[Vedun*]

To gather knowledge is obligatory for every Muslim man and every Muslim woman.

On the Day of Judgement if some one says that he did not implement Islam in his life because he did not know about it then this is one excuse that shall not be accepted of him. He will be asked why did he not make effort to know about it. Allah(SWT) will tell him that he was given extremely strong desire to inquire about the meaning and purpose of life. This desire is stronger than all other desires. Hence anybody trying to ignore it must make tremendous efforts to do so. Such a person will have no excuse on that day - he will be acutely aware of his efforts that he made to suppress this call of Lord.

Then there is the Tradition about beloved Prophet(PBUH) supplication for protection from harmful knowledge.
So can knowledge also harm? Why not? Take the following quotation from a blog post here at SF.
O Mureed!
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by
ummitaalib
on Yesterday at 10:51 AM (109 Views)

Paying attention to your spiritual ailments is better than turning your gaze in the direction of attaining things which are out of your sight.

O Mureed! You are eager to discover hidden entities. You desire to know of the Divine Mysteries, secrets and subtleties. You consider these entities to be the Maqsood (Goal) or the introductory stage of the Maqsood. Remember that to incline the heart in this direction and to pursue these hidden entities are not for your welfare. In fact, this attitude is harmful for you. It is better for you to view your spiritual defects such as riya, hasad, takabbur, etc., and to concern yourself with their elimination.

If in the course of your spiritual journey some mystery is revealed to you, do not attach significance to it. Keep in mind that your purpose is the purification of your nafs from evil attributes.

Expel every human quality which stands in opposition to your worship (and obedience of Allah) so that you become one who answers the Call of Allah and gain His Proximity.

IKMALUSH SHIYAM
published by themajlis.net There is a clear hint that our activity of knowledge acquisition should be exercised with utter responsibility.

One of the questions of hereafter is how much did you act upon the knowledge that you gathered.
Clearly greed is bad even if it is exercised in the acquisition of knowledge.

Knowledge comes with several responsibilities.
To act upon it.
To communicate it.
To add to it.

May Allah(SWT) grant us the taufeeq to be moderate in this aspect.

Wassalam

[Peretool]

Asalamu Alaikum,

JazakAllah Khairan

May Allah(SWT) grant us the taufeeq to be moderate in this aspect.

Ameen..

Wassalamu Alaikum

[Jxlacvio]

Once At a gathering of talaba Hazrat Mufti Muhammed Shafi sahab posed a question to the students.. batao ilm kise kahte hain..? ( tell me how do u define ilm...? )
many answers came in.. someone said ilm is seeking knowledge..another replied ilm is noor and so on.. Hazrat Mufti sahab (rah) wasn't satisfied.. and at last they requested him.. Hazrat aap hi batayiye.. ( Hazrat do let us know..).. the answer he gave is worth to be written in gold.. he said..

" Ilm vo Noor hai jise Haasil karne ke baad baghair amal kiye chain na aaye.. agar ye hai to ilm hai varna maloomat hai.. aur maloomat ki qayamat ke din pakad hai.. ke jitna hasil kiya uspe kitna amal kiya.. "

Ilm is a Noor gaining which should make one restless untill he acts upon it.. if so then it is ilm orlse it is knowledge.. and knowledge is liable to be questioned on the day of judgement.. that the amount of knowledge acquired how much was acted upon..

May Allah give us Taufeeq to act upon what we learn..

duas..

wa assalam..

[crestosssa]

Once At a gathering of talaba Hazrat Mufti Muhammed Shafi sahab posed a question to the students.. batao ilm kise kahte hain..? ( tell me how do u define ilm...? )
many answers came in.. someone said ilm is seeking knowledge..another replied ilm is noor and so on.. Hazrat Mufti sahab (rah) wasn't satisfied.. and at last they requested him.. Hazrat aap hi batayiye.. ( Hazrat do let us know..).. the answer he gave is worth to be written in gold.. he said..

" Ilm vo Noor hai jise Haasil karne ke baad baghair amal kiye chain na aaye.. agar ye hai to ilm hai varna maloomat hai.. aur maloomat ki qayamat ke din pakad hai.. ke jitna hasil kiya uspe kitna amal kiya.. "

Ilm is a Noor gaining which should make one restless untill he acts upon it.. if so then it is ilm orlse it is knowledge.. and knowledge is liable to be questioned on the day of judgement.. that the amount of knowledge acquired how much was acted upon..

May Allah give us Taufeeq to act upon what we learn..

duas..

wa assalam..

