Note: The following transcript was generated using AI and may contain inaccuracies.
The real orphan is the one who has no knowledge and no manners to couple it with.
If you don’t have knowledge and don’t have manners,
You are still upon your natural state—
That state which you should have left by now.
Coming out of the womb of your mother,
Not knowing anything.
So, you haven’t left that stage?
Now you’re—MashaAllah—20, 30, 50.
You should have gained knowledge.
And that oppression,
Which goes against the characteristics of a student of knowledge—
It all should go.
Sincerity will make you say what you don’t know:
"I don’t know this thing."
"Don’t ask me, I don’t have knowledge of this matter."
Al-Imam Abu Hanifa, Malik, Al-Shafi’i, Ahmad—
The four Imams—
All of them, when they didn’t know a matter,
It was easy for them to say:
"I don’t know."
Because they were sincere people.
They knew that if they didn’t know,
To speak about Allah’s religion with no knowledge—
For them, it was something very bad.
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, when He gives you knowledge,
If you go and act upon the knowledge given to you,
Allah will give you more.
You acted upon it?
Okay—give him more.
Acted upon it again?
Give him more.
A Salafi used to say this:
"Knowledge calls for actions."
“Action, come here!”
But—
If actions don’t come?
Knowledge leaves.
I’m sure that in this crowd,
There are people who are more fit and more able to talk about this topic than I.
But, insha’Allah ta’ala,
From the angle of the great scholar of hadith, As-Suyuti,
What he said—
In the presence of the Prophet ﷺ,
It did happen—
It occurred—
Where at times,
The Companions spoke in his presence.
Abu Bakr was with the Prophet ﷺ one day,
And a man came and asked the Prophet ﷺ
For the interpretation of a dream.
And the Messenger ﷺ—
He was about to respond to the man,
But Abu Bakr said:
"Can I try to answer this question?"
"Can I try to interpret the dream?"
The Prophet ﷺ said:
"Go ahead, Abu Bakr."
So Abu Bakr interpreted the dream,
And then he looked at the Prophet ﷺ and said:
"Ya Rasulullah, did I get it right?"
And the Prophet ﷺ said to him:
"You got some of it right and you got some of it wrong."
So—
It can happen that someone who is low in knowledge and virtue
Can sometimes speak in the presence of someone greater and higher in knowledge.
I’m sure, and I’m aware,
That some people here,
Even those I can see now,
Insha’Allah ta’ala,
Are more fit than I am in talking about this topic—
Or any other topic.
So may Allah forgive me
For my shortcomings and my mistakes.
To proceed—
The topic that I want to talk about,
Or that I am scheduled to speak about,
Is students of knowledge—
Their categories and the types that we all are.
As you know—
Allah ta’ala gives in terms of provision.
And it is of different levels.
There are some people who are very wealthy.
Allah gives them a lot of wealth.
And there is another person who doesn’t have much wealth.
And it doesn’t matter what religion that person is—
That has been given the wealth.
As Allah mentioned in the Qur’an:
"Allah is saying in His verse that He gives to the Muslims and the non-Muslims the dunya, because the dunya doesn’t mean anything to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala."
But—
As for the Akhirah?
The Akhirah is only for who?
The righteous people.
May Allah make us from those people.
And in there,
Imam al-Dhahabi and Ibn Abdul Barr mention in his Kitab Jami’ Bayan al-‘Ilm wa Fadlihi—
That knowledge is also from those provisions Allah selects and chooses.
Imam al-Tufi says about the ayah where Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said:
"Allah knows where He is going to place His message."
And Imam al-Tufi said:
"Allah knows who He is going to make a Prophet."
He said:
"This is the same when it comes to people of knowledge."
Allah knows who He’s going to select for this knowledge.
Because this knowledge is—
What, my brothers and sisters?
It’s the inheritance of the Prophet ﷺ.
And in that famous hadith of Abu Darda in Musnad Ahmad,
He mentions:
"Warathatu al-anbiya, wa inna al-anbiya lam yuwarithu dirhaman wa la dinaran, wa innama warrathu al-'ilm. Faman akhadahu akhada bihaddin waafir."
So the knowledge is whose inheritance?
The Prophet’s ﷺ.
So Allah doesn’t give everybody the same.
People are different.
That’s why you find some people are ulama.
Some people are lower than that.
And some others are even lower than that.
Even within the scholars, they’re not the same.
There are, within the scholars,
Some who are mujtahid mutlaq—
An unrestricted scholar of ijtihad.
And some who are not.
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, in his Majmu’ al-Fatawa,
When he was asked about the madhhabs of Kutub as-Sittah,
The six books of hadith:
Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawood, At-Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, An-Nasa’i—
He was asked:
"What is their fiqh madhhab?"
