Faith Without
Knowledge is Dangerous
Article given to me by Shariffa Carlo
Allah says,
"...it is only those who have knowledge (ilm)
among his slaves that fear Allah..." 35:28.
And Allah says,
He grants wisdom to whom He pleases; and he to whom
wisdom is granted indeed receives a benefit overflowing. But none will grasp
the Message except men of understanding. 2:269
And,
...Allah will raise up to (suitable) ranks (and
degrees) those of you who believe and who have been granted knowledge. 58:11
And
Say: Travel through the earth and see how Allah
originated creation; so will Allah produce the second creation (of the Afterlife):
for Allah has power over all things. 29:20
My brothers and sisters in Al Islam, I often say,
"Faith without knowledge is dangerous." Please cry out to your Lord
in the day and the night, "O my Sustainer! Increase my knowledge."
20:114. Do not let yourself be mislead like those of old nor let yourself fall
into the traps of the unscrupulous amongst us who are working so hard to
destroy our great religion.
Most of you already know the story of how I came to
Islam. But I will put the highlights here for those who do not know. I was a
part of a group of Christians who wanted to destroy Al Islam. I was learning
Quraan and sunnah in an effort to twist them so that I might mislead those who
cared about their deen even a little to make them believe that what I was
proposing was Islamically correct.
You can see the results of people like me when you
look to the misguided Muslims today who say the the woman's khymar need not
cover the hair, only drape over the bossom. You can also see it in ploys like
George Bush's when he quoted out of context, "...And if they incline to
peace, incline thou also to it, and trust in Allah..." 8:61. Of course,
Bush never bothered to mention that this verse was cradled in a lesson about
inclining to peace if you have the power to maintain the peace. Why should he?
He succeed in misleading the ignorant Muslims who followed his lead and were
thrilled that he was even able to quote from the Quraan. It served its purpose.
Thus, we can see that faith without knowledge is
dangerous. It opens the door for misguidance and straying from the deen of
Allah. So what is a Muslim to do? The first step is to make a clear intention.
We must want to seek knowledge for the sake of Allah. We must recognize that
Allah has made it obligatory on us to have the basic knowledge of our religion,
and then we must seek to acquire that knowledge for His sake and His sake only.
This is of extreme importance. Remember the lesson about the first three who
will be dragged into the hellfire.
Narrated AbuHurayrah: It has been narrated on the
authority of Sulayman ibn Yasar who said: People dispersed from around
AbuHurayrah, and Natil, who was from the Syrians, said to him: O Shaykh, relate
(to us) a tradition you have heard from the Messenger of Allah (peace_be_upon_him).
He said: Yes. I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) say: The first
man (whose case) will be decided on the Day of Judgment, will be a man who died
as a martyr. He shall be brought (before the Judgment Seat). Allah will make
him recount His blessings (i.e. the blessings which He had bestowed upon him)
and he will recount them (and admit having enjoyed them in his life). (Then)
will Allah say: What did you do (to requite these blessings)? He will say: I
fought for Thee until I died as a martyr. Allah will say: You have told a lie.
You fought so that you might be called a "brave warrior". And you
were called so. (Then) orders will be passed against him and he will be dragged
with his face downward and cast into Hell.
Then there will be brought forward a man who
acquired knowledge and imparted it (to others) and recited the Qur'an. He will
be brought, Allah will make him recount His blessings and he will recount them
(and admit having enjoyed them in his lifetime). Then will Allah ask: What did
you do (to requite these blessings)? He will say: I acquired knowledge and
disseminated it and recited the Qur'an, seeking Thy pleasure. Allah will say:
You have told a lie. You acquired knowledge so that you might be called "a
scholar", and you recited the Qur'an so that it might be said: "He is
a Qari" and such has been said. Then orders will be passed against him and
he shall be dragged with his face downward and cast into the Fire.
Then will be brought a man whom Allah had made
abundantly rich and had granted every kind of wealth. He will be brought, Allah
will make him recount His blessings and he will recount them and (admit having
enjoyed them in his lifetime). Allah will (then) ask: What have you done (to
requite these blessings)? He will say: I spent money in every cause in which
Thou wished that it should be spent. Allah will say: You are lying. You did
(so) that it might be said about (you): "He is a generous fellow",
and so it was said. Then will Allah pass orders and he will be dragged with his
face downward and thrown into Hell. Sahih Muslim: Book 19, Number 4688:
Second, we must recognize that there exists a lot of
wrong information in our nation. Those who have transferred knowledge without
foundation and those who have deliberately tried to destroy our deen have been
very busy over the centuries, and now, the search for the truth is a bit more
complex, so we must learn the basics from scratch. Do not assume that because
your parents were Muslims that everything you learned is correct. You must
investigate for yourself. Once you reach an age where you can research it, you
need to go back and verify from the original sources. Are you making salat or
wudu the way the Prophet did? Or are you making it according to the way your
parents, your culture, your imam etc. did? One of the signs of the last day is
that religious knowledge will be taken away and that we will be taught by those
who have no knowledge.