Very appropriate incident Dr Sahab.
Wassalam

[SasV7ReJ]

I'll request sister sudoku or any other moderator to change the title to Mindless Acquisition of Information.
in anticipation.
Wassalam

[KJnbceja]

Troubled In Aspects Of Deen: Imam Shafi’ee’s Response
And ath-Thahabee mentions from al-Muzanee that he said:

I knew that if anyone could rid me of a troubling concern about an issue of tawheed, it would be ash-Shaafi’ee. So I went to him while he was in a mosque in Egypt. When I kneeled in front of him, I said, ‘I am troubled about a certain issue of tawheed. I know that no one knows as much as you, so what do you say about this?’

He became angry and said, ‘Do you know where you are?’

I said, ‘Yes.’

He said, ‘This is the place where Allaah drowned Pharoah. Has it reached you that the Messenger of Allaah was ordered to ask about that?’

I said, ‘No.’

He said, ‘Have the Companions spoken about it?’

I said, ‘No.’

He said, ‘Do you know how many stars are in the sky?’

I said, ‘No.’

He said, ‘So you don’t even know about one planet – its type or the time and place of its appearance and disappearance?’

I said, ‘No.’

He said, “So there is something from the creation that you see with your own eyes that you do not even know anything about, yet you speak about the Knowledge of the Creator?’

Then he asked me a question about ablution, and I erred in my response. So he explained it from four different angles (and asked me about them), and I was not correct in any of my responses.

So he said, ‘So you leave alone the knowledge of something which you are in need of five times a day, and instead you burden yourself with the knowledge of the Creator? When this (kind of thing) comes to your mind, then remember the statement of Allaah the Exalted,

“And your God is One God; there is no true god besides Him. He is the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. Verily in the creation of the heavens and the earth…” [Surah Al-Baqarah 2:163-164]

So use the creation as a proof for (the Greatness of) the Creator, and do not burden yourself with what is beyond your understanding.’

[Siyar A’laamin-Nubalaa‘ (10/31)]

[repldoinfo]

May Allah(swt) give us beneficial knowledge with the ability to act upon it.

[Kolokireo]

The episode of Imam Muzanee and Imam Shafi'i is eye opening and one should pause and reflect on his words of advice.

for bringing this episode to light.

[Babposa]

Pir Zulfiqar Ahmed Sahab Naqshbandi (DB) said with reference to Mufti Muhammed Shafi' Sahab (RA) that knowledge is such a Noor that after getting it you do not rest till you act upon it. The rest is mere information and you are accountable on the Judgement Day for not acting on it.

[delnisfernan]

If irecall corectly from either the beginning of guidance or ayyuhal walad, Imam GHazzali writes the dua "O Allah prevent me from seeking useless knowledge".

there is also the statement of Imam Shafi something to the effect of "knowledge is not that which is learned but that which benefits".

would you agree that knowledge is like wealth: it is better to have a little be content with it and benefit from it (i.e. be able to conduct your affairs in a shriah/sunnah compliant manner) rather than becoming a scholar with information that you neither transmit to others or benefit from yourself? is there anything wrong with thinking the above?

[oliverlogo]

Actually because of the clear instruction to acquire knowledge from cradle to grave as well as the supplication Rabbi zidni 'ilma, O Rab increase my knowledge, we can not discourage learning in any form. But we have this clear cut injunction that the knowledge that we have not acted upon will be held against us on the Day of Judgment. In view of these facts converging from opposite directions it becomes a case of striking the balance. It is a fact well acknowledged that the Straight Path is worldly manifestation of the Path Bridge - you can not afford to lean to either direction, you got to keep the balance.

Thus there is this story of an elder who was learning in his youth with his teacher. After learning about the matters of Salah he got up when matters of Zakat started. On being asked about it he said I am a poor student and Zakat is not obligatory on me so corresponding knowledge is not of immediate urgency for me but I do need to practice Salah and I am going to do that.

There is an important lesson for us here. I suppose we should make a sort of routine to acquire little bit of knowledge on the regular bases. This will be our implementation of the injunction to acquire knowledge from cradle to grave. For example learning the matters of Salah is a good option. For non-Madarsa people it is an option that can keep us busy for quite some time. And the second part, to act upon the knowledge, is also easy in this case. Suppose we learn that our fingers of feet must be in the direction of Qibla then it will keep us busy for many days to implement this single Sunnah.

Regarding wealth there is a supplication of beloved Prophet (PBUH) in which he (PBUH) asked Allah (SWT) to give only that much of wealth to his progeny that is sufficient to keep their backbone straight. It means bare enough sustenance. Since there is another Prophetic Tradition that on the Day of Judgment everyone shall wish that it would have been nice if they would have got only bare enough wealth in the world. So it is clear matter in this case - only if we can convince our Baser Self about the wisdom of it.

