Hamzah Wald Maqbul – 10 Ramadan 1441 Late Night Majlis The Superiority Of Knolwedge And Its People Addison 05032020
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We continue with our reading from,
Warth tul Ambiya, the Sharahan commentary of
Ibn Raja al Hanbali
on the Hadith of Sayna Abu Darda radiAllahu
anhu from the prophet
about the virtues of seeking knowledge ably translated
by Imam Zaid. May Allah
increase his rank, and Allah
give him the good of this world and
the hereafter.
The weeping of the heavens and the earth.
Love for the scholar is not limited to
the animate. In fact, inanimate objects also love
him.
This meaning is conveyed in the explanation of
the verse,
heaven and earth wept not for the wrongdoers.
Commentaries on this verse mention that mention the
following narrations.
The sky weeps,
40 days for the believer when he dies,
and the earth says to the believer when
he is buried,
you are the most beloved of those who
walked on my surface.
You will see my gentle treatment when you
are resting inside of me.
Only sinful men and jinn hate the believer
and the scholar because of the rebellion of
the sinners and the jinn against Allah requires
that they place their obedience to their wild
inclinations ahead of their obedience to Allah.
Therefore, they hate obeying Allah and hate obedient
people.
Those who love Allah and obedience love those
who obey him. They especially love those who
call people to his obedience and command by
the same call.
Furthermore, when knowledge appears on the earth due
to the presence of scholars and is acted
upon, blessings abound and sustenance
sustenance descends from the heavens.
This benefits life for all, including ants and
all other kinds of tiny creatures.
This is due to the blessings generated by
and for the scholar.
The denizens of the heavens and the denizens
of the heavens give glad tiding for the
acts of obedience and righteous deeds that ascend
from people on the earth, and they seek
forgiveness for those who are responsible for those
deeds.
The opposite accrues to one who conceals knowledge
that should have been rightfully manifested.
Allah, the angels, and the denizens of the
heavens curse the concealer of knowledge because he
strives to extinguish the light of Allah.
As a result of his concealment, sin, oppression,
enmity, and tyranny appear on the Earth.
Allah says, indeed, those who conceal what we
have revealed of the clear proofs and guidance
after it has been made clear to the
people in the book. They are cursed by
Allah and cursed by those who rightfully curse.
It is said that this verse was revealed
concerning the people of the book who concealed
the descriptions of the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, contained their scriptures.
Abu Huraira, the allahu an, who used to
say, were it not for one particular verse
in the Quran, I would not have narrated
a single hadith.
He then recited the above mentioned verse.
Barat bin Azib relates from the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam concerning the verse. They are cursed
by Allah and cursed by those who rightfully
cursed. He informed us of those entitled to
curse these corrupt people.
They are the beasts of the earth.
This is also related directly from Bara.
A group of the righteous forebears have said
about those who conceal beneficial knowledge, the beast
of the earth cursed them, saying, we have
been denied rain because of the sins of
the children of Adam.
Concealing religiously beneficial knowledge leads to ignorance and
sin.
This results in the cessation of rainfall and
in the descent of tribulations that afflict the
beast of the earth. They perish because of
the sins of the children of Adam and
they curse, those who are responsible for their
demise.
Now, this may seem a bit fantastic,
and it may actually seem
a bit,
of a an exaggeration, but, just think of
it this way. There are many people who
say, oh, well, you know, if Islam was
so great, how come, like, Russia and America
are, like, ruling the world or whatever?
And
how come China is ruling the world or
whatever, and look at what,
you know, all this industrialization,
look at all of this, you know, cancerous
growth based
ideology has done. It has essentially
forced those people who are not interested in
that type of lifestyle, in a lifestyle that's
harmonious with the Earth
to,
either die and be trashed
by the cancerous
model or to adopt it in order to
compete.
And,
yeah, you know, all those species going extinct
and all of the microplastics
in the ocean and all of the,
facade, literally the mischief of Bahar al Fazadufil
Bari wal Bahr.
That facade, that mischief,
and pollution and in,
toxicity
and in, the stripping of resources and the
killing off of species,
which is the opposite of the khilafa that
Allah
has established on the earth,
of, Banu Adam to be the steward and
the shepherd of his creation.
