Zia Sheikh – Respect of Scholars
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of learning and practicing learning in shaping individuals to become the best versions of Islam. They also talk about the concept of "ADAD" in respect for knowledge and how it is difficult to attain. The speakers also mention " Madab" in India and Pakistan, which describes individuals as "core people" who experience death and spend their time in a monk's seat.
AI: Summary ©
So without further ado, I ask Imam Zia
to please come to the podium inshallah and
get us started.
Jazakallah Khair, Assalamu Alaikum.
Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
Inshallah we have a good crowd here today.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept your
coming and your interest in the seeking of
knowledge, which is going to be my talk
today about the importance of knowledge itself and
the issue of making ilm, knowledge, a priority.
First and foremost, we have to understand and
define what knowledge actually is.
What is ilm?
And how does it differ from information?
Okay, there is ilm and there is just
information.
When a person has knowledge, that knowledge actually
makes him recognize Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
It makes him closer to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Information, it doesn't make a person closer to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
What it can do actually, it can make
a person further away from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
So knowledge is the thing that we should
be striving for.
Ilm is the thing that we need to
be striving for.
And when we have true ilm, then we
will be amongst those people whom Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala describes.
Indeed, the ulama are the ones who have
the khashiyah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Now let me give you a couple of
examples of people who are not Muslim, yet
they have written volumes of books related to
Islam.
There is actually a dictionary of hadith, which
covers many volumes.
So if you want to find out, for
example, a hadith, innamal a'malu binniyat.
You want to find out which books this
hadith is found in.
You look up in alphabetical order, innamal a'malu
binniyat.
You look up the first few words, and
on the side it will tell you that
it's in Bukhari in such and such a
place, in Muslim in such and such a
place, Abu Dawood in such and such a
place.
It will basically give you all the references
of the hadith books, where you can find
that particular hadith.
Now this book, it covers many many volumes,
but it was actually written by a Hindu,
written by a non-Muslim.
His research into the book, all of his
reading of the hadith, did it benefit him
in the least?
No, it did not benefit him.
And this is an example of where ilm
is information, it's not true knowledge that actually
pushes a person to become a Muslim or
even a better Muslim than he or she
already is.
There's another example that just I came across
a couple of weeks ago.
I was in an interfaith kind of camp
for three or four days a couple of
weeks ago, just outside San Antonio.
At this camp, there were many pastors, rabbis
and so on, and one of the most
fascinating guys I met was a guy called
Todd Whitman.
And when I got to talking with him,
I thought just an ordinary pastor or a
minister, but he's actually a person who lectures
in a university about Islam.
And he's written a book about the seven
or eight different places that the shaitan is
mentioned, you know that whole discussion that takes
place between Allah SWT and the shaitan, where
Allah tells the angels and the shaitan to
prostrate before shaitan, and then the shaitan refuses.
So this is mentioned about seven times in
the Quran.
And each one, it has slightly different wordings,
different wording for soil, and different wordings of
exchange that took place between Allah SWT and
the shaitan.
And he basically has written a book that
talks about this whole discussion of the shaitan
and the lessons that you can learn from
this story.
But again, his study of the Quran, his
study of the tafasir, and he apparently speaks
fluent Arabic, his study of the tafasir didn't
push him to become a Muslim.
So again, this is a classical example of
a person having information but not ilm.
Because Allah says, The ulama, the people who
have the knowledge, they develop the khashia of
Allah SWT, they develop an awareness of Allah
SWT.
Allah SWT tells us in another place in
the Quran, Allah SWT raises the status of
the people of iman amongst you, and for
the people who have been given knowledge into
many stages.
A person's status is raised when he develops
the true knowledge.
And I'll tell you, and I'll describe to
you what true knowledge actually entails.
It's the learning of knowledge, I'll tell you
right now, the learning of knowledge, the practicing
of knowledge, and the propagation of knowledge.
It has three responsibilities.
Learning, practicing, and promoting and propagating.
This is the right of the knowledge, and
when a person does that, then he is
fulfilling the right of the knowledge, and in
turn, Allah SWT raises the status of this
person in this world, and also in the
hereafter.
There's a very famous hadith that is mentioned
in many books.
It's mentioned in Bukhari, and Muslim, and Nauwi,
and many others.
In which the Prophet SAW said, Whether Allah
SWT intends khayr for, he gives him the
understanding of deen.
And the word fiqh is being used here.
