play
do your
one of the simplest way to get anyone
to do anything is to feed them.
That's
basic sheepology, right, or basic shepherding.
Want someone to do something?
Why don't we,
you know, why don't we,
why don't we have lunch at this and
then we'll do this?
So they may be be like, yeah. Yeah.
I'm gonna study with you but you you
you feed them, they'll do whatever you want.
Right?
So
to be able to benefit.
Whereas you said, Maisette is telling me, why
do I have to feed her? Why do
I have to feed? I'm like, what's?
But a a lot of these things,
right, it requires
that
yeah. To be able why? Because
and the intelligent person thinks by benefit.
If you leave your
opinion right now, what what you prefer
for the advice of the teacher, it's not
because you're putting yourself down, but because you
want to attain greater benefit. You want to
be able to benefit
more
in the long term.
And this is ascribed by some to Imam
Malik.
It is said that knowledge is honor in
which there is no abasement.
And in that narration,
and it's attained
by
abasement
in which there is no honor.
And the a basement that is required in
knowledge is to leave your
your ego.
Leave your ego.
Right?
One of the great imams of the spirituality
has asked what is the path to Allah?
He said the path to Allah is one
step.
Step on your ego
and come.
Okay. That's it. And what is the ego?
It's me, myself, and I.
And we asked in in,
you know, Sheikh,
one of the great luminaries of our time,
Mufti, Rafi Ismaili, may Allah preserve him, The
grand Mufti of Pakistan. He
was visiting Jordan.
We asked him for advice in seeking knowledge
and if you I'll send you guys the
recording. Just ask me. I have it on.
He said there's 3 advices for the seeker
of knowledge. Right? One of them is this,
and he explained what's meant by by by
dul. It's like by abasing, not you not
it's not self it's not self abasement with
a dash. You don't put yourself down, but
you put
yourself down, your ego down. You leave aside
your ego and focus on
what benefits.
That's something that what benefits may entail,
you know. Like sometimes,
you know, you don't
you don't like it, you don't get it,
etcetera. As long as, of course, it is
not something that is detrimental. Right? It's not
detrimental.
Right? And any sincere
teacher or friend won't
like, you know, right, and sometimes they'll ask
something just to see if you're willing
they'll ask you something that's mildly challenging,
because if you can't do that, then why
would you be able to do anything bigger
than that, right?
So someone said, I saw that you I
see that you have a self
that yearns
to be honored,
but you will not attain honor until you
abase it.
Because honor is not self honor.
Honor is not
at the like, we want it and it's
the you are not your your nafs. Right?
But that subtlety within the human being,
right, yearns for perfections,
yearns for the for high matters.
And that under and Habib Ali explained this
so beautifully at one of the knowledge retreats
that that initial yearning of the soul is
a noble yearning,
just like the soul yearns for beauty. But
what is what is the beauty that the
soul yearns for?
It's the beauty of the divine presence.
It's the beauty
of,
you know, of paradise,
the beauty
of beautiful
states,
right, of intimacy with the divine, of love,
of
of
awe, of,
you know, of these beautiful states.
Right?
And those characterized by those beautiful states.
But
if that beauty is not expressed through
soul
or if not the soul, the soul is
in the presence of the divine or the
heart which yearns for,
you know,
you know, eternal meanings
or
at least the mind
which considers
which considers
benefit and harm, good and bad, right, which
discerns.
Below
the soul, the heart,
the mind is what?
Is whim
and ego.
Right?
Whim and self, right, which inclines towards
desire,
which it inclines towards disadvantage.
Right? So it
it that's where the lustful thought comes from,
etcetera. Similarly,
the human self has an inclination towards high
matters, towards honor.
But the honor of
the servant
is to be with their lord,
to be present with Allah.
He is with you.
Right? What honor is there in a servant
who's absent
from the one who's from their lord who's
with them?
Right?
So this inclination for honor,
right, is an inclination of honor with Allah,
honor in the next life.
The honor of those honored by Allah.
If not directed in that way, it yearns
towards
fleeting
and fickle honor.
Right,
which is just inflation of self,
which is whimsical honor.
I want to be recognized. Why?
Because
that's what I want. Okay. That's or
desire.
Right?
So
so he says, I see that you have
a self
that yearns
to be honored,
but you will not attain honor until you
abase it, meaning abase yourself because that inclination
if you're seeking honor, seek the true honor.
The most honored you of you in the
sight of Allah are those
of most taqwa. And
taqwa is 3 levels. The least of it
is leaving sin.
