Advice to learned people “Ahl al-ʿIlm”

28th September 2014

By Ismail Y Syed     Twitter @IsmailYSyed

Ustadh/Lecturer at Darul Ulum Ford Square (London Islamic School) with Middlesex University, London; Teacher of Adult courses, Safar Academy, London

Below are some of my thoughts and advice in quotations I shared with students in the first semester at the start of the new academic year, with the intention of both, us teachers and students to practice upon those pieces of advice and benefit from those reflections.
Those thoughts and reflections of mine developed over the years during my course of teaching as well as from the thoughts and ideas developed under the lasting influence of my great academic supervisor and mentor, late Mufti of Darul Ulum Deoband, India, Hazrat Mufti Nizamuddin Azami (R.A.), during my years as a postgraduate student of Jurisprudence (Ifta/Mufti qualification).

Please note, as these thoughts and advice are in quotations delivered in a lecture, they have been stated in the exact manner as delivered in spoken language format, so the writer apologises for not taking the time in presenting in the standard academic format as of yet.

“Advice to learned people ‘Ahl al-Ilm’ and seekers of knowledge ‘Tullab al-ilm'”

“Through whatever little knowledge you’ve gained or you would gain, it is a “light” or Noor, you should use it to navigate through the darkness of unknowns and then to share the outcome with everyone who needs to be enlightened, no matter how much hostility you may face.” “Always have sincerity when learning and have the intention of practicing upon what you have learnt first, before preaching.”

“The moment you realise that there is no more to learn or there is no blind spots of unknowns, there is either something seriously gone wrong with your knowledge or worse the light of your torch of knowledge has burnt out.”

“Seeking knowledge has no boundaries and no restraints, you have the freedom to think, question, analyse, explore and learn as long as you stay within the parameters of not letting yourself loose to wonder and disappear into further darkness of ignorance by forming wrong ideas, fallacies and false conclusions. This is exactly why one should have a guiding hand of an experienced learned scholar/authorised alim and mentor who provides you with the guidance and framework that safeguards you from the pitfalls of fallacies and further ignorance.

Freedom to learn and think means you (or with the help of Ulama if needed be) should be in charge of directing your learning and free thinking to a successful outcome, not that freedom instead becomes in charge of your learning and holds you as a hostage in never ending wrong ideas and beliefs. That is, to freely wander around in ignorance without limits with no end in sight for a successful conclusion that brings in true enlightenment.”
“To explore amidst the darkness in the vast ocean of ignorance, you would still need to have the “spiritual light” as a torch bearer and a “correctly acquired guidelines” that illuminates the pathway to the right destination or in the case of knowledge, right conclusion, just like when you are capable of driving “freely” in a vast road at night full of darkness, no sound minded person would say you may drive freely as you wish without having proper lights on and a navigation to guide otherwise such strategy would lead to getting either lost or worst, resulting in tragedy for both, driver and other road users. This is the main distinguishing factor between qualified Ulamas and their counterparts of western scholars. One of the reason many in the western scholarship on Islam and wider sciences, inspite many of their positive inputs, modern research methods and scholarships, on many occasions they drifted off the course under the banner of ‘free, unrestrained and unguided exploration’ yet without any guiding light to help them navigate through deep waters of the unknowns and therefore unsurprisingly they end up reaching unsound and wrong conclusions that in many cases, even a sound minded lay person would beg to differ. Many would see it as ‘inconclusive or erred conclusion.'”

“Knowledge/ilm and research falls into two types, logical analysation based and transmission based (Quran, Hadith and authentic knowledge transmitted from an unbroken chain of authorised Ulama whose every step of transmission going back to the original source can be accounted for, also known as isnad/ijazah based knowledge). The former should be backed up and complimented by latter where possible, and not go against the latter which is seen as the benchmark and guiding principle for successful research with a successful outcome.