And he mentioned that Abu Dawood—
Okay—he said:
"He is mujtahid mutlaq. He’s the only mujtahid."
But he said about Imam Muslim:
"He’s not of a particular madhhab, nor the others."
"They’re not of a particular madhhab, but they are also not mujtahid mutlaq."
He said:
"They follow the daleel wherever they find it."
Lakin—
Even within these six Imams, they are what?
Different maratib—
Different levels.
So—
This is why this topic, insha’Allah ta’ala,
Is very important—
To understand the levels within knowledge.
What category do you fall into as a student of knowledge?
I want to start by saying—
Sufyan ath-Thawri said a very powerful statement about the virtue of knowledge.
He said:
"There is nothing after the obligatory acts more virtuous, more greater, than seeking knowledge."
Ahmad ibn Hanbal also said something similar.
He said:
"The virtue of seeking knowledge is the best for who?"
Lakin—
The one whose intention is good.
If you don’t have intention,
Then it’s an act with no benefit.
Because every righteous deed that we do—
The first condition for it is what?
Every act we do, everything that we say from ‘ibadah—
If it’s not done with sincerity and in accordance with the Sunnah—
There’s no benefit.
Ibn Kathir, in his commentary on that verse,
Mentions these two conditions.
What does he say?
That it is according to the Sunnah, he said:
"لَا يُشْرِكْ بِعِبَادَةِ رَبِّهِ أَحَدًا" means Ikhlas—Sincerity."
"تَبَارَكَ الَّذِي بِيَدِهِ الْمُلْكُ وَهُوَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ، الَّذِي خَلَقَ الْمَوْتَ وَالْحَيَاةَ لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ أَيُّكُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًا."
What did Fudayl ibn ‘Iyad say?
"أخلصه وأصوبه."
*"Akhlaṣuhu" means sincerity—Ikhlas.
"Wa Aswabuhu" means in accordance with the Sunnah.
So, insha’Allah ta’ala,
Where does the difference in categories of people occur when it comes to seeking knowledge?
Knowledge stands on two things—
That’s it.
In terms of having knowledge,
The first one is fahm (understanding).
And the second one is hifdh (memorization).
And the level of people varies from that.
And which one is the most important from the two if you had to choose one?
Yeah?
If you had to choose,
You can’t take both—
You’re in a situation where you must choose one.
Which is more important?
Fahm is more important—
To have understanding.
The sad reality is—
If people see a person who has memorized a lot,
By default, they think he is knowledgeable.
Which is something good—
But it doesn’t mean he has understanding.
Are we all together, brothers?
Does that make sense?
Mahfudhat (memorization) is one thing.
And fahm (understanding) is another thing.
You might find a scholar who hasn’t memorized much,
But his fahm is what?
Tafaqquh—Deep understanding.
And one of those great scholars like that was—
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-‘Uthaymin.
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-‘Uthaymin and Shaykh ‘Abdullah ibn Jibreen
Had a private discussion—
It’s already mentioned in the tarjamah of Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-‘Uthaymin.
After the discussion finished—
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-‘Uthaymin said to Ibn Jibreen:
"Anta ahfadu minni."
"In hadith and nusus, you are masha’Allah stronger than me in memorization."
And then he said to him:
"Wa anta afqahu minni."
"In terms of understanding, you are quicker than me."
"I bring one hadith, and you extract more than I can extract from it."
Are we all together, brothers?
So—
You might see someone who has mahfudhat (memorized a lot),
But it doesn’t always mean they have understanding.
Understanding is something else.
It is a unique gift from Allah ta’ala.
That’s why Umar ibn al-Khattab wrote a letter to Abu Musa al-Ash’ari.
And some of the scholars, like Ibn al-Qayyim,
In his Kitab I’lam al-Muwaqqi’in,
Mentioned that all Umar wrote on that letter was:
"Al-fahm! Al-fahm!"
That’s it.
That’s all he said to him.
He said to him:
"Understand! Understand!"
Where did he get that from?
From the ayah where Allah says:
"Allah gives parables in the Qur’an."
We do what?
Allah gives parables.
And Allah is not shy in giving parables in the Qur’an.
Allah gives many parables in the Qur’an.
He talks about the disbelievers—
And what their actions are equal to.
He gives examples for people to understand.
But—
Allah says:
"The only people who can understand when we give parables—"
"Are those people who have knowledge."
Go to the tafsir of Ibn Abi Hatim on this ayah.
‘Amr ibn Murrah said:
"If I read a verse from the Book of Allah, and I don’t understand it—"
"I cry for myself."
Because Allah is saying—
The opposite of the people of knowledge is what?