Higher than that is to leave
disadvantage.
Higher yet is to leave distraction.
Right? The the taqwa of
Islam
of of Iman
and then Islam and then Ihsan, right, the
levels of that's honor.
So in trying to attain these perfections,
you know, the the seeker of knowledge has
to be careful about their ego.
If they're one laterally in their human relationships
and ultimately in their relationship with Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
Right?
Which is and that how does one do
that? Right? So this
is very important. And that's why a lot
of people
disadvantage themselves. Right?
A lot of young students even
and they attained a little bit or not,
now they want to comment on everything. Why?
Right?
And it's hasty. And be careful of,
you know, that's why there's stern warning of
the prophet
of
the immature,
that don't take knowledge from the immature.
Right?
Because
and there's some things one may take from
them, but big issues, like and right now
and don't even read those kinds of things.
Right? We live in a difficult world.
Right?
And there are difficult choices that need to
be made, which are matters of are they
decisive or they're matters of they're matters of
judgment.
Right? So a lot of young they're they're
kids still.
Like, senior olema have very difficult choices to
make with numerous considerations
that you might not even imagined.
Right?
How do you navigate
very complicated
choices?
And there's principles.
And there's people of
uprightness and principle. They make very difficult choices.
And they may differ in those difficult choices
because they're not clear cut,
absolutely right, and absolutely wrong. And you don't
get it,
just keep quiet. If you don't get it
and you want to know about it, ask.
Find out.
Right?
But
so don't be, you know, don't be hasty
to to exercise your opinion on things you
don't understand.
But also be careful of these kinds of
people talking about
all kind in this stuff. Some recent article
basically saying that Sheikh Hamza
making Sheikh Hamza sound as if he's a
supporter of Donald Trump.
Which is absurd.
Right?
Or that he's somehow being co opted
by
it's like,
those kind don't even read them.
Right?
If issues are raised, find out.
And they're very difficult choices.
They're very difficult choice. It's not a simple
matter.
Right?
Right?
And one of the principles, of course, with
respect to that is they say, jirkul and
sometimes because there are matters of judgment that
has so many consequences, they say it's a
important principle when it comes to,
the judgment of
in
in when it comes to judging
those
reliable
in transmitting
hadith or knowledge.
They say,
the critique of contemporaries
is ignored.
Why? Because they may be differing because they're
very serious about the truth.
Right? So it's not that they have like
some vendetta against each other. They're 2 people
very serious about the truth,
about what will benefit people and they differ
in judgment. So it's very natural that they
would they could get quite upset.
But
we we stay out of that.
Right? Because that's that has to do with
them, not not us.
And we have to be careful about those
matters.
Section on the importance of scrupulousness
when
seeking knowledge.
Scrupulousness
is
defined what are
is a higher state than taqwa.
K? They say the basic operational definition of
taqwa
Warah is to leave the disliked
and the uncertain.
Right? So
in this sense,
the taqwa
Taqwa is what the common believer has been
commanded to.
Right? Baseline Taqwa.
But then
if you want to be someone
who's of the righteous,
taqwa is that baseline taqwa is not enough.
To go from being just a an upright
believer,
which is baseline taqwa, if you don't have
that, you're not upright.
To go from that to striving for righteousness,
to be of the salihim. And if you're
a salih,
how can you
how can others follow you
in seeking uprightness?
How can you be an example for virtue?
How can you talk about virtue
when you don't have it? Which is why
just for anyone striving to be a righteous
servant of Allah, okay, first step is leave
the haram, but then you have to strive
to have warah.
Right? To leave
the disliked,
to leave the dubious.
And that and warah
scrupulousness
protects
god consciousness.
Right? It gives you a protective shield because
you avoid
the disliked
that'll ensure that you avoid the haram.
If you avoid the uncertain,
then you can make sure that you'll be
further away from falling into
what's certainly wrong.
And as the hadith of
the lawful is clear and the unlawful is
clear makes
clear.
So that's the operational definition of what are.
Right? To be and and underlying what are
is to be careful.
Right? Careful. And there's a direct relationship between
what are,
right, scrupulousness or
caution
with respect to matters of religious consequence.
There's direct relationship, Dolaivasa, between warah and yaqeen.
Right?
Because arises from trying to be
to trying to have certainty striving for certainty
in pleasing Allah
and results in
certainty
with respect to knowledge of Allah.
Right?
