The original book is called, "حلية طالب العلم" but has been translated into English and called, "Etiquettes of Seeking Knowledge"
The Author
The book was written by Dr. Bakr Abu Zayd رحمه الله who was born in 1944, into the Zayd tribe, in the middle of Najd, the city of Shaqra, and died in Riyadh in 2008. He completed his secondary studies in Riyadh and graduated from the College of Shari'ah at Ibn Saud University, as well as completing his Masters and PhD there.
He didn't sit in classes, as most students do, but studied personally under the hands of the leading scholars. He spent 10 years studying under Muhammed Al-Amin Ash-Shinqitee, in Madinah. He studied under Ibn Baz as well.
He completed his BA and PhD externally.
He was given the post as judge in the higher court of Madinah, and taught in Masjid an-Nabawi, as well as being the Imam and Khateeb there for 5 years. He was appointed as a member of the Supreme Court and Council of Senior Scholars. He was made the Saudi Arabian Representstive of the International Assembly of Islamic law and later made its President.
His Works
He authored over 66 books on various Islamic topics, among them:
- لا جديد في أحكام الصلاة - This is a book which he wrote to clarify some extremes people were going to in prayer, trying to apply Athar or Hadith, and ending up with strange and unusual practices.
- التحديث بما قيل لا يصح فيه حديث - "Commonly Narrated Hadeeth which are inauthentic"
حلية طالب العلم
He's referring to the period - the late 70's and early 80's - in which there were huge changes which took place in the Muslim World.
The Islamic Revolution of Iran
Khomeini came into power after overthrowing the Shah of Iran, and a huge change took place for Shiite Islam. In their philosophy and ideology, it's not permissible for there to be a government until the Mahdi came. They used to leave the affairs of government to whoever took reign of it, and would adjust their situation accordingly.
But with Khomeini, a new philosophy developed, which he entitled "ولايات الفقيه". He developed a rationale for theocracy, where the state was overseen by the leading scholars of the Muslim World (although it was just actually the leading scholars of Iran). He didn't promote it as a Shiite revelation but as an Islamic Revolution, although it's reality was something else. This caught the Muslim World, and the west by surprise - they were electrified that an Islamic State could come into being. A revolution of this scale was not considered likely. The Shah of Iran had been occupied with his riches, controlling the country, that nothing of this sort was expected.
This was a trigger for other movements that were in the course of development in other parts of the world.
In 1980 occurred the Makkan incident - The Seizure of the Ka'bah
People speculated that it was the CIA, and accordingly embassies were burnt in different countries, believing that the West was behind it. But it was actually something indigenous, a movement comprised of students from Madinah University and students of Al-Albani and Ibn Baz, desiring to implement the Shari'ah - feeling that it wasn't being applied properly in Saudi Arabia. They went off into the desert, found a small village and took over it. At the same time, they spoke very negatively against the Saudi Arabian Government, and the leading individual was Juhaiman Ibn Mohamed Ibn Said Al-Utaybee. He was formerly a member of the National Guard.
While he was in this village, his sister had a dream she would marry the Mahdi. At the same time there was a third year student of Ibn Saud University and was called Mohammed Ibn Abdillah AlQahtanee. He was very popular and the streets would be filled for his Jum'ah Khutbah. He was restricted by the government, and then banned from giving lectures in public. He decided to move to Madinah, and people directed him to the village where Juhaiman gathered. The sister saw him and said this was the man she saw in the dream. He first refused, but oft repeated lies began to sound like the truth, seeing his mothers name was also Ameenah - he eventually accepted it. They were intent on bringing to life all the Hadith concerning the Mahdi. They went into Makkah, took the Ka'bah, and people gave Bay'ah in the Yemeni Corner. It eventually turned into a revolt - people's lives were lost. They were then overcome, and this individual and those with him were executed.
Coup d'etat in Egypt
In 1981, in Egypt, Jamaat Al-Islamiyah and branches of the Ikhwan, which had taken a path of violent revolution, and captured the idea of coup d'etat - where you kill the ruler, seize the government and make your change. They assassinated Saddat and killed a lot of tourists in the process.
But they did it, people didn't support them, they ended up being caught and they ended up in jail.
The Revolt of the Ikhwan in Syria
In 1982 in Hama, where they took over that town and drove out the Ba'thist's (The movement that was ruling Syria at time - a Version of communism). The government was under the father of Bashar, and were able by the force of the military to crush the revolt, and many lives were lost.
The Bombing of the US Embassy
This occurred in 1983. The US embassy was suicide bombed. 63 people were killed, among them 17 CIA staff members. This was a major blow for America and was followed up by attacks in the French Embassies in Kuwait, etc.
All of these relate back to the violent expression of the Islamic Movement. This is what Bakr was referring to, calling for the need of controlling and supervising the awareness which was taking place in the Muslim World. There were those who were hijacking it and directing it to lines which weren't Islamic. And what took place had its precedence from the Khawarij, where some of Ali's followers broke away from the army and turned against him and Mua'wiyah during the conflict. This group which broke away ended up massacring Muslims in the name of pure Islam, declaring Muslims non-Muslims. The process of excommunicating Muslims is a dangerous process, and an ending point in which extremism enters.
التعلم is a classical term for learning, but التعالم is to appear to be learning, although one isn't actually (feigning knowledge). He wrote a treatise on those feigning knowledge, which would expose individuals who were part of these various movements, misguiding it out of ignorance.
So that's the purpose of his work. People were excited in the '80's, everyone wanted to be part of the movement, without having real knowledge, just being emotionally driven. This is very dangerous. They react as we see people reacting nowadays to the movie - well not even movie, but a poorly done trailer - attacking the Prophet ﷺ.
The problem is ignorance, and the cure for it is knowledge. So Bakr Abu Zayd wrote this book to guide those who are seeking knowledge, but who follow the wrong people or approach knowledge in an incorrect way.
E.g. One scholar makes a mistake, and because of that people reject all his work. This is extreme. If we only follow the infallible (in a religious perspective) then we would only follow the Prophet ﷺ. Any one less than him, whether it was Abu Bakr, Uthman, Ali, would have made mistakes.
Imam Malik replied in negative when he was asked if a person would be correct if he were to follow everyhing a companion did.
It's important to understand the context of that time, where events were happening repeatedly. It was a time when the Muslim World was looking for change; people were keen on studying and knowing the religion, but there were people who were promoting distorted understandings of Islam and deviation from what had been taught by the earlier generation.
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