Seeking Knowledge

قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: أفضَلُ الصّدقَةِ أنْ يَتَعلَّمَ المرءُ المسلِمُ عِلمًا ثمّ يُعلِّمَهُ أخاهُ المسلِمَ"رواه أبو داود.

The Messenger of Allah, sallAllahu ^alayhi wa sallam said: The best of charity is for the Muslim to acquire knowledge (religious) and then teach it to his fellow Muslims. Narrated by Abu Dawud.

Knowledge is indeed the gateway to success in this world and the hereafter.  And, in Islamic knowledge, there is a specific amount of knowledge known as the personal obligatory knowledge علمل الحال/فرض عين  (^Ilmul haal or Fardu ^ayn) and this is the basic level of Islamic knowledge that every Muslim, male and female, is obligated to learn.  If all Muslims are keen to learn their obligatory knowledge and apply it this will be a great blessing on our Ummah and would certainly eliminate many problems we are facing.  Moreover among the great calamities upon our ummah is when people neglect the teaching of Allah's messenger and speak of religious matter base on opinion.  in fact, it's considered among the major sins to speak of Halal and haram based on one's openion and this is among the sings of the end of time.

I once read in Alghazaly's book that when an ignorant person tries to guide what he ruins is greater than what he achieves.  And, the sahihul Bukhary a chapter in his book is titled "knowledge before speaking and acting"

Furthermore, prophet Muhammad said in what was narrated by Al Bukhari 

 ‏ ‏إن الله لا يقبض العلم ‏ ‏انتزاعا ‏ ‏ينتزعه من العباد 

Which means:  Allah will not take the knowledge by ordering it pulled away (it will not disappear all of a sudden) from the salve (slaves of Allah (people) that is)

                                                       ولكن يقبض العلم ‏ ‏بقبض ‏ ‏العلماء 

 but Allah will take the knowledge by taking the scholars (as scholars die there wont be genuine scholars to replace them) 

حتى إذا لم يبق عالما اتخذ الناس رءوسا جهالا 

until when no scholar is left people will consider ignorant leaders (as religious heads that is)

فسئلوا فأفتوا بغير علم فضلوا وأضلوا ‏

they will ask them (a religious question that is) and they will give them fatwa (religious verdict) thus misguiding them and misguiding themselves."

Narrated by Al Bukhary.

Therefore, seek knowledge and don't be shy to ask questions, for he who is shay from asking will not get the blessing of knowledge.  And be humble and don't be arrogant to accept the truth for arrogance is among the major since, and also don't look down upon people.  The great scholar named Mujahid who was the student of the great scholar, companion, and cousin of Prophet Muhammad called Ibnu ^Abas said:

 لا يتعلم العلم مستحي ولا مستكبر 

which means "A shay person and an arrogant person will not gain knowledge,"  so don't be shy and be humble and don't be arrogant.

Furthermore, ^Aysha the wife of prophet Muhammad and the daughter of Abu Bakr was a great scholar who reached the level of Ijtihad.  She was among the Muhajirine, that is the people of Mecca who migrated to Medina; nevertheless, ^Aysha admired and praised the Ansar females (those females from Medina) and she said:

 نعم النساء نساء الأنصار لم يمنعهن الحياء أن يتفقهن في الدين 

Which means: The best of females are the females of the Ansar (Medina) because shyness did not prevent them from seeking knowledge."

Being shy is  a good attribute, however, not in all cases.  For example you should not be shy to perform your obligation, speak the truth, refuse to commit sin or ask question you need when seeking knowledge.  

 And remember that among the signs of genuine teacher is for him/her to be sincere God fearing and had learn the knowledge from another knowledgeable teacher who learned it from another teacher with  a continuous chain back to the great scholars going back to the companion and to the the messenger of Allah sallahu ^alayhi wasallam.  This method of learning is called talaqi, and if you look in the books of Hadith you realize that every hadith has a chain going back to the messenger and every scholar learned from a scholars going back to Allah's messenger.  And finally don't under mine praying to Allah praise be to him to guide to the right path and if you feel confused pray to Allah and say O Allah show me the truth as truth and enable me to fallow it and show me falsehood as falsehood and enable me to stay away from it.

And Allah knows best