An ignorant person.If Allah makes you a scholar, a mujtahid, a alim, it goes back to these two things. And you tend to find students either have one or none. A lot of students who are seeking knowledge, or they're taking this path.Or they only focus on one, they abandon the other one. Or what they tend to do is, they don't focus on neither of the two. And all they do is, they just wear certain clothes and they use those phrases.And that's it. He's online arguing and debating with other people. And he thinks that's going to make him what? That's going to make him from the people of knowledge, and it's not.Sahih brothers.
The two things that you need brothers is, صفات ينبغي لطالب العلم أن يتحلّى بها There are characteristics as a student of knowledge, you need to have qualities. And inshallah ta'ala, we're going to go through those characteristics.
The second thing is, المنهجية العلمية في تحصيل العلم You also have to have a methodology that you tread on in order to gain knowledge.
Those two is where the levels vary. Either the characteristics are not there, and this person has followed a good منهج, maybe had a good teacher, maybe had good parents that taught him.MashaAllah, he's got a lot of معلومات and information. But when you look at his characteristics and his attributes, he doesn't have these qualities.
وَلَيْسَ مِنْ حِيَجِ أَهْلِ الْعِلْمِ He's not going to be considered to be from the what? The circle and the room, he's not going to be in the people of knowledge.Even though there's a lot of information, but he's not from the people of knowledge.
That's why ذهبي رحمه الله says, وَاللَّهِ لَيْسَ هَٰؤُلَاءِ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْعِلْمِ These people are Wallahi not from the people of knowledge.
After he gave some of those characteristics that I'm going to mention today inshallah ta'ala.Inshallah ta'ala, those characteristics are mainly six and it goes back to those six and we're going to try to inshallah ta'ala study those six and then we're going to go into the second point which is the methodology inshallah ta'ala.
The characteristics, the first is sincerity.
One of the things that طالب علم a person of knowledge, he gives importance to is sincerity.
إخلاصنا لله يصف القلب من إرادة سواه فاحذر يا فاطم
There's nobody else in your heart when you're doing this action. Who are you doing it for? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
لَنْ يَنَالَ اللَّهَ لُحُومُهَا وَلَا دِمَاءُهَا وَلَاكِ يَنَالُهُ تَقْوَى مِنْكُمْ
The action that you're doing is not going to reach Allah if there's no intention behind it.
In another ayah Allah says "وَمَا أُمِرُوا إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ الدِّينَ حُنَفَاءَ وَيُقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَيُبْتُوا الزَّكَاةَ وَذَلِكَ دِينٌ قَيِّمًا"
Sincerity.
And عبدالله بن عباس and he said أثر which is موقوف يعني he stops at عبدالله بن عباس that he said رحمه رضي الله تعالى عنه he said
"يَنَالُ الْمَرْءَ العلم بقدر نيته"
A person will attain العلم in accordance to his intention.
A person will gain knowledge in accordance to his what? His intention.
If your intention is high Allah will give you more.
If your intentions are low more.
And that's why the person who has sincerity he's always on that path.
He believes die on this path of seeking knowledge.
That's why Imam Ahmad when they said to him "إلى متى" How long are you going to carry on seeking knowledge?
At an old age they saw Ahmad ibn Hanbal carrying logs and ink and he was still writing and they said for how long are you going to be doing this to yourself?
And then he said "من المحبرة إلى المقبرة"
From the cradle to the grave Inshallah Ta'ala.
This is going to be forever man. It's not going to stop.
And brothers the child meets how many parents? Two parents a father and a mother صح?
Things in the West have now changed صح?
So father and a what? And a mother.
Knowledge or the person who we can call a person of knowledge he has to have two of those things.
لَيْسَ الْيَتِيمُ مَنْ مَاتَ وَالِدُهُ إِنَّ الْيَتِيمَ يَتِيمُ الْعِلْمُ وَالْأَدَمُ
The real orphan is the one who has no knowledge and he doesn't have mannerism to couple with.
And we all together brothers if you don't have knowledge and you don't have manners you are still upon your natural state that you should have left before.
إِنَّ عَرَضْنَا الْأَمَانَةَ عَلَى السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَالْجِبَالِ فَأَبَيْنَ أَن يَحْمِلْنَا وَأَشْفَقَنَا مِنْهَا وَحَمَلَهَا الْإِنسَانِ إِنَّهُ كَانَ ظَلُومًا جَهُولًا
You're oppressive and you're ignorant.
This is how you
وَاللَّهُ أَخْرَجَكُمْ مِنْ بُطُونِ أُمَّهَاتِكُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ شَيْئًا
Coming out of the womb of your mother not knowing anything.
So you haven't left that stage.