Narrated 'Abdullah bin 'Amr bin Al' As: I heard
Allah's Apostle saying, "Allah does not take away the knowledge, by taking
it away from (the hearts of) the people, but takes it away by the death of the
religious learned men till when none of the (religious learned men) remains,
people will take as their leaders ignorant persons who when consulted will give
their verdict without knowledge. So they will go astray and will lead the
people astray." Sahih Bukhari: Volume 1, Book 3, Number 100:
This is a very real danger! We can already see this
in our masjids and our homes. People find it so easy to say what they think is
correct when they have never researched it for themselves. Most can not even
tell you where they learned something or where you can find the dalil
(evidence) but they will fight you about its correctness, even when they are
presented the Quraan and sunnah that proves the opposite. Allah Preserve us!
I was once in a masjid when a sister who seemed to
have good intentions said to the other sisters that regardless of what they
choose to do on the outside, that when they make salat, they need to be sure
that they are properly covered. They need to make sure their headpiece is big
enough and not see-through. They need to be covered with a loose dress of skirt
that covers all the legs and the feet; they need to make sure their clothes is neither
see-through or tight. This is so that their salat will be accepted by Allah.
They must meet the minimum requirements.
The reaction was that a group of sisters got upset
with her, and said to her, "Who are you to teach us our religion?"
They claimed the religion of their fathers. They had come from the best Muslim
countries and they knew right from wrong, and they did not have to go to these
extremes. The sister was taken aback by this, but kept her calm long enough to
show bring them the Quraan and a few of the hadiths that spoke of the minimum
cover for women. The women literally waved the books away and said, "Don't
give us this, what do the scholars say?" She tried to tell them the
opinions of the four schools, and they rejected these. At this point, from all
the insults that were coming from these women, the woman gave up, and went to a
room to cry. She had been humiliated and insulted for bring forth the clear
teachings of Allah and His messenger. This is the state our nation has fallen
to. Allah guide us!
Brothers and sisters, Alhamdulillah, we still have
the basic knowledge preserved. We have scholars who know the true Islam and who
teach it, and we need to take advantage of them while we still can. So many of
our great scholars are aging. We need to seek out their knowledge and preserve
it against a day when knowledge will be taken from us. A day that does not seem
too far away. When we look around us, we can see this phenomenon of people
taking "...as their leaders ignorant persons who when consulted will give
their verdict without knowledge. So they will go astray and will lead the
people astray." This is already a reality! We have forgotten the basics.
Allah says,
...Say: Are those equal, those who know and those
who do not know? It is those who are endowed with understanding that remember
(Allah's Message). 39:9
Third, we need to be sure that we are all educated,
men and women. Seeking knowledge has its great blessings,
Narrated AbuHurayrah: Allah's Apostle
(peace_be_upon_him) said, "...He who treads the path in search of
knowledge, Allah will make that path easy, leading to Paradise for him and
those persons who assemble in one of the houses of Allah (mosques), recite the
Book of Allah and learn and teach the Qur'an (among themselves). There will
descend upon them tranquillity, mercy will cover them, the angels will surround
them and Allah will mention them in the presence of those near Him. He who is
slow-paced in doing good deeds, his (long) descent does not make him go
ahead." Sahih Muslim: Book 34, Number 6518:
But once we have learned, we can not allow it to
remain stagnant. We must pass on this knowledge to our brothers and sisters.
Narrated AbuHurayrah: Allah's Messenger
(peace_be_upon_him) said: When a man dies, his acts come to an end, but three,
recurring charity, or knowledge (by which people) benefit, or a pious son, who
prays for him (for the deceased). Sahih Muslim: Book 12, Number 4005.
When we teach the correct knowledge to our husbands,
wives, children, family, friends etc..., we will receive a continuing blessing.
Imagine the blessing of teaching Fatiha to a child or a new Muslim. Every time
he/she says it in salat, it is a blessing on your scale. Every time he/she
teaches it to someone else, it is a blessing. This one small deed, done
sincerely, can be for us a mountain of blessings on the day of Judgement while
we know it not. But in teaching, we need to be very careful. We can not teach
what we do not know. The scholars agree that half of knowledge is knowing when
to say, "I don't know." We need to remain silent when we can not
bring the dalil. We must not teach that we can not verify. Instead, we lead the
person to one of knowledge. We can not give fatwa unless we are trained to do
so. Nor should we seek fetwa from one who is not trained. You would not go to a
nurse and ask her to operate on you. You would go to a doctor. The nurse can
help you with a limited service, but she is not trained for surgery. In the
same way, you may ask a man or woman of limited knowledge for some basics which
he/she can verify but you can not ask them for fetwa. And if you know you have
limited knowledge, you must never give fetwa.