“One needs to realise is that the above principle, as much as it may apply to worldly sciences discoverable by human beings as well as apply to Islamic sciences, it is essential to note down a principle difference: The worldly sciences is mostly based on discoverable theory based on research of trial and error, compare and contrast, all that is prone to be outdated by future up to date theories: There is no certainty. Such knowledge, be it sciences of physics, natural sciences, health sciences, economics (2008 financial crises and 1997 Asian crisis are good examples that caught many economists off guard and proved many of their forecasts wrong with their uncertainties and vulnerability in their findings deeply exposed), philosophy and other social sciences, all of them with uncertainties and limitations who’s accuracy is measured through probabilities and cancellations. It is after all ‘theories’ or ‘īlm al Zhanni’ that can be subject to challenges. This is not surprising at all. This is normal with any sciences in connection to the creation / universe and whatever exists within, such sciences known as ilm al Khalq (science of creations) or in my own words I used above, ‘human led discoverable sciences’. After all, such proneness in those discoverable sciences is Sunnat al Allah. However, conversely when it comes to the sciences /knowledge of Allah, the creator and his deen, ‘Ilm al Khaliq’ / ‘Ulūm al Dīn’ or to rephrase it, ‘transmission based sciences’ as opposed to human led discoverable only sciences, there is no scope or luxury to rely upon uncertainties minimised through probabilities of trial and error. Only one would do: Certainty. A cast iron guarantee of certainty in the fundamentals of the creator and his deen. This certainly reflects the superior nature of the creator over his creations. Superiority warrants certainty. It is in this context, “transmission based” knowledge becomes the number one primary source over human led discovery based knowledge, which brings certainty and finality in the knowledge, whose sources can be “traced back” to the originator, the creator. Such gravity of the matter cannot be risked based on estimations and discoveries alone, but on factual concrete information relayed through authentic transmission direct from the creator through his archangel Jibril/Gabriel to his messenger prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and then onwards to his companions (Sahabah) through to their successors (Tabiūn) and Tab Tabi’īn and so on, all the way to us. Such transmission, in areas of the “fundamentals” of deen, takes places in a manner that is unforgiving for any room for uncertainty, all of which reflects the divine nature and superiority of the knowledge of the creator and his revelations, known as ‘īlm al Wah’y’. And it is within this contexture, for learning such a noble and divine knowledge (ilm) one requires in order to overcome the darkness of ignorance – a divine light or ‘Nur’ that is acquired from and bestowed upon by the Ulamas / divine learned scholars, which would act as a guiding beacon for the torch bearer to navigate through the vastness of unknowns to reach the knowns of certainty. This couldn’t have been more clearly explained in the famous couplet of Imam Al Shafi’i which students of deen regularly gets to hear:
“شكوت الى وكيع عن سوء حفظي
فأرشدني إلى ترك المعاصي

وأعلمني بأن العلم نور من إلهي
ونور الله لا يهدى لعاصي”

“I complained to (my teacher) Waqi about my difficulty in absorbing the knowledge being parted to me.”

“He advised me to stay away from sinful acts. ”

“He explained to me that verily the ‘īlm’ (knowledge) is a ‘Nur’ (light) from the divine Almighty”

“And such ‘light from the divine’ is certainly not bestowed upon those who commit sins that lead to darkness.”

Within short space of time, as recorded in the biography of Imam Al Shafi’i that following a simple yet valuable piece of advice of his Ustadh, he went on to become a great “Imam” of Fiqh and school of thought.”

“The greatest satisfaction is that when your knowledge benefits you and others through enlightenment that helps to get close to the aims of the Almighty creator and giver for knowledge, known as “Hidayah” or if not, then, at least, it should keep you and others away from ‘Jahalah’ or ‘ignorance'”.

“And the worst betrayal of knowledge is that when the so-called learned mistakenly takes the unknowns as knowns, and when one learns from an unlearned who is mistaken for being learned and when one becomes ignorant of his ignorance, which is known as ‘Jahl Murakkab’ (translated as ‘multiplied ignorance’ or ‘ignorance at multiple levels’) a worst outcome one can have.”

“And being a traitor to knowledge is when a learned person’s self-satisfaction is seen through the accumulation of wealth by dispensing knowledge and the silence of the learned people in the face of other’s ignorance is taken as approval of actions committed out of ignorance by the unlearned society. Worst is when the learned and unlearned becomes partners in measuring self-satisfaction in terms of money, wealth or ‘Dunya’ and self-interests.”

“The learned people and scholars no longer leading the way of practicing on what they have learned and taught, as practically applying the knowledge in real life becomes secondary. Earning and maintaining high status becomes the primary aim.”

“And the biggest betrayal to the nation or ‘Ummah’ is when the institutions that supposed to be the beacon of ‘enlightenment’ instead becomes a signpost of justifying ‘moral ignorance’.”

“And when the centres for ignorance starts to be regarded as centres of enlightenment yet the real learned people and real institutions of enlightenment feel powerless, you know the time has really come when things can only go from bad to worse before they can get any better if it is indeed destined to get better. If it becomes apparent that the situation is destined of not getting any better and there is only worse to come, then surely the time has come to distance oneself from the traitors of the knowledge by migrating to a place less hostile to the knowledge.”

Today sadly we see many of these are already happening. By taking into accounts of the above, we can contribute towards preventing such outcome or if not, at least, we can limit the damage from such outcome.

May Allah help and guide us all.

Ismail Y Syed

Sunday, 4th Dhu al-Hijjah 1435 AH / 28th September 2014
Ustadh/Lecturer at Darul Ulum Ford Square (London Islamic School) with Middlesex University, London
Teacher of Adult courses, Safar Academy, London