You should have left that.
Now you're mashallah 20, 30, 50.
You should have gained knowledge and that oppression which goes against the characteristics of student knowledge that we should go.
We all together brothers.
So the first of those characteristics is sincerity.
One of the qualities of a student of knowledge is that sincerity pushes you to what?
Sincerity pushes you to loving good for other people.
طالب علم gets happy when another طالب علم spreads the knowledge and he makes dua for him and he asks Allah to preserve him and honor him.
He's calling to the khair and the sunnah and the deen of Allah azza wa jalla.
It brings happiness and joy to you.
Why?
Because the number of people who call to Allah's deen is little and those within the callers who has fallen to the true path is also even less فَهُمْ أَقَلُّ مِنَ الْقَرِيدِ صح؟ The little than the littles that is already out there So it brings you sincerity, that's why it pushes you to Are we all together brothers?
Sincerity will make you say what you don't know, I don't know this thing Don't ask me, I don't have knowledge of this matter
وَالْكُلُّ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْمَنَاحِ الْأَرْبَعَ يَقُولُ لَا أَدْرِي فَكُنْ مُتَّبِعًا الْإِمَامَ أَبُو حَنِيفَ مَالِكَ الشَّافِعِ الْأَحْمَدِ
All of them, when they didn't know a matter it was easy for them to say لَا أَدْرِي I don't know because they were sincere people, they knew and they spoke about this matter
وَلَا تَقُولُ لِمَا تَصْلِفُ وَالسِّنَتُكُمُ الْكَذِبَ هَذَا حَلَانٌ وَهَذَا حَرَامٌ لِتَفْتَرُوا عَلَى اللَّهِ الْكَذِبَ إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَفْتَرُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ الْكَذِبَ لَا يُفْلَحُونَ
قُلْ إِنَّمَا حَرَّمَ رَبِّيَ الْفَوَاحِشَ مَا ظَهَرَ مِنْهَا وَمَا بَاطَنَ وَالإِثْمَ وَالْبَغْيَ وَأَن تُشْرِكُوا بِاللَّهِ مَا لَمْ يُنَزِّلْ بِهِ سُلْطَالَ وَأَن تَخُولُوا عَلَى اللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعَلَمُونَ
To speak about Allah's religion with no knowledge? For them it was something very bad. Why would they do that?
وَلِذَا لِفَىٰ The sincerity of theirs pushed them towards what? To say, I don't know.
A man came to Abdullah ibn Umar The son of the great companion Umar ibn Al-Khattab So he asked him a question Abdullah ibn Umar said, لا أدري He asked him another question He said, لا أدري
And he said to him, you're a companion You studied under the Prophet That's what some people do to you They make you feel like How come you don't know? Look what Abdullah ibn Umar said
He said I don't know And I don't know is half of knowledge
لا أدري is نصف العلم
My sheikh used to say It doesn't mean you say لا أدري twice That means you've got full knowledge لا أدري, لا أدري, that's it
What it means is Once you acknowledge that you don't know Half of the effort is already there Now all you just have to do Is go look for it
Recognition is very important If a person doesn't acknowledge That they did a sin, are they going to repent?
So half way towards Repentance is what? To acknowledge that you did a mistake, right?
When our mother Aisha was falsely accused of zina Falsely, falsely accused of zina رضي الله عنها
The prophet entered the house And he said to her يا عائشة إن ألممت على الذنب
If you did this sin That's been said about you
فأعترف في الذنب
Recognise this mistake first of all
ثم توب إلى الله
So first you have to recognise the sin And then you ask for forgiveness, does that make sense?
So when a person says I don't know That's half of knowledge
The next half Is now you just have to go and look for it
And that's Not only humility You're going to gain a lot of knowledge when you have that sincerity Saying I don't know, because you're going to go and look for it
But if you say I am شيخ الكل في الكل I know everything, you just ask me I'll answer it, I have it, it's on the tip of my tongue
Then you won't stop And go look for things Because you think you know it
So the first my brothers and sisters Is sincerity
The second one is
Being truthful is seeking knowledge
There's a difference between الصدق في طلب العلم and طلب العلم
The صدق في طلب العلم means that when you're seeking knowledge You're not Associating partners with the knowledge
Some people when they're reading and they're studying They have their phone right next to them And as they're reading Someone could call them and say
They put the phone down No
So, if you really are seeking knowledge That time that you're seeking knowledge Get rid of everything that's going to distract you Be truthful to it Give it everything
Are we all together brothers?
Knowledge does not accept partnership It doesn't You have to give everything you have
That's why the Salaf used to say
من أعطى العلم كله
Anyone who gives knowledge everything
أعطته
It will give you بعضه some of it
It will give you something in return It can't give you all knowledge No one's got all knowledge
But it will give you something in return
But you have to give everything
Are we all together brothers?