Fiqh, understanding, and attainment of knowledge, there are
different definitions of the word fiqh.
But here it means a person's understanding of
the religion.
So when a person gets the true knowledge,
and he gets the correct understanding of the
knowledge, then Allah SWT has destined this person
for khayr.
Allah SWT has given this person a lot
of khayr, and a lot of goodness.
And according to, this hadith is in Bukhari,
but the sharih of Al-Bukhari, Hafiz Ibn
Hajar, in the footnotes to this hadith, he
mentions an addition to this hadith, which is
slightly weak, according to Imam Bukhari's standards.
Imam Bukhari's standards were very, very high, very,
very strict, so he didn't take every single
hadith that he came across.
He had a very strict criteria for the
acceptance of a hadith.
But there's one hadith, the same hadith, مَن
يُرِدَّ اللَّهُ بِهِ خَيْرًا يُفَقِّهُ فِي الدِّينِ Whoever
Allah SWT wants khayr for, He gives him
the understanding of religion.
There's an addition to this hadith, which is
slightly a little bit weak.
And that is, وَمَن لَّمْ يَتَفَقَّهُ فِي الدِّينِ
لَمْ يُبَالِ اللَّهُ بِهِ Whoever does not get
this understanding of deen, Allah SWT has no
care for him.
Allah SWT doesn't care for this person.
So, even though the wording of this hadith
is weak, the meaning is basically sahih.
And that is, basically, if you take the
first portion of the hadith, which is absolutely
sahih and covered by many of the strong
books of a hadith, that automatically, this is
known in Arabic as مَفُوم مُخَالِف The automatic
opposite is, that if Allah SWT doesn't want
khayr for a person, He doesn't give him
the religion, He doesn't give him the understanding
of the religion, He doesn't give him the
knowledge, and therefore Allah SWT doesn't care for
him.
So, any person who has been given the
tawfiq and the ability to seek knowledge, this
is a great opportunity from Allah SWT and
he should grab it with both hands and
he should not let that thing go.
He should take full advantage of that opportunity
and learn as much knowledge as he can.
There's another hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ
mentioned two men.
ذَكَرَ رَسُولُ اللهِ ﷺ رَجُلَيْنَ أَحَدُهُمَا عَابِدٌ وَالْآخَرُ
عَالِمٌ He mentions the comparison between an alim
and an abid.
Alim meaning a religious scholar and an abid
basically a person who is a lay person
but he worships Allah SWT, he is very
diligent in his worship.
So, the Prophet ﷺ said فَضْلُ الْعَالِمِ عَلَى
الْعَابِدِ كَفَضْلِي عَلَى أَدْنَاكُم So, the status of
an alim over an abid, the status of
a scholar over a regular lay person who
worships Allah SWT is like my status, meaning
the Prophet ﷺ status upon the lowest from
amongst you.
So, if you can imagine the status of
a sahabi is huge, right?
But if you combine all of the most
pious of the sahaba, however many thousands there
were, and if you combine all the pious
people of the world, they cannot get close
to a prophet, okay?
And obviously they cannot get to the level
of the Prophet ﷺ.
So, if you can imagine the Prophet ﷺ
saying that my status compared to you sahaba
is just like the status of an alim
over a regular abid, meaning that a regular
abid, a person who worships Allah SWT can
never get close to the status of an
alim.
It's not possible.
So, this is a very beautiful example that
the Prophet ﷺ gave.
There's another hadith that the actual hadith goes
on, the same hadith goes on to say
إِنَّ اللَّهُ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ وَأَهْلَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِينَ حَتَّ
النَّمْلَةِ فِي جُحْرِهَا وَحَتَّ الْحُوتِ لَيُصَلُّونَ عَلَى مُعَلِّمِ
النَّاسِ الْخَيْرِ The Prophet ﷺ said, the angels
and all the creatures of the earth, the
ants in their holes, the fish in the
sea, the birds in the sky, they actually
pray for a person who is seeking and
then teaching the knowledge.
And why is this?
What have these creatures got to do with
the person who is seeking knowledge?
What are they getting out of this person
who is seeking knowledge and he is striving
to increase in his knowledge and his awareness
of Allah ﷻ?
What are they getting out of it?
And why do they pray for that person?
So the scholars say, that actually these creatures,
they have a long term vision, unlike us,
we are very focused on the immediate future,
right?
So these creatures, they have a long term
vision.
