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

True Sufi

Al Junayd Al Baghdadi described a true Sufi by saying:
"The Sufi is one who wore the wool out of purity, followed the way of the chosen (prophet Muhammad)and the world was behind his back." Hence, genuine Sufism is nothing but properly following the way of Prophet Muhammad with sincerity.  It's a path that is built with knowledge and not with delusion.  The one that wants to be a true devote Sufi must seek knowledge from trustworthy and God-fearing teachers with humbleness and sincerity. Religion is easy; however, going against your desire, lust, and inclination is what is hard for many.  A true Sufi will reach a status where he/she finds deep joy comfort and tranquility in worship beyond the comfort people feel in wealth, celebrations, feast and etc. Indeed a true sufi is the one whom the love of dunya (this world) has departed his/her heart and is not affected of what other have gained, so long he/she is steadfast in obedience to God.

I hope in this blog you will find wisdom, advice, and insight about Islamic traditional knowledge. However, for my fellow Muslims who are in search of knowledge remember that knowledge must be taken from the mouth of knowledgeable, trustworthy, and God-fearing individuals who has obtained it from a continuous chain going back and reaching Prophet Muhammad. It's only then one will gain the true blessing of knowledge and this is undoubtedly the method of all genuine scholars and devote sufis.

Servant of the scholars

Wahbi Awqurabe limay

speak of Something Good or Be Quite

I start with the name of Allah and I humbly ask Allah to raise the rank of Prophet Muhammad and to protect his nation.

Thereafter Allah’s messenger, prophet Muhammad Said:

"خَصْلَتانِ ما إنْ تَجَـمَّلَ الخلائِقُ بمِثْلِهِما حُسْنُ الخُلُق وطُولُ الصَمْتِ"

This means: “Two beautiful attributes the creature (People) are attributed with are good manners and lengthy silence.”

 Narrated by ‘Abdullah bin Muhammad Abu Bakr bin Abi Dunya al-Qurayshi in the book of As-samt (The book of Silence).

Allah Almighty has bestowed upon his creation many abundances of endowments that none but Allah knows their count. Among these endowments is the tongue. Allah made the tongue for mankind to express his needs and to use it for his wordly and religiously benefits.

Hence, the one that uses his tongue in what benefits and doesn’t harm there is no harm upon him nor will he be blamed. However, the one that uses his tongue in what Allah prohibited will be held accountable and he’s not being Thankful to Allah for this great endowment.  

The meaning of “having lengthy silence” stated in the hadith is of one not to use his tongue accept when saying good thinks and when using his tongue for good deeds. Its better of one to be silent than to speak of evil, filth, and all that which is considered to be a sin in religion.  On the contrary, it’s good to use the tongue in mentioning Allah (Making dhikr) especially saying Laillaah Ilallah (none is God except Allah)  Proper recitation of the Quran, bringing joy to the one who’s sad, entraining your gust and the like. Such good deeds one’s not blamed for and one is rewarded for doing so.



Moreover, one must protect his tongue from many acts of sinning such as gossip, may Allah protect us.



As for having good manners stated in the hadith, this is compromised of three essential parts.

1.    1.   Not being harmful to others

2.     2.  Bearing the harm inflicted by other

3.     3. To do the good regardless of how others may treat you.  That is you do the good deed whether others treat you the same or they don’t.



Good manners also include proper usage of one’s tongue.  The one who’s granted good manners while he’s God fearing, he has gained a great blessing.  As stated in the hadith such a person will gain a reward similar to the one who fasts and stays awake praying at night (qiyamulayl) for being God fearing and well mannered.  God willing I will write in more detail about good manners and Allah knows best. 

If you were asked who’s God what would you say?

I say God is the creator of everything in existence. He brings things from the state of non existence to the state of existence.

He’s the one that knows everything and nothing is hidden from him. He knows what was, what will be and what will not be, if it had been how it would have been.

He’s the one whom there is no beginning of His existence. 

A creation is anything that had a beginning and God is the creator without a beginning. Thus, God was before earth, planets, stars, space, time, places, colors, light, or darkness.  Before time and space there was only God without a begging and he brought everything from nonexistence to existence.  He existed before the places without a place and now he exists as he was, without a place.  This cannot be imagined in the mind, for everything we see is and a place and has a size.  Our imagination is based on what our eyes witness.  Hence, we cannot imagine a being not attributed with sizes, dimention, direction, and place.  Thus, Imam Ahmad ibn Hamabal and Dhinun al Masri said: “Whatever you imagine in your mind God is different from it.”

He’s not in need of anything and everything is in need of Him.  The Obedient only benefits himself and the sinner harms only himself. 

And God knows best.