So that time that you're studying You give all of it
The third is high aspiration
A student of knowledge Should not stop himself at saying
I just want to know the basics of my My knowledge so I can Benefit my community أبدا
Ibn al-Jawzi said a very powerful statement
He said كمال العقل علو الهمة والراضي بدون دني
كمال العقل علو الهمة
He said if you want to see a person whose عقل is complete, smart individual He has high aspiration
والراضي بدون دني
And anyone who's happy with like the bare minimum I don't mind
He said that person Is a significant person With no value
إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ الْمَعَالِيَ الْأُمُورِ وَيَكْرَهُ سَفْسَافَهَا
Allah loves the best of affairs He doesn't like those
He doesn't like those things
That's why the Prophet said
إِلَىٰ سَأَلْتُمُ اللَّهَ الْجَنَّةِ
If you guys are going to ask Allah for Jannah
فَسَأَلُوهُ الْفِرْدَوْسِ
Don't just say Oh Allah just take me to Jannah I don't care which Jannah it is I want to get in there
Don't say that
You're a Muslim you should have high aspirations of what you achieve
You should say Ya Rabb I want Jannah al-Firdos
The highest level
Are we all together brothers?
Do you know what they say about the lion?
They say lions don't eat dead corpse
The lion has to hunt for himself
You guys watch Discovery Channel right?
Ya
You don't watch Discovery Channel?
What's it called National Geography?
Ya
If you watch this stuff There's a lot of benefits of what it is
That's why the lion is called The king of the
King of what?
Ya
Why is he the king of the jungle?
Because he's got high aspirations
The lion's goals are high
Are we all together brothers?
That's why the hyena and all of those They just take the dead corpse and nothing
So brothers High aspiration
Set yourself a high goal And work towards that
It's very high brothers It's very important
And you see that Imam Ahmad And Yahya Ibn Ma'in came together Ibn Khaliqan mentioned in his There have been mentioned in his Seerah al-Alam al-Nubala In the translation of Imam Ahmad
That Ahmad Ibn Hanbal He came to He wanted to go to Yemen And meet Abdul Razzaq Ibn Hammam
He's another scholar of hadith He met Yahya Ibn Ma'in
What they did was they came to the Kaaba To do Umrah
When they came, guess who they found Abdul Razzaq Ibn Hammam In the Kaaba
Yahya Ibn Ma'in said to Yahya Ibn Ma'in said to Ahmad Ibn Hanbal
Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar, we don't have to travel to Yemen now
Here is Abdul Razzaq
They realized after they had a conversation with him Just by talking to him they knew him
Not because they saw him, there's no YouTube Facebook and all that doesn't exist
They only recognize him Through the chains of the hadith
Because every person of that time whenever they narrated a hadith They would have to mention their shuyukh Sah?
Al-Isladu min al-Deen, walaw la al-Isladu la qala man sha'a man sha'a Sah?
The chain is the religion And if anybody doesn't use the chain Their knowledge will not have been accepted
Because everybody can say whatever they want Without no chain, sah?
I think Sufiyan Sufiyan Ibn Uyayn One of the two Sufiyans They said
Al-Isnadu al-silahu al-mu'min
That the Isnad is the weapon of the believer
Al-Isnadu al-silahu al-mu'min
Are you fighting? If you don't have your chain Yah?
And mashallah This is Jamiat al-Hadith, sah?
If I don't have a chain So they recognized by the discussion They recognized This is Abdel Razzaq ibn Hammam
Yahya said look let's stay Let's stay And benefit from him
Ahmed said no High aspiration
He said no, let Abdel Razzaq go to Yemen We're going to go to Yemen
Because that was our initial intention
I did not leave Baghdad for me to come and take from him here.
He came for Ibadah and we came here for Ibadah.
We had an intention when we left and we were not going to change our intention now.
He went and he met him in what?
In Yemen and he took from him over there.
Are we all together brothers?
Does that make sense?
Some of the scholars mentioned that you know Ahmad Yahya forced him to take it from him here and Ahmad finally accepted.
The point I'm trying to say brothers is high aspiration.
The fourth Inshallah Ta'ala is
Al-'amalu bil-'ilm.
The knowledge Allah has given you, you have to act upon it.
Wa-'alimu bi-'ilmihi lam ya'malana mu'adhabu qabla ubbadi al-wathan.
The one who has knowledge but he doesn't act upon that knowledge he's going to be what?
He's going to be punished even before the what?
The grave worshippers or idol worshippers.