And they see in this long term vision,
that this person who is seeking knowledge, he
is actually going to learn the knowledge and
he is then going to teach other people
what is right, what is wrong, what is
haram, what is halal, what is obligatory, what
is non-obligatory, what is sunnah, what is
bid'ah.
And when people become knowledgeable, when people get
the true knowledge, then what is going to
happen to them?
They are going to tread the right path.
They are going to stay on the correct
path.
They will be obedient to Allah ﷻ.
They will stay away from the disobedience of
Allah ﷻ.
When they are on the path of obedience,
and they are away from the path of
disobedience, then what is going to happen?
The punishment of Allah ﷻ that would come
to a nation that is disobedient to Allah
ﷻ, it will be alleviated, it will be
removed.
So when the punishment of Allah ﷻ is
removed from the creation, from that nation, then,
automatically, it is also removed from the fish,
from the ants, from the birds, and they
are also in safety.
So due to this long-term vision of
these creatures, they pray for this person who
is seeking the path of knowledge.
And another hadith, you know, you have this
concept of rolling up the red carpet for
dignitaries, right?
The angels actually lay down their wings.
لَتَضَوْا أَجْنِحَتَهَا رِضًا لِطَالِبِ الْعِلْمَ The angels, the
purest of creation, لَا يَعْصُونَ اللَّهَ مَا أَمْرَهُمْ
وَيَفْعَلُونَ مَا يُؤْمَنُونَ They don't disobey Allah ﷻ.
They do as they're instructed.
They never commit any sin.
These pure beings, these pure creations of Allah
ﷻ, they love and respect the student of
knowledge so much that they lay down their
wings for this person to tread on.
So a student of knowledge is actually walking
on the wings of angels.
Can you imagine that?
Better than any red carpet treatment than anybody
can imagine.
So, these are the hadith which talk about
the respect that Allah ﷻ gives to a
student of knowledge.
And you've probably heard this hadith many times
before, مَنْ سَلَكَ طَرِيقًا يَلْتَمِسُ فِيهِ عِلْمًا سَهَلُ
اللَّهُ لَهُ بِهِ طَرِيقًا إِلَى الْجَنَّةِ Whoever treads
the path of knowledge, Allah ﷻ makes the
way of Jannah easy for him.
So a person when he's seeking knowledge, then
he knows what is right from wrong, what
needs to be given priority at a certain
time.
But when a person is deprived of knowledge,
he doesn't have the correct knowledge, he will
do things which he thinks are good to
do, and he's actually engaging in bid'ah.
He will be doing something which he thinks
is good to do, but he may be
engaging in haram.
For example, if a person doesn't have the
correct knowledge, and he says, you know the
day of Eid, it's a very wonderful day,
it's a holy day, I think what I'll
do, I'll fast on this day.
So what's he doing?
He thinks that he's doing something good, but
he's in fact disobeying Allah ﷻ.
He is disobeying Allah ﷻ by fasting on
the day of Eid.
Similarly, a person says, you know what, I
think two raka'ah of fajr is too
short.
I feel like praying four raka'ah of
fajr.
You know, I think that would be better,
and because I'm making the salat lengthier, Allah
ﷻ will appreciate it much more.
Is he doing something good?
No.
Because of his jahal, because of his ignorant
thinking, he thinks he's doing something right, but
in fact, he's doing something completely wrong, and
his salat is not going to be accepted.
A person, he goes on a journey, he's
traveling, he knows about the issue of shortening
the prayer.
And he knows it's sunnah to shorten the
prayer, but he says to himself, you know
what, I just don't feel comfortable shortening the
prayer, I think I should lengthen the prayer
instead of shortening it, because Allah ﷻ will
like it much more.
Again, ignorance leading him to do something which
is incorrect.
So when a person has true knowledge, he
is actually doing things right, he's doing things
correctly, he's differentiating between halal and haram, between
right and wrong, between sunnah and bid'ah,
and that person is practicing Islam as it
should be practiced, he is then making the
way of Jannah easy for himself.
You've probably heard this hadith of the person
who killed 99 men, right?
And then he went to a monk, and
he asked him the fatwa.
He asked the fatwa, and this monk said,
no, he asked him, is Allah ﷻ ever
going to forgive me?
So that person said, no.
You killed 99 people, how do you expect
to be forgiven?
So then he killed this person too, made
it 100 century, okay?
We call it century in cricket, right?
So he made it 100 century, killed 100
people.
So then, after that he went to an
alim, and then he asked him the same
question.