Right. What are striving for certainty,
right, in what will be pleasing to Allah.
And it results in
a state of certainty
with Allah.
Right?
So has a powerful impact on your kid.
So he says
So it's related by some of them. He
indicates that this is not necessarily established from
the messenger of Allah
that he said, whoever is not scrupulous,
right, doesn't have
in their seeking of knowledge.
Allah
will try them
Allah most high will will try them
with respect to 3 things.
Either that they die young.
Or cause them to stumble into
the
villages.
To be stuck in the villages. Why? Because
the villages, there's no one to learn from.
So you gain knowledge but you're not scriptulous,
you'll end up where you can't benefit people.
You're in the boonies like this.
Or you'll be tried by serving the rulers.
Right?
And of that, of course, in our times
is those who who join Islam Inc.
Right?
Who
engage
who basically what are you doing?
Right? You're just running from
consulting contract to consulting contract, not on the
basis of consideration of need or benefit,
but just you're making a buck.
Right? So you have the capacity to benefit
the Muslim community,
to benefit humanity in very testing times. Instead
what are you doing? You're running around.
You know, just making a buck and very
often from people who have ulterior motives.
Right? Who was behind many of these uprisings
and so on? Who had funded them?
Right?
And a lot
of a lot of large corporations
are funding
funding that's not innocent.
There's just 1 or 2 degrees of separation
from,
very detrimental
forces.
Whether, you know, whether it be governments
or think tanks that that
that have
very
that have no concern
with,
you know, or are at enmity with
what is ultimately
the interest of not only the Muslim community
but of of humanity as a whole. K.
So you're a pawn
in in a in a in a in
a game
that you have,
you
know you know that
you know that
you're you're being played basically. Right?
And this arises from lack of caution during
learning because that that will become your temperament.
And when you they're easy choices in the
beginning, ultimately
avoid
avoid hanging out in dubious places. Avoid
conduct that is dubious. Avoid company that's dubious.
No. They are difficult life choices.
Right?
But if you don't make those easy
cautious choices
during study, when you come to difficult life
choices,
right, then you get a big employment offer,
you could make lots of money doing something
ultimately meaningless
or you could do something meaningful, but it
but
you won't have much material means.
You can make the easy difficult choices, then
how will you make the difficult difficult choices?
And and you'll end up somewhere
like what he says,
or you'll get stuck
in the villages,
in places where you're far from any ability
to benefit.
And this applies not just to students and
all, but a lot of activists.
Why do some activists disappear?
They say always could don't investigate other people,
but always follow the money.
What are they doing? Why are they no
longer like they're doing a lot of benefit
before? Now they're just following the money.
K. And that's very, very dangerous.
So he says,
So to the extent
that the seeker and this one should take
this as a
principle.
So to the extent that the seeker of
knowledge
is scrupulous,
will their knowledge be of more benefit.
And seeking knowledge for them will be easier.
And their benefits are greater.
Right?
And then he'll mention
what are aspects of scrupulousness. But one of
the for in in many Muslim countries, there's
bad standards when it has when when it
comes to public money.
1 of the, he would deliberately and he
make it a point also to teach other
people.
He'd go to his office, Muftirafi Usmani, may
Allah protect him. He'd go to to his
office and he'd keep
he'd mentioned these that these are my own
pens.
He would not use the stationery, not even
the paper
of the madrasa
to answer personal questions sent to him.
Right? Because his questions sent to him sent
officially
to the madrasa
through their or
through official correspondence.
Those
any official correspondence
or official work, he would use the resources
of the madrasa.
Anything outside of that, even if it's religious,
you could say, well, this is also from
the interests of
the thing. He would not. He would use
his own pen and he'd bring his own
paper.
Even though if you ask anyone in the
do you mind if I answer religious questions
based on
like, of they'd laugh.
Right? But it's
scrupulousness. Right? It's
scrupulousness is to be careful
with respect to rights and responsibilities. Right? This
is an emana. That's the state of the
prophet The prophet
plucked out food
from
one of the children in his household
because he had a reasonable doubt. He didn't
know is it
could this have been from the charity money?
Right? Because and he and this quality was
instilled in the prophetic household.
Right? Leave all that would make you doubt
for all that would not make you doubt.
Right?
And then he mentioned some of the aspects
of scrupulousness
that the seeker of knowledge
needs to uphold.
That's a very valuable lesson which we'll look
at
next time.
Thank you for listening to Naraha, daily guidance
for seekers with Sheikh Farazrabani.
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