Finally we can make a comparison between wealth and knowledge but since, by the Grace of Allah (SWT), the matter is clear in its own right we need not make that effort.

[exiceJetLip]

[QUOTE=Maripat;771652]Actually because of the clear instruction to acquire knowledge from cradle to grave as well as the supplication Rabbi zidni 'ilma, O Rab increase my knowledge, we can not discourage learning in any form. But we have this clear cut injunction that the knowledge that we have not acted upon will be held against us on the Day of Judgment. In view of these facts converging from opposite directions it becomes a case of striking the balance. It is a fact well acknowledged that the Straight Path is worldly manifestation of the Path Bridge - you can not afford to lean to either direction, you got to keep the balance.
[QUOTE]



Are you talking about deeni knowledge or the knowledge we acquire in school and other places not petaining to Deen? E.g. throughout ones secular education one is taught many subjects that are never used ever. Also what about duas that was memorized a long time ago and is slowly forgotten, not intentionally, but with time one memorized new duas and slowly forgot the old ones?

[Lorionasodi]

By the grace of Allah (SWT) we are dealing in this thread with a matter that concerns fine tuning and is a matter of moderation. We are not dealing with an alarming issue. Personally I feel that matters relates to both Deeni as well as worldly knowledge.

Regarding secular knowledge - let us consider geography and you are in finance. It was taught to us that there is equatorial climate where it rains every day and it is sunny every day. Then there is tropical climate with seasons divided over the year. Then there are Mediterranean and arctic climates. Now if you do end up in equatorial countries during your financial operations then you are sure to take the vagaries of equatorial climate into account while planning your activities. Thus you have made good use of the knowledge. And if you do not end up in the arctic regions then corresponding knowledge is of no use to you. I suppose we end up in soup when we know that there are supposed to be five Prayers in a day and we just go for Maghrib Prayers only.

I'll stop there because we are entering technical Matters (masa-il).

If you memorize a Du'a and then you recite it once then you have used it and it has given you benefit.

[abishiots]

By the grace of Allah (SWT) we are dealing in this thread with a matter that concerns fine tuning and is a matter of moderation. We are not dealing with an alarming issue. Personally I feel that matters relates to both Deeni as well as worldly knowledge.

Regarding secular knowledge - let us consider geography and you are in finance. It was taught to us that there is equatorial climate where it rains every day and it is sunny every day. Then there is tropical climate with seasons divided over the year. Then there are Mediterranean and arctic climates. Now if you do end up in equatorial countries during your financial operations then you are sure to take the vagaries of equatorial climate into account while planning your activities. Thus you have made good use of the knowledge. And if you do not end up in the arctic regions then corresponding knowledge is of no use to you. I suppose we end up in soup when we know that there are supposed to be five Prayers in a day and we just go for Maghrib Prayers only.

I'll stop there because we are entering technical Matters (masa-il).

If you memorize a Du'a and then you recite it once then you have used it and it has given you benefit.

Awesome way of looking at things.

[Helloheshess]

In todays world with smarphones, the Internet, facebook, games etc. more and more of us, especially the young who have grown up with the technology are distracted and addicted to these huge time wasting activities. Facts and hearing watching world news can be useful, giving us information about the world, but mostly it is useless and makes us feel sad or depressed and also see the world according to the views of the program makers. We must learn to switch these off, go out meet others socially and try to have a social life, otherwise we will become socially inept.

[cigsstorenick]

In todays world with smarphones, the Internet, facebook, games etc. more and more of us, especially the young who have grown up with the technology are distracted and addicted to these huge time wasting activities. Facts and hearing watching world news can be useful, giving us information about the world, but mostly it is useless and makes us feel sad or depressed and also see the world according to the views of the program makers. We must learn to switch these off, go out meet others socially and try to have a social life, otherwise we will become socially inept.

This is one more problem.
There is information addiction, the topic of the thread, and then there is information overload as you have just pointed out. We got to deal with both of them.

[Nothatspecial]

Knowledge without action is no knowledge at all . We all agree with that but in reality
so much of what we know through out our life intentionally or unintentionally goes wasted.

The human mind do not cease to gather knowledge .

My challenge has been to retain the knowledge I want to use and to refer to it when I need it instantly.

For example you learned about a dua about a certain action or specific duas by Rasul Allah for specific needs I can not remember them when I need them , always have to refer back to info
source.