We must strive to be from the knowledgeable. They
are among the two who we can actually envy for this purpose:
Narrated Ibn Masud: I heard the Prophet saying,
"There is no envy except in two: a person whom Allah has given wealth and
he spends it in the right way, and a person whom Allah has given wisdom (i.e.
religious knowledge) and he gives his decisions accordingly and teaches it to
the others." Sahih Bukhari: Volume 2, Book 24, Number 490:
But, we must recognize our limitations. Islamic
knowledge is not something you can acquire in a few days, months or years. It
is a lifetime of study. Most scholars are not even experts in all, they
specialize: Usool al Quraan (Quraanic Sciences), Usul al Hadith (Hadith
Sciences), Islamic History, General principles of Islam etc... It is not an
easy matter. And remember, the sin for the insincere seeker of knowledge is so
great because the responsibility is so large as is the reward.
Last but not least, I want you to notice that when
it came to talking about the people of knowledge, I did not limit it to men.
Some of our greatest scholars have been women. Women not only have the right to
study and teach, it is their responsibility. We can not keep the woman from
learning unless we want to kill our deen. The woman is the primary teacher for
the children. She spends the most time with them and is their first school. But
her knowledge need not be limited to the basic knowledge she will pass on to
her children. She is another source for teaching society. Throughout Islamic
history, starting with Um al Muminiin, Aisha, our women have been teachers and
scholars for men and women. Most of our great scholars had at least one woman
teacher - if not more. Read this small excerpt from a Khutbah by: Sheikh
Abdullah Hakim Quick in Canada:
"The first shaheed, the first martyr in Islam,
Sumaiyyah, radiallahu 'anha, a WOMAN! The first person to give his life of this
religion -- before the men -- the shaheed. Aiesha, radiallahu 'anha, reported
the second most hadith over 2,210 hadiths, authentic traditions. When you are
reading hadith you are mostly reading Abu Hurairah, or Aiesha, may Allah be pleased
with them. So a woman is not supposed to be educated??? A woman is not supposed
to know "isnad" (the chain of hadith) ??? Not supposed to know
tafseer??? When men used to come to her to learn about the tafseer. Shalaby
reports that Nafeesah, who was a descendent of Ali, radiallahu
anhu,karramallahu wajhu, was such a great authority of the hadith traditions
that Imam Ash-Shafi'ie, rahimahu Allah, learned from her when he was in
Al-Fustaat, which is the original Cairo. Shalaby also reports that Kareemah
bint Ahmed Al Marwazi, may Allah be pleased with her, was a transmitter and
interpreter of Sahih Al-Bukhari. Muhammed Al-Abrashi wrote that Ibn Asaakir, a
famous hadith transmitter, had over 80 women ("thamaneena mar'ah) among
his highest regard of the 'ulema. 80 women who he regarded at the highest level
of scholarship.
It is also reported that for As-Souyouti, rahimahu
Allah and Ibn Hazm, rahimahu Allah some of their teachers were women. It is
also reported: Fatima bint Maalik Ibn Anas was a famous student of "Al
Muwwata". And so we can go on and on speaking about women and education;
the seeking of knowledge (talibul ilm) is fareeda ala kulli Muslim -- all
Muslims are supposed to seek knowledge male or female. If the woman in your
house does not know halal from haram and you are out fi sabeelillah and you
come home to eat food, the food that you eat may be haraam. If she doesn't know
Qur'an, if she doesn't know Sunnah and you are away, how will your children
learn? Much of their time is spent with their MOTHER. And so an educated woman
is a positive thing for Islam; and it is ignorance, it is "jahil"
when the man is stopping her from Islamic education."
We must all learn the religion, and there is no
proof (actually the contrary is proven) that a woman has a lessor ability to
act as a teacher. As long as all Islamic ettiquette is in place, it is both
allowed and from the sunnah of our great companions who took Um al Muminiin,
Aisha as their teacher.
Finally, I leave you all with this: Knowledge is
incumbent upon us all. If we allow ourselves to remain ignorant or to follow
whatever so-called scholar the wind blows in, we are a doomed nation. We must
be able to differentiate between true knowledge and hogwash. A few hints: When
your scholar starts saying, "I think..." or "I feel..."
without giving Quraan and authentic hadiths, start worrying. When your scholar
starts to teach you something that directly contradicts the words of Allah or
the sunnah of the prophet, get very worried. And when your scholar starts to
have vision, run!!!!
May Allah guide us all to the straight path. May He
give us knowledge and faith and protect us in that faith till we die. And may
we all die as Muslims loving, fearing and worshipping Allah as He commanded us
to do and taught us to do through our beloved prophet's teachings and examples.
Ameeen!!!!
‘** Maulana Ahmed
Ali’ ** one of the best scholars in U.K and in the world
Check
out the Audio Titles available to everyone by post [complete list]