EXPLANATION OF PRAISED SCIENCES
Most of the sciences accepted by the Salaf (the early generations of Muslims) have disappeared. People have become scattered—
As for the sciences that are current today, they are all things invented later. Surely, the blessed saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is true:
"Islam began as something strange and will revert to being strange as it began. So give glad tidings to the strangers."
When asked, "Who are the strangers?" he replied:
"They are those who rectify what people have corrupted of my sunnah and revive the abandoned sunnahs." (99)
They have been scattered.
According to another narration:
"They are those who are upon the path you are on today." (100)
They answered thus.
In another hadith:
"The strangers are those who are few among the many, and they are the righteous. Those who do not love them are more than those who love them." (101)
he said. Those sciences have become so strange that whoever mentions them is accused of being odd. For this reason, Sufyān al-Thawrī (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "If you see that a scholar has gathered many friends around him, know that his knowledge is not pure, but mixed (with ostentation). For if he spoke in accordance with the requirements of his knowledge and told the truth, many would bear enmity towards him, and not all would be his friends."
EXPLANATION OF THE PRAISED (AND BLAMED) AMOUNTS OF PRAISED SCIENCES
Know that, in this respect, sciences are divided into three types:
1 — Those whose little and much are both blameworthy,
2 — Those whose little and much are both praised, and the more of them, the better and more virtuous,
3 — Those whose sufficient amount is praised, but whose excess is not praised,
This is just like the states that befall the body.
There are those whose little and much are both praised: like health and beauty.
There are those whose little and much are not praised: like ugliness and bad character.
There are those whose sufficient amount is praised, but whose excess is not: like spending wealth and courage. Giving a little of one's wealth and spending it in good places is praised; spending all of it and wasting it in bad places is blameworthy; having enough courage to protect oneself is praised, but attacking unjustly is recklessness and is not praised.
So too are the sciences.
1 — Sciences whose little and much are both blameworthy are those that are of no benefit to either religion or the world. The harm of such knowledge is greater than its benefit. Examples include magic, talismans, and astrology. Some of these have no benefit at all; indeed, spending one's most precious capital, one's life, on them is a loss and waste. Even those that are thought to be beneficial for worldly purposes have more harm than benefit. The supposed benefit they are thought to have is of no value compared to their harm.
2 — Sciences whose little is praised and whose much is even more praised are: knowledge of the essence, attributes, and acts of Allah, His customary way with creation, and the wisdom in ordering first this world and then the Hereafter.
For these sciences are sought after both for their own sake and as a means to happiness in the Hereafter. Striving to reach the utmost limit in this regard arises from one's shortcoming in comprehending the majesty of Allah. For it is an ocean whose depth no one can measure; everyone can only circle around its shores according to their own capacity. Those who can dive into its shores are the Prophets, the walī (friends of God), and the true scholars who have understood the subtleties of knowledge, according to the degrees Allah has appointed. This knowledge is a hidden knowledge that does not enter the lines of books. What helps to obtain this knowledge is to learn from its people and to examine the states and conditions of the scholars of the Hereafter, whose signs will be explained later. This is the first ḥāl (spiritual state) of the sālik (spiritual traveler). Later, striving (mujāhada), ascetic discipline (riyāḍa), purification of the qalb (heart), and cleansing from worldly attachments, following the path of the Prophets and walī, all help to obtain this knowledge. Yet, success is still according to Allah's decree. Nevertheless, striving is a condition. For the key to hudā (guidance) is striving, and no power other than striving can open this door.
3 — As for the sciences that are praised only in a certain amount and whose excess is not praised: these are the sciences explained in the first section, which are farḍ al-kifāya (collective obligations). Each of these sciences has its minimum (iktisār), its moderate amount (iktisād), and its exhaustive, endless, lifelong pursuit (istiksā).
You should either be among those who reform themselves or, after reforming yourself, among those who reform others. Beware of occupying yourself with others before reforming yourself. If you are engaged in reforming yourself, then you must learn the obligatory sciences and the related outward acts such as purification, prayer, and fasting. But the most important is to learn the attributes of the qalb (heart), to know which are praised and which are blameworthy. For no one is free from the evil attributes of the qalb such as greed, envy, ostentation, arrogance, self-admiration, and similar bad traits. All these diseases are deadly. Neglecting them and occupying oneself with outward acts is like smearing tar on the outside of a wound without cleaning its inside. Just as street doctors recommend smearing the outside of a wound with tar, so too do the imitative scholars recommend outward acts while neglecting the purification of the qalb. The scholars of the Hereafter, however, command purification of the inner self to treat the wound at its root and seek to cut off evil at its root. The reason why many people abandon inner purification and turn to outward acts is that purification of the qalb is difficult, while outward acts are easy. Just as a person with a skin disease whose root is in the liver avoids drinking bitter medicine and instead busies himself with smearing his body, so too does the disease increase despite constant external treatment. (Acts performed without reforming the qalb are like this.)
