Knowledge and Wisdom
Allah
Y says
in the Holy Qur’aan in the 6th Sura al-
An’aam [The Cattle]
الْأَنْعَام Verse 122:
أَوَ مَن كَانَ مَيْتًا
فَأَحْيَيْنَاهُ وَجَعَلْنَا لَهُ نُورًا يَمْشِي بِهِ فِي النَّاسِ كَمَن
مَّثَلُهُ فِي الظُّلُمَاتِ لَيْسَ بِخَارِجٍ مِّنْهَا كَذَلِكَ زُيِّنَ
لِلْكَافِرِينَ مَا كَانُواْ يَعْمَلُونَ
Can he who was dead, to whom We gave life, and a
light whereby he can walk amongst men, be like him who is in the depths
of darkness, from which he can never come out? Thus to those without
faith their own deeds seem pleasing.
There is a difference between
knowledge, which is the acquisition of information, and wisdom, which is
the application of the information obtained to benefit or heal oneself
and others, thus both should complement each other. The word wisdom or
hikmah in
Arabic is derived from the same root as the word hakim
حكيم which literally means ‘doctor’. So a
knowledgeable scholar should wisely dispense to heal him and others
spiritually.
Many ‘so-called’
Ulama have simply
become like information recorders that memorize many things and can
quote them like playback. They have even become arrogant despite their
knowledge of servitude. That is not an Alim.
The true Ulama
are humble, before Allah
Y
and the slaves of Allah
Y.
A beautiful example of a humble Alim
is related by Mohammed ibn Hajj al-Abdari al-Fasi
t[i]from
Morocco the author of Madkhal Ash-Shara
Ash-Shareef Ala Al-Madahib (Introduction to
Islamic Jurisprudence According to Schools of Thought) who relates the
incident when he went to his teacher Shaykh As-Salih ‘Abdullah Ibn S‘ad
a.k.a. Ibn Abi Jamrah
t,
one of the greatest scholars of hadith from al-Andalus who wrote the
famous book Bahjat al-Nufus
(Joy of The Souls), a commentary of Sahih Bukhari. He says that when I
went to him and said:
I want to learn from you O
Shaykh!
He replied:
We are both
students and Allah
Y is the Teacher; so if you
want to sit with me, then welcome
That is humility. That
inspires love in the student. The great Imams students differed with
them and yet they never denied their teacher.
Imam al-Shafi’i
(150
AH- 204 AH)
ابو عبد الله محمد بن إدريس الشافعي[ii]was
the student of Imam Maalik
t[iii](93
AH - 179 A.H. ) and yet Imam Shafi
t
said:
I am just a boy from the use of
Maalik
That did not stop him from
going against his teacher’s judgments and opinions and formulating his
own Madhab.
We live in an age where
Mufti’s and Shuyukh
have set themselves up as demi-gods. Allah
Y
speaks of such scholars who are so full of themselves and proud of their
knowledge in the 62nd Sura al-Jumu‘ah
الْجُمُعَة (Friday, the Congregation) in
verse 4:
ثُمَّ لَمْ يَحْمِلُوهَا كَمَثَلِ
الْحِمَارِ يَحْمِلُ أَسْفَارًا
Like that of a donkey loaded with heavy books on its
back
Knowledge is a living dynamic
thing that by its nature, must constantly deal with the creative
tensions that arise out of intellectual confrontation. We are being
confronted intellectually and at every level in our age. If we do not
have individuals who are willing to rise up to the level of this
deen and be willing
to think deeply about the profound issues of our age, which includes
theology, then who are going to guide the masses. We cannot be content
with stories about the greatness of our past, but we should be nourished
by it and recognize that we come from a proud and great tradition. I use
pride in the context of dignity or izzah,
which means we are proud to be the slaves of Allah
Y in a
state of servitude or ubudiyya[iv].
Ilm should not be
misunderstood as information. An Aalim
عالِم is never the one who has the most
knowledge or information. Imam Maalik
t
encapsulated this beautifully when he said:
لَّيْسَل
عِلْم كَثْرَةَ ال رِوَايَاة
Laysal ilm kasartal riwayaath
Real knowledge; is not knowing many, many narrations
(hadith and knowing all of the Holy Qur’aan and these things)
وَ إِنَّمَا هُوَ نُرٌ وَاجْاالله فِىْ
قَلْبٌ مُؤْمِنْ
Wa innama huwa Nurun yaja’alahu fi qalbun mu’min
(The real knowledge) is a light
that Allah Y
puts into the hearts of the mu’mineen
That light or
nur is the result of
the intellectual aspect of knowledge literally beginning to merge with
the flesh and blood of the human being. It is what Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali[v]
[born 1335 (736H)]
said:
Mubaashiratun
ilm qalbun mu’min
It is when the knowledge
begins to have a penetration into the heart of the
mu’min and begins to
permeate the life blood of the mu’min.
Knowledge literally inundates the human being and he becomes
yamshi ‘the nur’.
Allah Y
says in the Holy Qur’aan in the 6th Sura al- An’aam [The Cattle]
الْأَنْعَام Verse 122:
أَوَ مَن كَانَ مَيْتًا
فَأَحْيَيْنَاهُ وَجَعَلْنَا لَهُ نُورًا يَمْشِي بِهِ فِي النَّاسِ كَمَن
مَّثَلُهُ فِي الظُّلُمَاتِ لَيْسَ بِخَارِجٍ مِّنْهَا كَذَلِكَ زُيِّنَ
لِلْكَافِرِينَ مَا كَانُواْ يَعْمَلُونَ
Can he who was dead, to whom We gave life, and a
light whereby he can walk amongst men, be like him who is in the depths
of darkness, from which he can never come out? Thus to those without
faith their own deeds seem pleasing.
He walks with this light.
This really is the essence of Islamic Knowledge. Hazrath
Abul Hassan Ali al-Kharqani
t[vi]
d.10th of
Muharram in 425 H. (1033 CE) didn’t attend
Madrasah. He was the Ghaus
of his time not through knowledge (ilm)
but through the grace (fazl)
of Allah Y.
Lets get Back to the Holy Qur'aan And back to the Holy Prophet Muhammad
e.
There’s a saying misinterpreted and used as a manipulation tool by many:
Whoever doesn’t have a Shaykh,
Shaytan is his Shaykh
Generally, first and foremost
it means you have to have a teacher for the Shariah. You have to have
someone who teaches you the religion. Get teachers even if you have to
pay them. Have teachers. You need teachers to guide you. You need to
have sources of knowledge. In terms of spiritual advancement, if people
are having spiritual experiences it’s good to have people who know what
they are doing. Suhba
(companionship) is also good. Many of the true
Shuyukh of this
period, like Sidi Abdal Hakim Murad Winters[vii]
is of the opinion that taslim
the idea of surrendering ones-self like a dead body in the hands of a
mortician, was over, the surrendering yourselves to a Shaykh completely
was over, this wasn’t its time. And there are a lot of dysfunctional
aspects in a lot of relationships that happen, so there are problems in
all these systems. And surrendering your sovereignty, you have to be
very careful with that, who you surrender your sovereignty to, some
people demand a lot. There’s a poem by Robert Frost:
They say the truth will make you
free, my truth will make you slave to me.
So you just have to be
careful, there’s a lot of manipulation out there. People from Indo/Pak
subcontinent know very well about the peer sahibs, and what happens
there. A lot of these people are flat-out fakes, there are pretenders
all over West Africa, you know ‘Sufi Shaykh, come and be a
murid.’ The danger of
Sufism that bothers me is there are a lot of principles in
Tasawwuf that are
very easily manipulated into certain cultic control mechanisms and they
become very dangerous. I think for those of us in the West, we come from
a tradition of individual sovereignty and independence of self. And I
personally believe those are very high Islamic characteristics and
qualities. I think a lot of the problems in the East is all this
slavishness, and devotion and servitude to the grand Master Pu-Ba
whoever. I mean, if you want my personal opinion, I do believe that.
That does not mean I don’t show the utmost respect to my teachers and
what I love those who respect my opinion, listens to my opinion. The
true Ulama are humble, before Allah
Y
and the slaves of Allah
Y.
With acknowledgement to Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and
Maulana Fazlur Rahman Ansari
[i]
Mohammed ibn Hajj al-Abdari al-Fasi from Morocco the author of
Madkhal Ash-Shara Ash-Shareef Ala Al-Mathahib
(Introduction to Islamic Jurisprudence According to Schools of
Thought). The book was published in 4 volumes of over 300 large
pages each. It treats many different subjects. His views are
very much influenced by al-Ghazali's
Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din.
He spent much of his life in Tunis and Egypt and, for some time,
taught at the University of Fes, Al-Qarawiyyin.
He was buried in Qarafa (Egypt).
[ii]
Al-Shafi'i, Arabic jurist (150 AH/767 AD - 204 AH/820 AD). He
was born in 150 AH (760 CE) in
Gaza,
part of
Egypt. He was
active in juridical matters and his teaching eventually led to
the Shafi'i
school of fiqh (or Madh'hab) named after him. Hence he is often
called Imam al-Shafi'i.
[iii] Mālik
ibn Anas ibn Maalik ibn 'Āmr
al-Asbahi (مالك
بن أنس) (c. 711 - 795) (93 AH - 179
A.H. ) is known as "Imam Maalik," the "Shaykh of Islam," the
"Proof of the Community," and "Imam of the Abode of Emigration."
He was one of the most highly respected scholars of
fiqh in Sunni
Islam. Imam Shafi, who was one of Imam Maalik 's students for
nine years and a scholarly giant in his own right, stated, "When
scholars are mentioned, Maalik is like the star among them." The
Maliki Madhab,
named after Maalik, is one of the four schools of jurisprudence
that remains popular among Muslims to this day.
[iv]
Ubudiyya:
Slavehood. This is the state of the slave who is drawing near to
Allah Y through acts of devotion.
'Ubudiyya
is "the Nearness of Surplus Works" (qurb
al-nawafil) which is the lowest
of the four stations of Perfection. The lover-knower-slave of
Allah Y
becomes adorned with the attributes
of slavehood ('ubudiyya)
and bondage ('ubuda)
after having lost himself in annihilation in Allah
Y
(fana' fillah).
In becoming "no thing" (la shay)
the slave is returned to the creation with the Perfection of
Bondage ('ubuda).
[v]
ibn Rajab: Zain ad-Din Abu al-Faraj 'Abd
ar-Rahman al-Hanbali, also known as ibn Rajab, which was a
nickname he inherited from his grandfather who was born the
month of Rajab, was a Muslim scholar. Imam ibn Rajab was born in
Baghdad in 1335 (736H). Ibn Rajab's commentary on the forty
hadith of
Nawawi (Jami'
al-Ulum wa al-Hikam) is the largest
as well as generally being considered the best commentary
available. Near the end of his life, Ibn Rajab began composing a
commentary on Sahih Bukhari, but unfortunately only reached the
chapter on the funeral prayers before he died. He had named his
work Fath al-Bari
and what he did write has been published by Dar Ibn al-Jawzi in
seven volumes. This amounts to less than a sixth of Sahih
Bukhari and one can only imagine how large the work would have
been had he been able to complete it. Twenty years after his
death, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani began his commentary on Sahih
Bukhari and gave his own work the same title in honour of Ibn
Rajab.
[vi]
Abul Hassan Ali al-Kharqani
tHe was the
Ghawth
(Arch-Intercessor) of his time and unique in his station. He was
the Qiblah
(focus of attention) of his people and an Ocean of Knowledge
from which saints still receive waves of light and spiritual
knowledge. Died on Tuesday, 10th of Muharram in 425 H. (1033
CE). He was buried in Kharqan, a village of the city of Bistam
in Persia
[vii]
Abdal Hakim Murad, is a British Sufi
Muslim researcher, writer and teacher. He has made a
contribution on many Islamic topics. Born in 1960, Winter was
educated at Westminster School, and graduated with a
double-first in Arabic from Pembroke College at the University
of Cambridge in 1983. He then studied and taught traditional
Islamic sciences at the Al-Azhar University in Egypt for several
years. In 1989, he returned to England and spent two years at
the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
where he concentrated on Turkish and Persian. Winter is
currently the Shaykh Zayed Lecturer of Islamic Studies in the
Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University, Director of Studies
in Theology at Wolfson College, and a doctoral student at Oxford
University, where he is studying the relationship between the
government and Sufi brotherhoods in the Ottoman Empire.
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