Religious knowledge is of two kinds:
1) فرض العين
You aren't excused from ignorance regarding the obligatory aspects of the religion and matters which pertain to you.
E.g. The rights of Allah, Tawheed, what nullifies Tawheed, the Names and Attributes of Allah, etc.
If someone commits Shirk and says he didn't know, he's not excused. It's obligatory for you to know this and teach it to your children.
E.g. Zakat is obligatory on those who are legible to pay it. The person should know how much to pay, when to pay, to whom it should be paid to.
E.g. You deal in business transactions. It's a must on you to learn the permissible and forbidden types of transactions.
2) فرض الكفاية
If a person learns this, the rest of the community is exempted from this responsibility. The scholars, for example, know a huge and diverse amount of information which the masses don't need to know.
"من يرد الله به خيرًا يفقه في الدين"
Mu'awiyah reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "When Allah wishes good for someone, He bestows upon him the understanding of Deen."
[Agreed upon]
"من يرد الله به خيرا"
The إرادة of Allah is related to His knowledge and wisdom. Allah looks into the hearts of people. If He finds good in their hearts, He will make it easy for them to do good and seek knowledge. If He finds evil, they may be deprived of it.
If Allah sees that the slave loves knowledge, is truthful, sincere, really wants to acquire it, Allah will open the gate of goodness and make the path of acquiring knowledge easy for him
If the person is bored, feels forced to come, and is insincere he may be deprived of knowledge. But Allah may not take the person in punishment immediately. He may give respite again and again.
It's important to check our hearts before learning.
"يفقه في الدين"
-> This isn't limited to knowledge or understanding of the religion. This includes acting upon what you learn.
Ibn Masoud used to say, "A time will come in which your Qurra will be abundant and your Fuqaha will be few"
This is our time. Many people read and may even give juristic rulings, but the real Faqeeh knows and acts upon his knowledge. If the person learns something of the Shari'ah and doesn't act upon it he is not considered a Faqeeh.
-> Allah deprived the people of Shu'ayb from understanding the speech of their Prophet, because He knew what was in their heart of evil.
They said in (11:91):
Although, all Shuayb عليه سلام told them was to make استففار. In Verse 90:
-> As long as the speaker is giving correct knowledge, then follow them. But focus on the knowledge and not the speaker. Don't let your heart get attached to people, let it be attached to Allah. It's Allah that's making the person speak and benefit you. It's Allah that's teaching you.
[From Ibn Uthaymeens explanation of this Hadith]
Comments
Post a Comment