This is referring to the hadith of awwalu man tusa'aru bihim minnaara yawma al-qiyama.
The first people who Allah is going to take them to the hellfire, the day of judgment is who?
Three groups of people.
From them is who?
A alim who has gained knowledge, has an understanding of the deen ma'adhalika he didn't act upon it.
He's going to be punished because he didn't act upon the knowledge that was given.
All he had was information.
A ta'muruna an-naasa bilbirri wa tansawna anfusakum wa antum tatroona al-kitabaa fa laa ta'aqiloon?
Are you commanding the people something and you and yourself are not doing it?
Where's your aql gone?
Kabura maqtanu inda Allahi an taqoolu ma laa taf'aloon?
Why are you saying something and going against it?
That's what Nabi Shu'ayb said to his people when he was commanding them.
He said,
wa maa ureedu an u khalifakum ila maa anhaakum AAan?
I am not going to go against the thing that I am telling you guys.
I'm not going to go against it.
I'm going to follow through myself with these things.
I'm telling you guys to do it.
Sahib brothers, when I was young my father gave an example.
A good example that I always stuck with.
He said, your mother when she was giving you food when you were a kid.
She put those food in your mouth.
She'd only give you another spoon if you swallowed what was already given to you.
And he said the knowledge is like that as well.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when he gives you knowledge if you go and act upon the one that was given to you
Allah will give you more.
You acted upon it?
Okay, give it more.
Acted upon it?
Give it more.
And knowledge stays with one implementation.
The Salaf used to say this.
Knowledge calls for actions.
Action, come here.
He says, if actions doesn't come, knowledge leaves.
We all together brothers, some of the Salaf they used to say,
We used to strengthen our understanding of the deen with acting upon it.
That was one of our ways to keep it.
And we all know that Prophet ﷺ hadith of Abu Abdur Rahman As-Sulam,
Ya Abdullah ibn Habib.
What did he say?
That the people, the sahabas like Abdullah ibn Mas'ud and Uthman ibn Affan and others told us
And they would never go beyond and above ten verses.
They would memorize it he said.
And then would act upon it.
And then they would take another ten.
They would not take more if they didn't act upon what was given to them.
And Imam Ahmad, as you know, he has one of the biggest books or the biggest book that we have right now in hadith collection, right?
Imam Ahmad, one of the biggest.
He is Muslim, right?
And Imam Ahmad, they asked him,
Did you act upon every hadith that you have memorized?
He said, yes, except one hadith.
And that was to do hijama and give the man who did the hijama the amount of money that the Prophet ﷺ gave to him.
Which is one dinar.
Give him that money.
Are we looking at the bubbles?
Some things of the hadith, the Salaf used to say, even if it's not wajib, but you've heard it.
So you don't fall under the ayah, do it even once. Just so at least you're a person who did it.
Are we all together, brothers?
The fifth, insha'Allah ta'ala, is:
When it comes to seeking knowledge, a lot of people want to learn it fast.
And they're like, why is it not changing?
Why am I not seeing the outcome?
I've been memorizing every day.
I go over the hadith.
I forget it in the evening.
Knowledge is your life.
You have to not give up on seeking knowledge.
You have to keep going over it again and again and again and again, brothers.
It requires your life.
They asked Imam Al-Bukhari,
What is the cure for memorization?
What did he say?
He said, the cure for memorization is this drive within you.
And also revising and going over things again and again and again.
You're finishing the Quran so often.
You're going over the books that you've read before.
You keep going over them again and again and again.
You have like a program where you start the Ṣārah of Ibn Al-Qayyim and you finish it.
Ibn Al-Qayyim's books have a manhajiyyah, mukhtarahah في قراءة مؤلفاته.
To read his works, you read those books.
And every maybe eight months, nine months, you finish it.
Ibn Al-Qayyim, you have a program of how to read his works.
وهكذا.
This is the mutala'ah hurrah.
And then the nathums and the books that you need to memorize, you have your program.
How to memorize it, the new ones and the old ones,
How you revise it every month so you can keep it, so you don't lose it.
All of this is a life panting.
Shaykh al-Albani died at the age of 83, 84.
And one of the first books he wrote was his kitab, Itikhaat al-Sajid,
Where he talks about the issue of graves, taking the masajids to the graveyards.
And it's the thing that the Prophet ﷺ cursed five days before he died.
He said,
لَعَنَ اللَّهُ الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَى اتَّخَذُوا قُبُورَ أَنبِيَانِ الْمَسَاجِدِ
May Allah's curse be upon the Christians and the Jews.
They took the graveyards of their prophets, a place of worship.
Do you know the time between these two books?
His last book is Thamrat al-Mustatab, which he didn't finish.
He died at the age of 84 while writing that book.