That facade is literally catching up with people
and, you know, if the earth, you know,
had a personality
which, like we mentioned again and again, all
of those things
that are, in the Earth,
all of those things that we think of
as inanimate, there's a world and there's a
realm in which they have a personality
and an anthropomorphic
form.
All of those things,
you know, in that world where that reality
simultaneously
exists with their inanimate forms in this world.
If they were to be asked, of course,
they're gonna curse the people who wasted them
and destroyed them.
Chapter 7,
scholars and worshipers.
It is obvious from the preceding chapters that
the love of the sincere scholars is an
essential part of the religion.
Ali said to
Loving the scholars is an act of worship.
A well known narration exhorts
us, be a scholar, a teacher, a a
listener, one who loves them, and do not
be,
of a 5th category and thereby be ruined.
1 of the righteous forebears said, glory be
to Allah who has made for the people
a way out.
This means that whoever abandons any of the
first four praiseworthy categories necessarily
enters, the 5th and is ruined.
He is neither a scholar nor a student
nor a listener nor one who loves the
scholars. He is therefore ruined.
And this is this is a very perilous,
you know, situation for a person to be
in because there are so many people that,
you
know, between communist and colonial propaganda, you know,
they've literally turned the word mullah or maulvi
or,
you know, fakih and
sheikh and all these things into like a
cuss word.
Oftentimes, these are Sufi, daresh, all these things
are used derisively
in many of our lands. And so if
loving the,
you know, loving the people of Ilm is
an act of worship, then to cast them
out is minimally a sin if not kufr.
I mean, it's just like somebody who says
I hate the prayer. I hate the fast.
And,
the fact that someone abuses one of those
things or doesn't do them properly is not
a proper justification
for,
for conveying, such a
blanket negative
feeling toward
those things that were commanded by the dean
to love and revere.
He's neither a scholar, a student, listener, nor
one who loves the scholars. He is therefore
ruined.
Whoever hates scholars, he loves their ruin. Whoever
loves their ruin loves for the light of
Allah to be extinguished on the Earth and
for sin and corruption to appear.
This is consistent with what Sufyan and
others amongst the righteous forebears have said.
A servant of a particular ruler hated Abu
Faraj, ibn al Josi. This is ibn al
Josi, the old Hanbali
sheikh not
Ibn Khaym Josie, the the the, direct sheikh
of Ibn Rajab.
But, ibn al Josie is one of the
great Muhadithin and one of the great Hanbali
mashaikh
and one of the great orators of Baghdad.
They said, you know, tens if not a
100 over a 100000 people used to attend
his his wad, his his his sermons and
his, preaching,
amongst whom there were repeaters that repeated the
the the bayan because, the crowd was so
huge, that would come to listen.
One of Ibn al Josi's friends saw the
man in a dream being carried to *
and inquired of the reason for such a
terrible state. It was said because he hated
Ibn al Josi.
Ibn al Josi relates,
when the hatred and abuse of this person
became unbearable, I sought refuge with Allah that
he exposed his weakness. Allah, therefore, soon ruined
him.
Allah ta'ala be our protection. And the thing
is that that's the problem. Love and hate
is for the sake of Allah ta'ala, and
they are more properly connected with aqidah
than they are with fiqh.
And, it's the hadith of the prophet
that the person who gives who loves for
the sake of Allah and hates for the
sake of Allah and gives for the sake
of Allah and withholds for the sake of
Allah, that person has
perfected their iman,
meaning what? That loving and hating is an
act of the heart, and it is an
act of iman. To kill a scholar is
to kill a successor of the prophet, sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
At the time of Hajjaj,
the, the time when he killed Saeed bin
Jubeir. Saeed bin Jubeir was one of the
prominent students of Abdullah bin Abbas
and Hajjaj is the, renowned homicidal maniac enforcer
of Banu Umayyah.
At the time Hajjaj killed Sayyid bin Jubeir,
the people were in dire need of Saeed's
knowledge. Hajjjad thus present prevented the people from
benefiting from that knowledge. Someone saw in a
dream that Hajjjad suffered trials
of being killed once for everyone who fell
during his assault events in Said. For slaying
Said, he was killed 70 times,
meaning that his his
his punishment with Allah
was was manifold
70 times more than it was for,
the killing of all those who were killed,
that he felt in the assault on getting
Saied bin Jubeir.
