Khalid Latif – Nouman Ali Khan Intellectual Humility
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Alhamdulillah.
Wassaatu Assalaamu Alaikum Quran
Weekly.
Very short bit of advice,
specifically geared towards our young brothers and sisters
that are very quickly attaining a lot of
knowledge,
and are up and coming in the community,
and are becoming contributors to the community.
Specifically, this advice is in regards to keeping
your humility,
and keeping your specifically your intellectual humility.
Allah
says, Above everyone who has knowledge is someone
who has more. And of course, above all,
it is Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
You know, when I was a lot
younger and I would learn something in a
speech, among my friends, you know, we'd go
and attend a program, we learn something, we
take some notes, we feel like we know
this stuff. And then we can debate others
about this stuff. And we can go talk
to someone, That guy doesn't even understand. Doesn't
he know this ayah, this hadith, this evidence,
this proof, this one you know, this scholar
said this, that scholar said that. You've got
all these references in your head, and you're
using them to throw them like, you know,
like ping pong balls at the enemy. Right?
You're shooting at the enemy with these evidences,
and it seems like you're only learning this
stuff, so you can out someone, you know,
outdo someone else in debate, and to show
them up in debate. So your your the
knowledge you're acquiring is not to add to
your humility, but it's to take away your
humility. And this is the way of the
non believer. You know, the non believer acquires
an education to put a title next to
their name. Doctor so and so, PhD so
and so, professor And this knowledge, you know,
before they even say their name, they say
their title, so you better know I have
more knowledge than you. But the knowledge of
deen however,
it's supposed to be something the more you
have, the more it humbles you. The more
it humbles you. But if you have knowledge,
and the more knowledge you have, the more
judgmental you're becoming, The more you're like, This
one's deviate, and that scholar was wrong, and
this one was out of line, and this
and that and the other. How much have
you studied compared to them that you can
pass commentary?
That you can just talk about them like
that? And not just about them, the imam
in your community, or elders in your community.
If you don't agree with something they did,
first of all, you are in no position
to pass a fatwa on them. You have
no qualifications.
I'm a beginner student, wallahi. I don't say
this out of artificial humility.
I'm a beginner student of the Quran. I
have to study 28, 29 tafasir
for a single ayah, to try to get
some understanding of what the ayah is saying.
And me personally, when it comes to a
hadith, I shut my mouth. Why? Because I
know I'm not qualified to figure this stuff
out. There is so much scholarship involved in
deriving conclusions from a hadith of the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. From the issues of isnaat,
to the issues of the context in which
it was said, to the issue of how
it was understood by the consensus of the
companions, radiAllahu anhu jama'een, to the issue of
how it was understood by the greatest fuqaha
of this deen. There are several
complex issues here. And for you to just
pick up the Bukhari, and read a translation
of a hadith, and then start arguing with
someone, this is a disservice to the sunnah
of the Prophet alaihi wa sallam. And second
of all, you don't even understand the language.
You're just reading, spewing it off of a
translation. How dare you? Students come to Imam
Ashafi
they come to him, We want to learn
hadith from you.
You know what he says? And these, of
course, this conversation is happening in Arabic. He
says,
The thing that scares me the
most is a student of knowledge,
the one who didn't even learn
proper syntax, deep understanding of grammar.
And who's saying this? Ashafi'i,
who spent 20,000
you know, a third of his wealth he
spent learning the Arabic language, and the other
2 thirds learning hadith. And by the end
of it he said, I wish I spent
my other 2 thirds that I spent on
hadith, even that on Arabic. That's how concerned
he is about deepening his knowledge of this
rich, rich, rich language. Just because you've taken
2 courses in
some book
on Arabic studies nowadays, and you've attended a
weekly halaqa on some grammar, you are not
qualified to be commenting on a hadith. You
are not. You I'm not, and you're not.
This is the work of muhaddifun and scholars
to comment on it. And for you to
read an article, or read a paper, and
read some excerpt that you barely understand, you
don't even know what those terms mean, and
for you to spew it out against someone
else,
it's absurd.
And it's a disservice to the sunnah of
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. You have
to be careful when you speak on his
behalf. You have to be very careful. If
you don't know your stuff, and I'm telling
you, you think you know your stuff but
you don't, you don't.
Humble yourself to the people who have knowledge.
You know,
(QS. Al Adhikr, Ask the people of remembrance,
the people of knowledge,
if you yourself don't know. You know,
I didn't finish that quote of Imam al
Shafiya, I'll just share that with you and
I'm done. He says,
(3:5)
He says, I fear for the student
who doesn't study Arabic deeply, and this is
just one of many conditions of studying the
sunnah.