And his Itikhaat al-Sajid, do you know how many years was between it?
The first book he wrote was at 23.
When he died, he was 84, 83.
How many years between them?
60 years.
60 years of being in the science of hadith.
يُصَحِّحْ وَيُضَعِّفْ
ثُمَّ يَأْتِمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ ذَلِكَ عُوَيْرٌ وَكُسَيْرٌ وَثَالِثُ لَيْسَ فِيهِ خَيْرٌ
And then after that comes, Uwair or Qusayr or a third one that has no benefit.
And then he says, Shaykh al-Albani, he doesn't know what he's talking about.
صح؟
ألا تستحيه؟
صح brothers?
It shocks me.
Sometimes I read in his hadith al-Sahihah,
And then I hear Shaykh al-Albani say,
وَصَحَحْتُ هَذَا الْحَدِيثُ قُرَابَةَ أَرْبَعِينَ السَّنَةِ
It was 40 years ago when I authenticated this hadith.
وَأَعَدْتُ النَّظَرَ
And I went back to check it, and I still see it to be ضعيف.
Or I still see it to be sahih.
40 years.
50 years.
Are you with me, brothers?
It's a lifetime thing now.
That's what you have to understand.
The minute you come in, you have to realize it's a lifetime.
That's why sometimes it can have a bad effect on these intensive courses that are being done.
Sometimes it can have a bad effect.
Which is to make the student think,
After two weeks of this دورة علمية, I'm a دورة مكثفة,
He's going to be Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah.
And in reality, all it is, is what?
Microwave knowledge.
That's it.
You can just warm the food up with a microwave.
You can't cook food on a microwave, I'm telling you.
I don't know about the new ones that come out.
صح؟
So you have to understand, this can have a negative side effect.
The last one, insha'Allah, that I'm going to mention from the characteristics that we should adorn ourselves with,
Is sticking with the people of knowledge.
مُنَازَمَةُ الْعُلَمَةُ وَأَخْذِ الْعِلْمِ مِنْهُمْ
To take knowledge from the علماء.
You have to have knowledge.
Scholars.
This is for everyone and also the طلاب العلم who are in the ساحة الدعوة.
That you have علماء, that you have a speed dial that you go back to.
You call them and say,
Shaykh, this is an opinion that's come to me.
I've researched this issue.
What do you think, Shaykh?
I'm going to send it to you.
Can you look at it?
Can you give me your opinion, Shaykh?
Shaykh, I've said this statement and this statement, and I'm in doubt whether I should have said it or not.
نصيحة. نصائح. مُنَازَمَةُ الْعُلَمَةُ
Brothers, seeking knowledge is important.
The Prophet ﷺ said to the companions, showing us the importance of everyone taking from the Prophet ﷺ, the companions, and the followers.
Like that, the Prophet ﷺ, he told the companions, and he said to them:
تَسْمَعُونَ مِنِّي تَسْمَعُونَ وَيُسْمَعُ مِنكُمْ وَيُسْمَعُ مِنْ مِنْ سَمِعَ مِنْكُمْ
You will hear from me, and there are people who are going to hear from you guys, and those people, other people are going to hear from them.
And that's a program that we all Muslims need to follow, which is what?
Taking from the scholars.
The Prophet ﷺ said:
يَظُنُّ الْغُمْرُ أَنَّ الْكُتْبَ تَهْدِي أَقَى فَهْمٍ لِإِدَرَاكِ الْعُلُومِ
وَمَا يَدِنِ الْجَهُولُ بِأَنَّ فِيهَا غَوَامِضَ قَدْ حَيَّرَتْ عَقْلَ الْفَهِيمِ
إِذَا رُنتَ الْعُلُومَ بِغَيْرِ شَيْخٍ ضَلَلْتَ عَنِ السِّرَاطِ الْمُسْتَقِيمِ
وَتَلْتَبِسُ الْعُلُومُ عَلَيْكَ عَتَّى تَصِيرَ أَضَلَّ مِنْ تَوْمَ الْحَكِيمِ
He said the miskeen individual, he thinks that by buying books and putting them on the shelf and reading those books:
يَظُنُّ الْغُمْرُ أَنَّ الْكُتْبَ تَهْدِي
You think these books are going to guide you?
Shatibi mentioned this before in his كتاب الموافقات,
That he said that knowledge before was in the chest of the people of knowledge, and they then chose to write this knowledge in the books, but guess what?
They still got the keys in their hands.
It's like a door, you can see it, but they're all locked.
You need the keys, and then not only do you need the keys,
You need to be told which key is for which door,
Or you're going to waste your time:
Trying this key—and then it's not this key.
Let me try the other key—it's not working.
