Revival of the Religious Sciences 3. One who seeks knowledge must not be arrogant towards knowledge and must always be ready to obey his teacher. He should submit himself to his teacher, and listen to his teacher’s words with utmost attention. Just as a sick person listens to his doctor’s advice with utmost attention and follows it to the letter, the student who seeks knowledge should be in the same position as an ignorant patient before a knowledgeable and compassionate doctor. The student must not fall into the arrogance of thinking he knows something before his teacher; he should only listen and learn. He must always be humble towards his teacher and regard serving his teacher as the greatest honor. Sha‘bî176 says: Zayd b.
After performing a funeral prayer for a deceased person, they wanted to put him on a donkey. Ibn Abbas, who was present, held Zayd’s reins: Zayd said, ‘O cousin of the Messenger of Allah! Let go of my reins; it is very hard for me that a person of your honor holds my reins.’ Ibn Abbas (r.a) replied, ‘The Messenger of Allah commanded us to respect scholars.’ Upon hearing this, Zayd bowed and kissed Ibn Abbas’s hand and said, ‘He also commanded us to kiss the hands of the people of the household.’ The Messenger of Allah said: . (JUl d ^ Sil Jbıı ^jJl ^i ^ ^ Temellük (hypocrisy) is not part of a believer’s character.
However, a student who is acquiring knowledge may be humble towards his teacher. From all these statements, it is clear that the student must never be haughty towards his teacher and must never make a mistake in showing respect even for a moment.) Sha‘bî is a very pious and esteemed scholar. His kunya is Abu Amr, and his name is Amr b. Shurahbil. He was from Hamadan, and he died at the age of eighty in H.
Taberânî, Hâkim and Beyhâkî, el-Medhal’, according to Hâkim, the document is authentic.) Ibn Adiy, (with a weak document from Muaz and Abu Umâma)
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Trying to benefit from famous people rather than the teacher is the student’s arrogance towards the teacher. Such a behavior also shows that the student is an idiot. Because knowledge is the means to salvation and happiness. The way to escape from a predator, whether it is shown by a famous person or by an unknown person, there is no difference between the two. Since fire attacks those who do not know Allah more fiercely than a predator attacks people, whoever saves them from this fire is their greatest teacher. Wisdom (knowledge) is the lost property of a believer; wherever he sees it, he immediately claims it as his own. Therefore, whoever gives him this property, he has a right to be thanked.
Indeed, to explain this secret, it was said: ‘Pride causes knowledge to wage war against a young man; just like water wages war against all those who try to hold it back…’ To possess knowledge, it is necessary to listen to the teacher with utmost attention and to be humble. Indeed, Allah the Almighty says: Surely, there is a lesson for those who have a heart or who are present and listen. (Kâtf37) The expression ‘those who have a heart’ in the verse refers to being understanding and capable in knowledge. However, merely understanding and capability are not enough; it is necessary to listen to the teacher with a calm heart. One must strive to be thoroughly familiar with the subtleties of the knowledge in the teacher’s words. If the student listens well, shows humility, expresses gratitude for the benefit he has received, and declares the honor and gratitude he feels for being a student of such a teacher, then only then can he truly benefit from knowledge.
The student should be like a dry land that is thirsty for rain. Just as a dry land immediately absorbs the rain that falls on it, the student should absorb the knowledge of his teacher in the same way. If the teacher says something with the intention of teaching him, the student must hold onto the teacher’s words, and abandon his personal opinions and align himself with the teacher’s views. Because the teacher’s
Revival of the Religious Sciences incorrect statement is more beneficial than his own correct knowledge. Because testing can make a person familiar with strange and beneficial subtleties. There are many patients whose fever has risen very high, and when the doctor tries to raise their fever with another fever, those who do not understand this are amazed and try to object. However, the heat given by the doctor combines with the heat in the body, and the patient’s body gains the strength to resist the medicines the doctor will later give. This kind of treatment may seem very strange to someone who does not know the science of medicine. Allah the Almighty says in the story between Musa and Khidr: Khidr said: ‘Indeed, you will never be able to be patient with me.
(KehfZ67-68) Later, Khidr set a condition for Musa to be able to be his companion: Khidr said: ‘If you are to be my follower, you must not ask me anything until I speak to you.’ (Keli# 70) However, Musa could not be patient and kept questioning Khidr along the way, and in the end, this impatience ended their companionship. In conclusion; the student who has views and will other than his teacher’s views is deprived of the blessing and suffers loss. ‘Allah the Almighty says: ‘If you do not know, ask those who remember’ (Nahl/43) encouraging us to learn. If you say this, you have spoken the truth.
Because it is like this, we are all obliged to learn. However, a student may ask only if the teacher permits it. Because if the student has the right to ask questions as he likes, he will ask about matters he is not yet capable of understanding, which is harmful. Khidr’s prohibition of Musa from asking questions without Khidr speaking shows this wisdom. Therefore, the teacher knows better which knowledge the student can grasp more effectively; the teacher understands better which knowledge the student should learn and when.
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what time to learn. If the teacher starts from a lower level, it means the time for acquiring higher knowledge has not yet come. Hz. Ali said: ‘Not asking too many questions, being content with the answers given, not forcing the teacher to answer when he is tired, not trying to stop him from leaving, not revealing his hidden aspects to the public, not causing disturbance with anyone around him, admitting mistakes and accepting excuses when he is wrong; yes, all these are expressions of respect that should be shown to a learned person. Respecting the learned is the duty of everyone. Respecting the learned, as long as he preserves the command of Allah, it is your duty to prostrate before him, sit in front of him, and rush to serve him before anyone else if he needs help.’
Someone who seeks knowledge should initially refrain from listening to disputes. Whether the subject of dispute is worldly knowledge or afterlife knowledge, because disputed subjects confuse the mind of the student who is new to knowledge, cloud his thoughts, weaken his will in matters of opinion, and make him hopeless in terms of understanding and balance. The appropriate action for someone at the beginning of the sea of knowledge is to reach an acceptable level with his teacher. It is to learn the right, good, and only path. After learning this, he should listen to the differences between schools of thought and try to discover the subtleties of these disputes. If the teacher is not a supporter of a single view and the teacher’s habit is to narrate the views of the schools of thought as they are and to present the evidence for and against these views, he should avoid such a teacher’s conversation and stay away from him.
Because such a teacher leads people more to misguidance than guidance. Can a blind man guide the blind? A person without an independent view is ignorant, and it is impossible for an ignorant person to give knowledge. A new student should be kept away from disputed and doubtful subjects. Keeping him away from such subjects is similar to keeping a new Muslim away from his old friends and infidels. Encouraging a student with a sound mind and intellect to delve into disputes and doubtful subjects is like trying to make a person of strong faith mix with infidels. Based on this secret and wisdom, it is forbidden for a cowardly person to attack the ranks of infidels, but on the contrary, it is encouraged for a brave person to attack. People who are unaware of this subtlety think that what is permissible and encouraged for people of strong faith is also permissible for them. They do not know that the things that strong people do are different from what weak people do.
Because there is a big difference between the strong and the weak. A scholar said: ‘The first person who saw me thought I was a friend, but the one who saw me later thought I was a heretic.’ Because in the end, deeds turn people inward; except for obligatory acts, bodily deeds are completely still. Those who see this think it is laziness, negligence, and carelessness. In reality, the situation is not as they think. Perhaps he is occupied with the most virtuous deeds of the heart, which are remembrance and observation. A weak person trying to imitate the behavior of great people who seem to fall in appearance is like mixing a small amount of impurity into a cup of water or an ocean. A little impurity makes the water in the cup impure, but never the ocean!
Indeed, the situation of a weak person is like the situation of a cup that says, ‘Since I am not impure, I will not be impure either.’ However, if he had a little understanding, he would know that a little impurity would have changed the ocean’s nature. The impurity that falls into the cup turns the cup into its own nature; this is one of the clearly visible examples. To express this wisdom, we can point out that Allah the Almighty has given some permissions to the Messenger that He has not given to other servants. While it is not permissible for others to marry more than four women, Allah has given permission to the Messenger to marry up to nine women:
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Even marrying nine women was made permissible for him
Because the strength in him was sufficient to be fair to nine women
The strength in him was sufficient to prevent injustice, no matter how many women there were
Others, apart from the Messenger, are deprived of this strength, so they cannot even practice a little of the justice practiced by the Messenger. Therefore, the discord among women can devour them; even the effort to please them can, Allah forbid, cause a person to rebel against Allah.
Can a person who compares angels to blacksmiths ever reach a farmer?
5. The student should learn useful knowledge without any sacrifice and should strive to benefit from each of them to the extent that they help his purpose. If he is given time by fate, he should also strive to deepen his knowledge in these areas. If he cannot be occupied with all of them at once, he should focus on the one that is more suitable for him and try to acquire it; while taking the good aspects of the others. Because the sciences are interrelated and help each other. Even a little awareness about the sciences he cannot fully engage with will at least prevent them from being found against him. Because the worst part of a person is to be hostile to what he does not know.
Allah the Almighty expresses this as follows:
The infidels also said about the believers:
‘If that religion (of the prophet) were good, the poor and the destitute would have rushed to it before us.’ When they could not achieve their goals in this way, they said: ‘This Quran is an old lie.’
(Ahkaf/11)
179) Buhârî and Müslim
Revival of the Religious Sciences The poet beautifully expressed this truth: ‘Even the sweetest water tastes bitter to a sick and crooked mouth.’ Sciences, according to their levels, either lead mankind to Allah or help them in a way, and there are many levels in terms of bringing them closer or pushing them away. Those who know these sciences are like soldiers waiting for the signal at the checkpoint. Each has its own level. If the intention is to please Allah the Almighty by reaching these levels, then one attains the reward accordingly. The student should not rush to dive into any branch of knowledge. He must follow the necessary order and start with the most important point first.
Because mankind is not capable of fitting all the sciences into one lifetime; therefore, he should act wisely and start with the best of everything. He should be content with a little of the work he starts and spend all his strength on whatever knowledge is easy for him. Since the most honorable of the sciences is the afterlife knowledge, such a person spends his strength on learning this knowledge. Of course, by afterlife knowledge, I mean the sciences of dealing and unveiling. The goal of the science of dealing is unveiling. The goal of unveiling is to know Allah. When I say afterlife knowledge, I do not mean the matters of belief that the people understand. For the people’s layer, whether these matters come from their ancestors or are newly emerged, the result is the same.
The goal of afterlife knowledge is not the struggle to protect the speech of the science of speech from the noise of the printing presses and the desis of the writings, which is the way of speech that is preached. This goal is the near science, which is the fruit and the shadow of the light that is cast into the heart of a person who is purified from inner evils through the struggle of Allah. So that the person may attain the level of Abu Bakr Siddiq. Abu Bakr, who (excluding the prophets) if the faith of the entire creation were placed on one scale and his faith on the other, his faith would outweigh. Allah’s Messenger himself testifies to this. According to my view, there is no difference between the belief of the people and the belief of the scholars. However, the science of speech is given this name to make it seem separate from the people’s belief to such an extent.
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that the scholars’ belief is separated from the people’s belief. If the scholars’ effort were to reach high levels, then Omar, Uthman, Ali, and all the other companions would have to be deprived of these levels. What makes Abu Bakr (r.a) superior to the other companions is not the science of speech, but the firm and unshakable faith he has in his heart. Those who listen to these truths from the Messenger of Allah (s.a) and do not give them importance, and those who read what they know, what strange people they are! These strange people say, ‘All these words are made up by the Sufis, none of them make sense, so you should act with caution or not believe in them at all,’ thus losing their capital and falling into the illusion that they have escaped from the matter.
Therefore, O seeker of the truth! You can attain salvation by searching for the secrets that neither the jurists nor the scholars of speech can know. Know that to find this, you must make a lot of effort. In short, the most honorable of the sciences and the goal of all sciences is to possess the science of knowledge. This science of knowledge is such an ocean that not only can its depth never be fully known, but it also cannot be measured by understanding. Only the highest prophets can reach these depths. Then the saints, followed by the scholars who follow them, reach these levels. It is reported that in a temple, there were two statues of rulers. On the plaque in the hand of one, it was written: ‘You think you know everything.
Do not forget that you cannot fully understand everything without comprehending the power of Allah, the Creator of everything and the Creator of all things!’ On the plaque in the hand of the other, it was written: ‘Before I knew Allah, I used to drink everything when I was thirsty; but after I knew Allah, my thirst never returned.’ It is not permissible to reach another science before learning what must be learned first. Because in the sciences, there are necessary sequences and orders. A student who follows these sequences and orders is on the path to success. Allah the Almighty says: Those to whom we have given the Book, they read it properly. These are the ones who believe in their books without distortion. Whoever denies or changes the Book, they are the ones who suffer loss in their religion. (Bakara/121) That is, one does not move on to another science or field until he has learned the previous one properly. Therefore, the student must thoroughly understand the science he has read and then try to reach a higher level of science. A student must not decide that a science is defective based on the disputes among scholars who differ on a particular subject.
Because the dispute is not in the science itself. Perhaps it is more correct to accept that the scholars have made a mistake in that science. However, it is also not correct to decide that the scholars have not acted in accordance with the needs of the science. Because you see many societies that have even abandoned thinking in the fields of rational and transmitted sciences. They have given the following excuse to justify themselves: ‘If these sciences had a solid foundation, their followers would not fall into disputes…’ These doubts have been dispelled in our work titled Miyarul-Ulûm. Those who want to can look there and try to free themselves from doubts. There is another group that, when they see doctors making mistakes, starts to doubt the science of medicine. Some groups also consider astrology the highest science when a fortune teller’s words accidentally turn out to be correct.
Another group sees the fortune teller’s mistake and completely rejects astrology. Indeed, all these groups have fallen into wrong views. The most suitable and appropriate thing is that the essence of a thing must be known first. When one has this knowledge, it becomes clear that a person cannot master all the sciences on his own