If you seek the Hereafter and desire salvation and wish to avoid eternal destruction, then, as explained in "Rubʿ al-Muhlikāt" (the Quarter of the Destroyers), occupy yourself with finding and treating the inner diseases, so that by this means you may rise to the praised maqāms (spiritual stations) explained in "Rubʿ al-Munjiyāt" (the Quarter of the Saviors). Just as when the earth is cleared of soil, sticks, and thorns and arranged, it produces greenery and fragrant herbs, so too is it certain that a qalb cleansed of bad traits will be filled with good traits. Just as you cannot obtain crops from barren land that you have not cleansed of foreign matter and your effort will be wasted, so too do not occupy yourself with farḍ al-kifāya without purifying your qalb. Especially when there are already those among the people engaged in these sciences! For it is foolishness to work for the benefit of others while dragging yourself to destruction. This is like someone who, while a snake is coiled around his neck or a scorpion is in his bosom, looks for a fan to chase away a fly that has landed on someone else—this is the height of folly.
— In order to be occupied with farḍ al-kifāya, one must first purify the qalb, abandon both hidden and open sins. After fully succeeding in this, then occupy yourself with farḍ al-kifāya, and in that too, observe order by preferring what is more important over what is less important. First, learn the Qur'an, then the hadiths, then tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis), and then other sciences such as the abrogating and abrogated, the clear and ambiguous, and the allegorical verses of the Qur'an. Do the same with hadith. Then, occupy yourself with furūʿ (practical jurisprudence), that is, the practical rulings of the madhhabs, but do not engage in disputes and polemics. Then, study uṣūl al-fiqh (principles of jurisprudence) and other sciences as time and opportunity permit. Do not occupy yourself with any one science to the extent of seeking to understand all its depths and subtleties. For sciences are many, but lives are short. The sciences we have mentioned are tools and preliminaries; they are not sought for their own sake, but as means. When occupied with the means, one must not forget the goal. From the science of language, suffice with enough Arabic to understand and speak, and to know the rare expressions of the Qur'an and Hadith. From grammar, suffice with enough knowledge to understand the Book and the sunnah. And know well that every science has its minimum (iktisār), moderate (iktisād), and exhaustive (istiksā) levels. To help you compare others to these, let us indicate these levels in hadith, tafsir, fiqh, and kalām (theology).
In tafsir, iktisār (abridgement) is a tafsir twice the size of the Qur'an, such as the tafsir of ʿAlī al-Wāḥidī al-Nīsābūrī. This is a concise book. Iktisād is a tafsir three times the size of the Qur'an, such as his "al-Wasīṭ." Anything beyond this is unnecessary lengthening that will not be needed in a lifetime (such as his "al-Basīṭ").
In hadith, iktisār is to read Bukhārī and Muslim, corrected by a scholar proficient in hadith.
As for memorizing the names of the narrators, it suffices for you that those before you knew them. Your duty is to rely on their books. When we say to read Bukhārī and Muslim, we do not mean to memorize them, but to be able to find and extract what is needed. Iktisād is to include the hadiths in other authentic musnads along with these. Istiksā is to learn all the weak, strong, authentic, and unsound hadiths, with all their chains of transmission, the states, names, and characteristics of the narrators.
In fiqh, iktisār is to read the fiqh of Muzanī as arranged in our work "Khulāṣat al-Mukhtaṣar." Iktisād is to read a fiqh book three times as large, such as "al-Wasīṭ mina'l-madhhab," which we have abridged from "al-Basīṭ." Istiksā is as in "al-Basīṭ" and other lengthy books. (162)
The aim of the science of kalām is to preserve the tenets of faith as narrated from the Salaf al-Ṣāliḥ (the righteous predecessors) of Ahl al-Sunnah. Anything beyond this is to seek the realities of things by other means. To preserve the sunnah at the level of iktisār is possible by reading a concise book of kalām, such as the "Qawāʿid al-ʿAqāʾid" section in this book. The iktisād level is to read a kalām book of about a hundred pages, such as our work "al-Iqtisād fi'l-Iʿtiqād."
The iktisād level of kalām is needed to debate with innovators and to protect the common people from their corruption. But this only affects the common people who are not fanatical about innovations. As for those who have learned even a little of the methods of debate, this will have no effect on them. For even if you refute them through kalām, they will not abandon their fanaticism. They will only attribute your refutation to their own incapacity and say, "I was unable, but there are others who can refute this."
(102) Since al-Ghazālī was a Shāfiʿī, he gives examples from Shāfiʿī fiqh books.
BOOK ONE — CHAPTER THREE — EXPLANATION OF PRAISED SCIENCES 105
Thus, by your superiority in debate, they think you have prevailed, but when the common people are led away from the truth by such debates, it is possible to bring them back to the path of truth before their fanaticism becomes entrenched. But once their fanaticism is strengthened, reforming them becomes dangerous. For fanaticism is a cause for entrenching beliefs. This is one of the calamities of bad scholars. For they show extreme fanaticism in explaining the truth and look upon their opponents with contempt and insult. This leads their opponents to respond in kind and to mobilize all their resources to realize their empty claims. But if they had approached them in private with gentleness and softness, and had explained their claims with courtesy, free from fanaticism and insult, the words would have found their place. Alas, rank and position are only possible with a following; and to gain a following, it is only possible by making a commotion, attacking opponents, showing fanaticism, and cursing. Thus, they made fanaticism a habit and used it as a tool, and called their actions defending religion and Muslims. In truth, even imitating those who act in this way leads people to destruction and establishes such innovations in people's hearts.
As for the long writings, classifications, and debates that have arisen between madhhabs in recent centuries, the likes of which were never seen in the time of the Salaf: avoid them as you would deadly poison, and do not even approach them. For this science is like a deadly disease with no cure. As we will explain in the section on arrogance, all jurists are led to self-importance and pride by this science, especially when combined with fanaticism.
They consider themselves…