Then the other key.
When you speak to the scholars,
They will save you time, and they will tell you the loops and the mistakes that they've done,
The shortcomings, and they'll correct everything for you.
And you will save much more time, and you will not fall into the mistakes that other people fall into.
So that's why the problem is when some people choose not to go to the ulama and the people of knowledge,
And they read themselves, and they understand something from what they read.
I remember one time,
I was very, very young.
Very young.
I'm still young.
I was a baby at that time.
I was in a Haram, and a brother was teaching.
So he asked all of you guys, what have you memorized?
So I said, I memorized Arba'un and Bulugh.
And he said,
Okay, not everybody here has memorized it, let's do Arba'un Nawawiyyah.
I said, okay, no problem, let's do Arba'un Nawawiyyah.
Arba'un Nawawiyyah, what's the second hadith?
You all know it, right?
Arba'un Nawawiyyah, second hadith.
It's Hadith Jibreel.
The first hadith, and the second one is Hadith Jibreel.
Arba'un Nawawiyyah, a long hadith.
If you look at the beginning of the hadith,
If you go to—
By the way, Nawawi was very smart and clever when he wrote these two hadiths.
The first hadith, Imam al-Amal ibn Iyad, Bukhari starts with it.
Hadith Jibreel, Muslim starts with it.
If you go to Sahih Muslim, and you check how this hadith of Jibreel was actually mentioned,
You will know that it was Abdullah ibn Umar.
Two men came to him, Humaid ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Himyari, and Yahya ibn Ya'mar.
They came to Abdullah ibn Umar,
Hajayni or Mu'tamirayni,
It was either Hajj or Umrah,
And they wanted to complain about a people who came out from their land.
Who was it?
Qadariyya.
And they named a man by the name of Ma'bid al-Juhani.
So the brother who is teaching us,
He didn't study with the shuyukh.
This is the problem.
I'm trying to show you.
He didn't study with the shuyukh.
He read books by himself.
We didn't know that.
We'll find out later.
And this is how the mistake comes from.
So he shares the hadith with us.
He says to us the hadith.
Ma'bid al-Juhani.
You know what he said?
Ma'bid—he said, is an idol that the people of Juhani used to worship.
In Arabic, it's sah.
Ma'bid is a place where people come and worship.
And al-Juhani—he said, it's a tribe,
Which is true, it's a tribe.
But is that what the hadith is?
Is that what they asked Abdullah ibn Umar?
Well, Mr. Hakim,
So we just listened to the dars.
Allahu Akbar, jazakallah khair, Shaykh.
We left.
This is the problem.
So if you don't take from the ulama and the people of knowledge,
This is what happens.
You read a book,
You don't understand that the word sahih in ilm al-hadith is different to sahih in sarf.
In sarf, when they say sahih, what do they mean by this?
In sarf, morphology, in Arabic morphology,
When they say sahih, what do they mean?
They say sahih is a harfun, a word, خَالٍ عَنْ حُرُوفِ العِلَّة—there's no letter of defect in it, وَاو، أَلِف، يَاء are not in that word.
A harf which is sahih, is healthy, not in that state.
And when you say sahih in مصطلح الحديث, or the science of hadith, what's sahih?
It's when the chain of narration is connected,
The narrators are ضَابِطُ الذِّهْنِ، عَدْلٌ،
عَدَمُ الشُّذُوذِ وَعَدَمُ عِلَّةٍ قَادِحَة.
Somebody doesn't know that.
When he sees sahih in the science of hadith,
And when he sees sahih in what?
And now, what about أصول الفقه?
They use the same word sahih, what do they mean?
This عَمَلٌ صَحِيحٌ, and this عَمَلٌ فَاسِدٌ.
They mean something else by it.
It's one word, but in every science it has a meaning.
This مِسْكِين, he only knows one.
So he's going through all of them with one definition.
How would you know that it means different in this science, than this science, than this science?
It's when you take knowledge from what?
From its people.
I am told to stop here, إن شاء الله تعالى.
إن شاء الله تعالى, another time, we're going to do the second, بِإِذْنِ الْكَرِيمِ.
Another time, we'll talk about المَنْهَجِيَّاتُ العِلْمِيَّةُ,
That is needed to understand knowledge.
May الله preserve you all,
Forgive me for any mistakes or shortcomings,
And if I've said anything to offend anyone, I honestly apologize.
Anything I've said that was wrong and incorrect is from me and الشيطان,
And الله and His Messenger ﷺ are both free from it.
سُبْحَانَكَ اللَّهُمَّ وَبِحَمْدِكَ،
أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ،
أَسْتَغْفِرُكَ وَأَتُوبُ إِلَيْكَ.