Arabic is just one of many conditions.
He says specifically only about Arabic even. If
you don't even fulfill this, I fear I
will teach you hadith and you will fall
victim to the warning of the Prophet salallahu
alayhi wasalam when he said, Whoever makes a
lie against me on purpose has guaranteed himself
a place in hellfire.
He was scared to teach people a hadith
because he knew these guys, these Arabs,
they were Arabs.
And they knew Arabic, and he says, No,
you don't know Arabic. You don't know enough.
I can't teach you hadith.
Subhanallah.
And here we are in our times, you're
googling a hadith in English,
and you don't know the first thing about
what a shirk of a hadith is, or
what what the historical context. You know nothing
about it, and you feel qualified to speak
on behalf of the sunnah. This is an
act of arrogance, not an act of service
to the deen. Don't delude yourself. My last
comment about this is very important. You're young
right now. And when you're young, the world
is black and white. Everything is very clear
to you. How can people disagree with me?
I have all the knowledge in the world.
When you get a little bit older, hopefully
you'll mature a little and realize, How stupid
was I when I was that young? How
stupid when I used to think I know
this stuff, when I don't?
Get before you hit the brick wall and
it's too late, and then you realize it
after you've done a lot of damage to
others and yourself, realize that now.
Realize that. Don't fall into the trap of
others who've gone down this road and learned
things the hard way. And that includes myself.
I used to be like that too. I
used to think that I know some things.
And when I actually started learning from people
of knowledge, I realized, man, I don't know
what I'm talking about. When it comes to
certain things, I should shut my mouth. People
ask me a question about fiqh or hadith,
I shut my mouth. I say, I don't
know. I'm sorry. I'm not qualified. If they
ask me a question about Quran, I say,
I'll look it up for you, I'll see
what the scholars have said. Let me see
what
other things have been said. Let me get
some research
for you. But I can't, you know At
least I have some ability to do some
research with Quran, but when it comes to
the other topics, I cannot open my mouth,
including issues in theology.
You can study theology with a scholar, but
if you think you're qualified to be debating
theology with someone, think again.
Think again.
Every single science of this deen has prerequisites
you have not met. You just haven't met
them. If you're serious about learning, be serious
about learning. If you're only learning to debate
with others, check yourself. Because you can hide
that from everybody else, you can hide your
arrogance from Allah.
Somebody is selling liquor in a liquor store,
and they're doing haram. And their haram is
open and manifest, and we don't agree with
it. But you have arrogance inside your heart,
and that is also unacceptable to Allah in
the smallest bit. In the smallest bit. So
you can look at that person who sells
the car and say, How can you do
that? How can you do such a disservice
to Allah? How can he call himself a
Muslim? Well, you look inside yourself too. If
you've got an ego problem, and if that
ego problem is making you intellectually arrogant,
and you think you're just learning this deen
to argue and debate others and be condescending
to others, check yourself, really watch yourself. I
know I should stop now, but I can't
help myself. One last comment.
Don't speak about other scholars.
Don't speak about them. If you disagree with
something they said, the people of knowledge, they
make dua for them and then they disagree
with them. That's what they do. Because they
don't know where they stand with Allah. They
don't know. You don't know when you're talking
about a scholar who already passed away,
what his rank is with Allah, and
forget what sins of his or mistakes of
his, genuine mistakes of his. Allah has already
forgiven. And you don't even know if there
are mistakes. You think they're mistakes.
You think they are mistakes. How dare you
talk about someone like that? You know, these
are slaves of Allah. Allah wants us to
be humble to other believers.
Somebody says salaam to you, that is enough
for you to accept that they are Muslim,
a Muslim.
You know,
Don't say to someone who comes to you
and says, Salam, that you're not a believer.
And today somebody says, Salam to you, you
say, I don't know. This guy is probably
deviant. I don't even know if I should
return to salam, or I should pray next
to him, or you know respond to his
supplication,
or
let him lead me in prayer, because I
don't really know if he's Muslim or not.
You become that deluded. You become that confused.
May Allah make us intellectually humble. May Allah
give us our scholars the strength to teach
that intellectual humility to the people. May Allah
make us all sincere, genuine, genuine students of
knowledge, and learn, teach us when to shut
our mouth, when to watch our tongue, and
to be humble to us and more importantly
to the deen of Islam. Barakallahu Diwalaqum. Assalamu
alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa
rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa
rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa
rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi