Jewels for the Seeker of Knowledge - Day 2 16th September, 2013 This is a transcript of a lecture given by Sister Eman al Obaid. We ask Allah subhana wa ta ala for His forgiveness and His Mercy. Anything that is good from these notes is from Allah subhana wa ta ala. Any mistakes & misrepresentations are my own. I ask Allah subhana wa ta ala for His forgiveness and to put forgiveness in the hearts of those who read them. JazakAllah Khairan
Jewels for the Seeker of Knowledge - Day 2 2 Today we will see other jewels for a seeker of knowledge. What are the ways we should study. Ibn Al Qayyim (Rahim Allah) said that knowledge has stages: 1. First you listen attentively. You have to be fully attentive to the knowledge. Your mind and body should be fully involved. Excellence in listening. You have two ears and one tongue so you need to listen more. Listening is very important and its an art. If you listen properly you will act right. Allah mentions in the Quran several times that people follow their desires and they don t listen and are not guided. If you listen carefully you will understand well. If you don t listen carefully then it can cause fitnah as you will start to spread wrong. Ibaad ur Rehman listens to the reminder again and again. When they hear Allah they listen attentively and ponder over it. 2. Questioning with excellence. Don t ask just for the sake of asking. Some people ask just to test whether the next person knows or not. sometimes to take revenge and embarras others. This is not a a good way. Sometimes people use religion as a weapon to defend themselves and to belittle others. You should ask very nicely. If you don t understand then ask simply that I didn t understand this point so you can clarify. First of all ask Allah that guide me and let me understand the answer as only Allah can make you understand. You should not feel bad if you didn t understand. The intention behind the question is very important. Some people will get the answer and say that so and so sheikh has this opinion this is the worst thing to do. This will create a lot of Fitnah. Some people will just go from one sheikh to another to ask the same uestion and then tell people that see that sheikh has this opinion and the other one goes against it. You are creating fitnah. Don t take your own sheikh and follow blindly.allah is All Aware and He knows your intention. Seeker of truth wont go to different different people. If someone asks then the person who is asked should answer and any one else should not interfere. If you have one problem and there are many confusions then you can ask and it should be free froma ny desires. May Allah give us the guidance.
Jewels for the Seeker of Knowledge - Day 2 3 3. Excellence of Undersatnding. When you understand this is a provision from Allah and only He can grant you the understanding of the knowledge you gain. 4. Excellence of memorizing. You need to learn and remember the things we learn. If you see the doctors they don t refer to books everytime. We are seekers of Paradise so we need to memorize and teach others. We will not forget until we understands. The heart should take it and then the brain cells will store the information. Everything is in your heart the brain is just helping you.if anything is in your heart then you will not forget. 5. Exelellence of Act. We are learning in order to teach others. This is the fruits of knowledge. You need to give benefit to others. How will I learn the knowledge. Determination and will The first is determination and will. You should have a goal and you are very determined. No one will be able to put you down. All the successful people have very dtrong determination. They start from nothing and gain a lot. Seeker of knowledge should have this strong determination and they want to achieve the love of Allah. we need to set our goals. Set high goals for yourself. You don t have to kill time. You need to help yourself and others by saving everyone from Hell fire. Some people hae goal to get money so they will strive for that and they might harm society. The seeker of knowledge should work for the pleasure of Allah. A person who wants to save others and himself from hell fire. There are people who dedicate their lives for Islam and they help others and bring the best of Islam and spread the Deen. This is a provison from Allah and He chooses from people who will be serving Deen. Don t forget your goal and don t get distracted. These people are not just dreaming. They don t have just wishes they have to do something about it. People say that I wish I could be like this. They way you will not lead anywhere. The seeker of knowledge will just do it and acheieve something. You have to bring your dreams in action.
Jewels for the Seeker of Knowledge - Day 2 4 Obesession of wanting more They don t feel satisfied with what they learn they always want to do more. They are very eager and they are thirsty for knowledge. knowledge is the inheritance of the Prophets and they don t give dinar and dirham. Abu Dharr (Radi Allah Anho) once in the market saw people busy buying and selling so he grabbed their attention and said that treasure is being distributed in masjid e nabwi so people rushed and saw there that people are learning Quran so Abu Dharr said that this is the greatest treasure. The knowledge is better than all the treasures of the world. Allah will give us in Paradise something that we can t even imagine. We need to take more and more of knowledge. Allah preserved the knowledge. Seeker of knowledge has to make struggle and go to knowledge. The seeker of knowledge has to come out of the house and learn. You will have many advantages. Angels gather at the gatehrings of knowledge. you will learn from the experience of people. The Barakah of knowledge is to learn with many people. Knowledge is so honored that you need to go to learn about something. Start should be from the person. Then doors will open for you then. Scholars used to travel for miles to get one hadeeth. They use to travel for months and go from one place from other. Scholars had to travel a lot for verifying the hadeeth. They used to observe others for verification of Hadeeth. May Allah be merciful with them. Everything is easy now. Sometimes people want knowledge to come to them. Sitting and writing Sitting and writing. When you are gaining knowledge then with listening so you have to write so that you use your brain and get more involved.
Jewels for the Seeker of Knowledge - Day 2 5 Everything you use for Deen will be a witness for you so use these things. Do it for the sake of Allah. When you write then it will be easy to memorize and also to keep it preserve. Don t depend on your memory. Don t write on your text book. Write on the note book. Ibn Al Qayyim wrote book from his notes. These papers are a blessing from Allah. before this was not easy. Scholars said that write even on the wall. Gaurding the knowledge with care You need to guard the knowledge by care. Knowledge is like a baby for whome you take care. You need to preserve knowledge by caring about the knowledge. You can do that by implementing the knowledge and bring it into action. If you are writing just to show off then its no use. If you are writing then you have to apply it. There are people who guard the knowledge by words and they have no action. You have to guard it by application of knowledge. Very few people at the time of Prophet memeorized Quran. They knew the value of each ayah and they take memorizing as implememting the knowledge. The way to memeorize is that you should know the meanings of the Ayaat. To recall the meanings of Quarn is very important because you need to feel what is being said. Allah made different groups of people for Deen. There are people who are good at memorizing and others who are good at understandings. Few people have the ability to memorize and understand. There is a parable by Prophet that rain comes on the land and it is poured on different kinds of land. These lands resemble the heart of the people. The first land gets water and it absorbs the water but there is no fruit. The second land holds the water and didn t absorb it but people and animals benefit from the land. The third type absorbs water and then give fruits too. First type of land is like the person who have knowledge and understanding but it does not benefit anyone they keep it to themselves. There is no outcome or fruits from this person. The second type is like the one who has knowledge but no understanding and they use that knowledge but does not apply himself and they are carrier of words. The third type has knowledge and understandings which they implement in themselves and others. Trust and reliance You need trust and reliance with all of this. You need to trust Allah alone. Don t trust the means like the book and teacher. Don t go on people s experience that they had a bad experience so I would face the same. So where
Jewels for the Seeker of Knowledge - Day 2 6 is your trust. Ask Allah that I want to go into paradise. Who said you can do it. Say to Allah that I rely on you and He will make it easy for you. There was a woman who wanted to learn arabic and she could not and she found it difficult so she gave up and then one day she was sitting and looked at ants they were failing but after trying a lot they succeeded. So we need to try and not give up. Reliance is very important. Don t be discouraged by what people say. Trust Allah and he will reward you and He will appreciate even if you fail. Allah will appreciate your trying. Allah knows whether you win or not. Ask Allah again and again. Ibn Al Qayyim was reading one Ayat and he was not able to understand so he thought he need to make dua. He asked Oh Allah you are a teacher as you teach Adam and Ibrahim (as this is mentioned in Quran that Allah taught them) so Allah teach me. Then give me understanding like you gave Suleiman (Allahi Sallam). He used the attributes and actions of Allah to make dua. So he always saw the doors opening. He said that with this Ayat Allah made it easy for me. No one can make you understand except Allah. Knowledge is Amanah You need to be ameen of the knowledge. This knowledge is Amanah on you. you cannot change it and tell to others. You should not associate knowledge you add to someone else. Truthful You need to be truthful for being a seeker of knowledge. Some people misuse the text. When you say you need to just say truth and not to impress the people. Don t misuse the knowledge for your own desires. For e.g. some people when spend a lot will say that Allah loves those who spend but when someone else is doing then you say that Allah does not loves the one who spends excessively. If you forget who said this then say somebody said don t take names. Don t make Halal and Haraam on your own. A scholar says that learning to be truthful is to be done before getting the knowledge. This is so that you don t become a Munafiq. They say things but don t mean it. Scholars classed hadeeth after a lot of travel and research. Once on collecting the hadeeth the person was lying to an animal as they called it with food but as soon as the animal came they gave it nothing. So he did not take the hadeeth from such a person. If you don t understand then accept it and if you do understand then accept that. At the end the liar is exposed and people will
Jewels for the Seeker of Knowledge - Day 2 7 loose trust in him. He will lose Barakah in knowledge. If you did something wrong then accept it and don t become rigid. Scholars have books on correcting what they said before. I don t know This is a protection of a student of knowledge. If you don t know about something then accept it. Scholars say that this is half of knowledge. You don t know everything so don t answer everything. If you are asked about something and you don t know about it so say that I don t know. Guard your time Save your time and don t waste time. They have a fear from the people who take their time. Take rest You need to rest also don t overburden yourself. You can continue with your other activities along with seeking knowledge. You need to take break for re charging your battery. You have breaks from everything. Study at home You need to learn and give time at home too. Some people will rewrite at home. You can ponder over it at home. Take sometime out and revise what you did. You can study with your friends.