This understanding is consistent with the idea that
the most severely punished of people is one
who kills a prophet.
Since the murderer has striven to work corruption
in the earth. Whoever kills a scholar has
killed a successor of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam and has likewise gone to great
lengths to spread corruption in the earth. For
this reason, Allah specifically linked the killing of
the prophets to killing one of the righteous
scholars. Those who reject the signs of Allah
Ta'ala and unjustly killed the prophets and killed
those who command justice and announce,
and killed those who command justice, announced to
them a painful punishment.
Ekrima, as well as the others amongst the
righteous forebears, said concerning the following verse, whoever
kills a human being except as a retribution
for murder or corruption in the earth is
it it is as if he has killed
all of humanity. And whoever saves a life,
it is as if he has saved all
of humanity.
Whoever whoever kills a prophet, a just imam,
whoever kills a prophet or a just imam,
it is as if he has killed all
of humanity.
Whoever supports a prophet or a just imam,
it is as if he has saved all
of humanity.
The full moon and stars and the planets.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said that
the superiority of the scholar over the devout
worshiper is like the superiority of the full
moon over the rest of the heavenly bodies.
Meaning conveyed by this hadith, the meaning conveyed
by this hadith has been related from the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam by way of
Mu'adh and Abu Darda
Radhi Allahu Anhuma
with a broken chain of transmitters.
The metaphor contains a comparison between the scholar
and the full moon. The full moon represents
a scholar
owing to the exquisite luminance of its light,
while the planets represent the devout worshipers.
The difference in the radiance between the full
moon and that of the planets represents the
difference in the virtue, between scholars and devout
worshiper and the devout worshiper.
The underlying reason for this, and Alain knows
best, is as follows. A planet's light does
not extend beyond itself, whereas the light of
the full moon shines upon Earth's inhabitants.
They are illuminated by it and guided, in
their travels. And as I can attest to
myself from my experience in the Badia is
that the moonlight is very strong. You can
see things outside in the moonlight. With all
the light pollution in the city, it's hard
to hard to know, but you actually cast
a
shadow in the moonlight. The prophet, sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, mentioned the planets, not the stars,
because the planets are not used for guidance
as much as the
stars. Hence, they have the status of the
devout worshiper whose benefit is limited to himself.
As for the stars, they are the heavenly
bodies that are used for guidance as Allah,
most exalted, said, and by the stars, people
are guided through the land and the sea.
He also says, it is he who has
set for you the stars that you may
be guided by them through the darkness of
the land and sea. In another hadith, the
prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, also compared the
scholars of his nation to the stars. It
has been said that the moon derives its
light from the sun just as the scholar
is a reflection
of the light of the divine message. For
this reason, he has been compared to the
moon and not the sun. The prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam was a lamp and a luminous
moon which shone upon the earth. The scholars
as his heirs and successors are compared to
the bright and luminous full moon.
Righteous scholars, the first to enter paradise.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam narrates in
a sound hadith, the first contingent to enter
paradise will resemble the full moon.
Those entering after them will resemble the twinkling
stars.
It is not unreasonable to say, and Alano's
best, that the righteous scholars are amongst the
first contingent because they occupied the status of
the full moon in the world.
They are joined by the distinguishing believers or
by the distinguished believers,
those whose anecdotes are remembered, hearts are softened
when they are mentioned, and their words are
sought.
As for the second contingent, they are the
ordinary believers. When
Imam al Azai, and he was the imam
of the Syrians in the, in knowledge in
the time of the salaf. Imam al Azai
was an imam of the sunnah
in Sham, and I believe he's actually buried
in, in the modern nation state of of
Lebanon,
and his mazar is still there, and there's
a madrassa that that accompanies it.
Then, Imam al Ozai was full of knowledge
and intensely fearful of Allah. A person saw
him in a dream saying, I haven't seen
anything in paradise greater than the rank of
the scholar and the righteous sober individuals who
fear Allah.
The virtue of knowledge over ordinary worship.
The hadith of Abu Dardaar, radiallahu an, who
clearly indicates the preference of knowledge over ordinary
worship.