Strangely the mind comes up with other small details of knowledge out of nowhere with out effort , that might not be of apparent use.

You almost feel like the brain is not right .

[Hetgvwic]

Knowledge without action is no knowledge at all . We all agree with that but in reality
so much of what we know through out our life intentionally or unintentionally goes wasted.

Knowledge is noor. Suppose you have read some thing about the law of diminishing returns and then you have forgotten about its exact form. Even in this case you have the noor of your earlier knowledge. Even if you have to revise it completely the earlier noor is not lost.
The human mind do not cease to gather knowledge . We can take this as a blessing because we are supposed to acquire knowledge from cradle to grave.
My challenge has been to retain the knowledge I want to use and to refer to it when I need it instantly. Our pious predecessors preserved our Deen for us by their hard work. And what is that? Revision and doing round with others. You must have seen the Huffaz - they sit down for half an hour or so for revision and recitation. You have to keep revising. That is how you retain - there is no other short root. This is true in secular sciences too. I know a person who is an expert on theoretical technique. The published review article on that topic is there in the library. That article has been read so many times (by him and others) that the pages bear visible signs of excessive browsing. Cycling and swimming are some thing that you do not forget in a life time. Programming you forget in a weak.
For example you learned about a dua about a certain action or specific duas by Rasul Allah for specific needs I can not remember them when I need them , always have to refer back to info
source. Revise, revise, revise. Recite them all everyday.
Strangely the mind comes up with other small details of knowledge out of nowhere with out effort , that might not be of apparent use. That also is true. And at such moments we should remember the Qur'anists - they think that we can not remember what we ate two weeks ago. This might be true but then there are those things that we revise everyday, like Surah Fatiha. And then the things like you have mentioned. In both of these cases our memory is working wonderfully.
You almost feel like the brain is not right . As I said - we got to understand the way it is right. (1) Revision of what of the Holy Qur'an we have memorized and (2) may be we should try to write in a diary those past events that come back to our mind out of no where and they are as vivid as they were on the original occasion.

[Rugda]

Knowledge is noor. Suppose you have read some thing about the law of diminishing returns and then you have forgotten about its exact form. Even in this case you have the noor of your earlier knowledge. Even if you have to revise it completely the earlier noor is not lost.

We can take this as a blessing because we are supposed to acquire knowledge from cradle to grave.

Our pious predecessors preserved our Deen for us by their hard work. And what is that? Revision and doing round with others. You must have seen the Huffaz - they sit down for half an hour or so for revision and recitation. You have to keep revising. That is how you retain - there is no other short root. This is true in secular sciences too. I know a person who is an expert on theoretical technique. The published review article on that topic is there in the library. That article has been read so many times (by him and others) that the pages bear visible signs of excessive browsing. Cycling and swimming are some thing that you do not forget in a life time. Programming you forget in a weak.

Revise, revise, revise. Recite them all everyday.

That also is true. And at such moments we should remember the Qur'anists - they think that we can not remember what we ate two weeks ago. This might be true but then there are those things that we revise everyday, like Surah Fatiha. And then the things like you have mentioned. In both of these cases our memory is working wonderfully.

As I said - we got to understand the way it is right. (1) Revision of what of the Holy Qur'an we have memorized and (2) may be we should try to write in a diary those past events that come back to our mind out of no where and they are as vivid as they were on the original occasion.

I suppose there is knowledge in it to know Allah for those who ask questions and look
for answers.

Ever wonder how so many small details remembered in the right time at the right situation can make a difference in life . Tasks done with ease or with difficulty depends on your memory giving you the right information and your acting them out correctly. That is the function of working memory .


Ever wonder how many infinite sets of possibilities in life makes a person successful in one task and unsuccessful in another .

Makes me understand meaning of in a new aspect .

[FEti0TUI]

I suppose there is knowledge in it to know Allah for those who ask questions and look
for answers.

Ever wonder how so many small details remembered in the right time at the right situation can make a difference in life . Tasks done with ease or with difficulty depends on your memory giving you the right information and your acting them out correctly. That is the function of working memory .


Ever wonder how many infinite sets of possibilities in life makes a person successful in one task and unsuccessful in another .

Makes me understand meaning of in a new aspect .

That is deep akhi.
And I can lol also, if that was Sunnah - which it is not, for the phrasing of your evidence is in the opposite direction. Of course the conclusion is absolutely on the dot. So congratulations on uncovering a piece of truth.

That we might remember a right piece of info at a right moment is a Grace of Allah (SWT).

Verily there is no power and ability except from Allah (SWT).