So the alim told him, go to such
and such a place, where there are such
and such people who are pious, stay in
their company, and Allah ﷻ will give you
the tawfiq to make a sincere tawbah, and
Allah ﷻ will forgive you.
So he sets out on his journey.
And during this journey, his time comes.
His time of death comes.
When his time of death comes, both of
the angels, group of angels, are disputing and
arguing with each other.
They're fighting with each other that who should
take his ruh?
Who should take the soul of this person?
Should it be the angels of maghfirah or
the angels of punishment?
So then Allah ﷻ sends another angel to
solve this dispute.
And this angel basically tells them, measure the
land.
If the distance to where he's going is
shorter, meaning he's come a longer way, and
he's closer to the place where he's going
to go, then you have to forgive him,
and the angels of rahmah and maghfirah have
to take him.
And if his distance to his place, his
home, is closer, then the angels of azab
and punishment have to take him.
So the distance was measured, and he was
indeed closer to the place that he was
about to go to, and his sin of
killing a hundred people was forgiven.
And there are also some riwayat that suggest
that Allah ﷻ actually made the distance shrink
between where he was and where he was
about to go, so that he could be
forgiven.
Now this hadith, you've probably heard it before,
but Imam Bukhari, rahimahullah, he brings this hadith
under the title, fadl al-'alimi ala al-'abid.
fadl al-'alimi ala al-'abid, which means the status
of an a'alim over an a'abid.
The status of an a'alim over an
a'abid.
And people who've actually studied Bukhari, they will
know that Imam Bukhari, he actually brings the
title of a subheading basically of the hadith
that he's about to bring.
And the point that he's trying to put
across in that hadith, he puts in the
title.
Literally speaking, if you look at the wording
of the hadith, there is no actual wording
that says that the status of an a
'alim is greater than the status of an
a'abid.
In the hadith, there's no wording like that.
But the story is that first he goes
to an a'abid, he goes to a
monk, right?
He goes to a monk who's just worshiping,
he's a hermit, he's dedicated his life just
to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
But he doesn't have the true knowledge.
So he gives the wrong answer and he
basically suffers because of that.
He gets killed also.
And an a'alim, a knowledgeable person, he
gives the correct answer.
So Imam Bukhari rahimahullah, he brings the title,
he brings this hadith under the title fadlul
a'alimi alal a'abid to show the
difference in the a'alim, the response of
an a'alim and the response of a
person who is just a lay person who
is just worshiping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That that person, an a'alim, can guide
a person correctly and he can give the
person the correct advice as opposed to going
to X, Y and Z who can give
you a hundred different answers and not all
of them are going to be correct.
So this is what Imam Bukhari does and
for future this is good.
I'd like to just read the statement of
Qadi Ayyad rahimahullah about the person who is
seeking knowledge.
Qadi Ayyad rahimahullah, he says, la shubhata anna
ilm al-a'alimi yakfudhi li ta'atihi
minal manzilati ma la yuhsalu lil mu'min There
is no doubt that the knowledge of an
a'alim dictates because of his ta'at
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because of
his obedience to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
it gives him the status that an ordinary
mu'min does not attain.
walithalika fa innahu yuqtada bil-a'alimi fi
kulli af'ali That's why an a'alim
is followed in all of his af'al,
in all of his deeds.
wala yuqtada bi ghayri al-a'alim and
a non-a'alim is not followed.
A non-a'alim is not obeyed in
things of knowledge.
li annahu ya'lamu min kayfiyati al-ihtirazi
yanil harami wa shubhati wa muhasabati al-nafsi
ma la ya'rifuhu al-ghayri Because of
his knowledge, he recognizes that other people don't
recognize what is halal and what is haram,
what is doubtful, and the idea of muhasabatu
al-nafs which is self-evaluation.
He, because of his knowledge, he recognizes it
that other people do not recognize.
wa yatahafadhu fima yalzamuhum min al-hukuki ma
la yatahafadhu minhu ghayru And he basically guards
the things that he's supposed to guard that
other people, non-scholars do not guard.
And then he goes on describing the status
and the qualities of an a'alim.
So here we see that the a'alim,
he basically differentiates between halal and haram and
Allah SWT gives him a status because of
that.
Now the next thing that I'd like to
talk about, going on is the concept of
adab in knowledge.
The older people that are sitting here, back
home, there's a phrase used in India and
Pakistan, who can tell me that about adab?
I'm sure a hundred people are going to
tell me.