There is much evidence for this position.
Allah says, are they equal, those who know
and those who know not?
He also says, Allah elevates and degrees those
who believe amongst you and those possessing knowledge.
Abdullah bin Mas'ud
and others amongst the righteous forebears have explained
this to mean that Allah has Allah raises
those endowed with knowledge several degrees above the
unlearned believers.
Tanmidi Rahimuallahu ta'ala relates from Abu Umama radiallahu
anhu that 2 men mentioned to the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
2 men were mentioned to the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam. 1 of them a devout worshiper
and the other a scholar. The prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam said the virtue of the scholar
over the devout worshiper is like my virtue
over the lowest of you. Tirmidi and Ibloo
Majah, Rahimhumullah, related hadith from Ibn Abbas radiallahu
anhu, related that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam said, a single knowledgeable believer is harder
on shaitan than a 1,000 devout worshipers.
Ibnu Majah relates that Abdul
Abdulab
Quranic recitation and invoking Allah Ta'ala and the
other in scholarly discourse.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said in
each there is good. These are reciting the
Quran and invoking Allah. If he wills, he
will if he wills, he will grant their
request. And if he wills, he will withhold
it. These are engaged in scholarly discourse, and
I have been sent as a teacher. He
then went sat with the ladder.
So, these are engaged in scholarly discourse, and
I have been sent as a teacher. He
then went and sat with the ladder, which
is a clear sign of superiority.
This hadith in kitab al zuhd
that the latter are better.
Tabarani said,
from Abdullah bin Umar radiAllahu anhuma,
from the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, that
a little bit of knowledge is better than
abundant worship.
Baazar, Hakim, and others relate from the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam on the basis of
numerous chains.
Copious knowledge is more beloved to Allah than
copious worship.
Scrupulousness is the best thing for your religion.
Ibn Shehab Azuhari
attributes the following saying to the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
The scholar is 70 degrees more virtuous than
the devout worshipper.
Between each two degrees is the distance it
would take a swift horse a 100 years
to traverse.
The nations or sorry. The narrations from the
righteous forebears on this subject are quite numerous.
For example, it is related that from Abu
Hurair radiAllahu anhu and Abu Zar al Ghifari
radiAllahu
anhu
that the least amount of sound knowledge is
more beloved to us than a 1,000 rakaat
of, nafil prayer.
Ibnu Majah states that Abu Dharr
Radhiallahu Anhu
related this directly from the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam.
Abu Darda Radhiallahu Anhu said, studying religious knowledge
for an hour is better than spending a
night in prayer.
It is related from, Abu Hureya, radiallahu anhu,
that the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, said,
attaining religious knowledge is more beloved to me
than standing the entire night in prayer.
Abu Hurair, radiAllahu anhu, also said, knowing a
ruling related to a command or prohibition is
more beloved to me than fighting 70 battles
in the way of Allah.
And so, I mean, obviously,
our, whatever Fox News people will have a
field day with this on the other side.
But, you know, put all those issues to
the side. Imagine having to fight a battle.
It's very dangerous. There's a lot of sacrifice
involved in it. Seventy battles is like, you
know, very few people go through 70 battles
and then, like, actually get through all 70
of them
alive.
And if they do, they're also like a
hero. Right? Well,
you know, if you wanna really be a
hero, then
this illness where where you'll show it. And
those are the people they know because they
did both. They did both.
They're not just one person deprecating
another. One person deprecating one service of Islam,
through another.
Ibn Abbas radiAllahuan who said, studying part of
the night is more beloved to me than
spending its entirety in prayer. Abu Musa
said, studying with Abdullah bin Mas'ud is better
for my soul than a year of worship.
And, subhanAllah, they're both from the Mujahidin. They're
both from the Mujahidin. They're both from the
first tier of of believers.
Al Hassan al Basri'ah or or or from
the first tier, the believers and the companions.
Al Hassan al Basri said, Rahimu'Allahi,
learning an aspect of knowledge and teaching it
to a Muslim is more beloved to me
than possessing the entire world and using it
in the way of Allah.
And this is also deep because
it values the source of wahi being divine
and, therefore,
values it over material things. Whereas, you know,
we have a lot of Mashallah communities filled
with people who are like, hey, where's the
money? Where's the money?
So and so brought in the money, and
they brought in these hits, and they brought
in these YouTube
users and Facebook followers, and,
you know, big money in the fundraising, and
the donations, and the donors, and whatever. And,
the person who brings the miroth of the
messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi wa sallam, it
says if it's worthless to them. Wal radiadhu
billahi Allah TA'w protect us and forgive us
for our,
ignorance in the past and guide us and
guide our calm.
Al Hassan al Basri said, learning an aspect
of knowledge and teaching it to a Muslim
is more beloved to me than possessing the
entire world and using it in the way
of Allah. He said on another occasion, if
a man correctly learns an aspect of knowledge
and acts upon it, it is better for
him than the entire world even if he
were given the world and used it all
toward the hereafter.
He also said, the ink of the scholars
and the blood of the martyrs flow in
a single stream.
He said, nothing which Allah has created greater,
in terms of its reward,
nothing which Allah has created is greater in
terms of its reward than seeking knowledge. Neither
Hajj nor Umrah nor Jihad nor zakat nor
emancipating slaves. If knowledge had physical image, it
would be more beautiful than the sun, the
moon, the stars, the sky, and the magnificence
and a magnificent throne.
Ibn Shehab Azuhuri
said, seeking knowledge is better than the worship
of 200 years. Sofiana Thore
and Abu Hanifa both said, may Allah exalt
their rank amongst his oliya.
There is nothing after obligatory worship better than
seeking knowledge.
Sufyan
also said, we know of no action better
than seeking knowledge and hadith if one does
so with a good intention. He was asked
what should their intention be? He said he
should desire Allah and paradise.
Imam Shafi'i said,
seeking knowledge is better than voluntary prayer. Imam
Malik
saw one of his students recording knowledge. The
student abandoned his writing, stood up to perform
a nafal prayer. Thereupon, Imam Malik said, I'm
surprised at you. That which you stood for
is not better than the thing that you
abandoned.
Imam Ahmed Rahim, was asked, what do you
consider better? That I should spend the night
in voluntary prayer or that I record knowledge?
He replied, that you record,
what you know of your religion is more
beloved to me. He also said, nothing is
equivalent to knowledge.
Mu'affi bin Imran said, or hamuhullah,
writing a single hadith is more beloved to
me than spending the night in prayer. And,
it's interesting if you look at the the
end of this chapter
that we just finished,
it's it's it's deep because he brings all
4 Mujtahhid Imams and there are many people
who will, you know, tweet about,
oh, look, you know, the, not in the
not only in the Twitter sense, but even
in the,
you know, chirping,
chatter sense
that,
look, you know, the 4 madhhabs dividing the
ummah, dividing the ummah, dividing the ummah. And,
yeah. Sure. Someone may say Amin out loud
and someone may say it quietly and someone
may put their hands to the side and
someone may put their hands on their chest,
and someone may raise their hands after and
someone may not. But the usuli matters they
agree upon, which is the superiority
of this knowledge. If people accepted that superiority,
they would have known that the madhabs of
the sunnah are not a source of division
in the ummah. Rather, they are great cornerstones
of the intellectual edifice of this deen,
which is a kingdom
and which is an empire that
10000,
and a 100000 in a 1000000 years will
pass. They will never erode,
no matter who, is ruling and, you know,
no matter how beautiful or ugly buildings may
be, and no matter, what turn the, the
people of the Ummah take. That the core,
if this thing is preserved, the core of
the deen is alive and well. And if
this thing is wasted, you can build the
most magnificent masajid in the world. Some of
them are being built right now and they
are devoid of this knowledge,
being learned or known, much as being practiced.
And
they are nothing but a sign of the
qiyama being near at hand. Allah
protect all of us. Allah
preserve this deen and this ilm. Allah
support and raise the rank of those people
who protect this knowledge and those people who
teach it, those people who listen to it,
those people who study it, and those people
who are our guardians for the people who
are carrying out its work. And Allah, subhanahu
wa ta'ala, guide to something better those people
who oppose it or don't give it its
proper due or move them out of the
way at least so that they stop
poisoning the the pure well
from which Islam is drunk.