Yeah, there you go.
What does that mean?
The one who is respectful, he is a
fortunate person.
And the one who is disrespectful, he is
a misfortunate person.
And this stretches across the respect to parents,
respect to your peers, and respect to scholars,
and respect to knowledge.
And unfortunately what has happened is, that because
of the fact that knowledge is so easily
attained nowadays, by just a few clicks of
the mouse, that respect for knowledge is non
-existent or it's very, it's not as much
as it should be.
What happens is when you strive for something,
and you basically push yourself for something, then
what happens is that you are actually have
respect for it, and you value it.
But because it's so easy to attain that
knowledge nowadays, people basically don't have the respect
for knowledge anymore.
There's a famous story related about Imam Malik,
in a book which is called Al-Madkhal
Ila Sunan Al-Kubra Al-Bayhaqi.
In this, it is mentioned that Imam Malik,
he's giving a hadith lecture, he's giving a
lecture on hadith.
And the students are looking at him, and
he's kind of shifting about in his seat,
uncomfortably, right?
You can tell that there's something wrong.
And sometimes his face is going red, sometimes
it's going pale, and sometimes it's going blue,
and he's basically shifting about in his seat.
So when the lesson finishes, he instructs his
students, just lift my shirt up from the
back, please.
So they lift his shirt up, and there's
a scorpion over there.
And that scorpion has stung him in 16
places.
It has stung him in 16 places, but
he continued the lecture of the hadith.
And the people were astonished.
The students were completely astonished that how can
a person be stung by a scorpion 16
times and just sit in his place?
What was his response?
He said, I practice sabr and patience
because of the reverence that I had for
the hadith of the Prophet.
You can imagine nowadays what we do.
We're on our iPads, lying on our beds,
reading the hadith, and when we're in any
lecture, we're just stretching out, sometimes checking our
text messages, updating our Facebook status, whatever it
is, you know.
But that respect for knowledge is just non
-existent.
That's something that we really are lacking in
today's society, especially amongst the youth.
I'd like to relate a story about myself,
what happened, and again this thing, this concept
of tarbiyah, and teaching of other is also
non-existent nowadays.
As I was saying, during the course of
my studies, I must have been around 12
or 13, when I was sitting in a
class and where we studied, we actually sat
on the floor, and carpeted, but you know,
the benches were on the floor, and that's
how we used to sit.
So one of my classmates from across the
room, he asked me to borrow a pencil,
so I threw it across the room, and
he basically caught it, started using it.
My teacher who was sitting in his place,
he called me, and he asked me, why
did you throw the pencil?
So I was like, any 12, 13 year
old, he asked me for it, so I
threw it to him.
Hello, okay, kind of thing.
Hello is a 90s thing, I think.
So, that's what I said.
So, my teacher said, that kind of stuck
with me throughout my life.
He said, you know the pen, the pencil
that you threw across the room, that's a
tool of knowledge.
It's a tool of knowledge, and the tool
of knowledge, it should be respected.
That was inappropriate for you to throw it
across the room.
Next time if somebody asks you for a
pen, or a pencil, go and give it
handed to him.
This is the respect that our teachers taught
us, which unfortunately is very lacking nowadays.
Anybody that does karate around here?
Who does karate?
Who's ever done karate?
What do you do when you go into
your dojo?
Before you go into your dojo, what do
you do?
You bow, right?
Okay, why do you bow?
Huh?
Respect of what?
Respect for the dojo, right?
So when you're doing karate, what do you
do?
When you go to the dojo, dojo basically
is the learning place for karate.
Before you go into the dojo, the students
are expected to go and just bow to
the dojo.
Out of respect for the dojo.
And this is for a worldly art, okay?
A worldly art of basically fighting in self
-defense.
How much respect do you think we should
have for our places of knowledge upon which
our success of this life and the hereafter
are dependent, okay?
The respect to the classroom, respect to the
masjid, respect to the place where we sit
and learn knowledge, that respect is lacking, okay?
So we need to understand this concept of
adab and instill it into our lives.
I needed to talk about a lot of
things, but brother Larry just keeps on handing
me notes, so I'm going to break with
this inshallah.
I pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
gives us the true knowledge and gives us
tawfiq to strive for true knowledge.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us
the respect for the knowledge and give us
the respect for the bearers of knowledge, the
scholars who teach us knowledge, and our imams,
and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give
us tawfiq to practice everything that has been
said and heard today.
Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.