Real Knowledge (Part 2)

The answer to my questions is found where the answers to all questions are found – with the family of the Holy prophet. In the famous hadith of Unwan Al-Basri (see http://fridaylantern.blogspot.com/) Imam Ja’fer As-Sadiq (AS) says:

“Knowledge is not acquired through learning. Rather it is a light that illuminates in the heart of one who wants Allah (swt) to guide him. So if you want knowledge, first seek out true servitude (to Allah (swt)) within yourself. And seek knowledge according to its use (ie: what you can act upon) and ask Allah (swt) to make you understand, and He’ll make you understand”

1) Seek knowledge for the right reasons. Allah is the source of all knowledge. In fact, everything I know, I know because He wants me to know. The fact that you are reading this is down to Him, He has guided you to it and hence you should thank Him. If we seek knowledge in order to serve Him, He will guide us to true knowledge.

2) Seek useful knowledge. In the du’a we generally perform after the Asr prayers, we seek refuge from ‘knowledge which has no benefit’. If we are sincere in our quest for knowledge, we should be seeking knowledge we can act upon. To that effect, the famous hadith:
“One who acts on what he knows, Allah will teach him that which he does not know”. So really to acquire knowledge we simply have to act on the knowledge we have and Allah himself promises to guide us if we do this.

3) Be disloyal. One cannot be loyal to any ideology. To identify ourselves with any mindset is dangerous – If I consider myself liberal, I have naturally closed myself off to any conservative ideas.
How often do we find when trying to explain something we are stonewalled by once who cannot accept that his lifelong belief is wrong. A simple example – one that I myself have encountered many times – is that of music. Most people have an opinion; few have knowledge of the rulings surrounding it. And yet, play a music track to someone who has little knowledge of the rulings and they will be quick to tell you whether they consider it Halal or Haram. Rationally, it may be simple to disprove them, but it will never be easy for them to accept it. Because they are loyal to the belief they have had their whole life.

4) Be humble. No matter how convinced we may be that we have finally reached a conclusion and our belief is correct, we must have humility in that we can never be certain. Imagine if everyone had this sort of humility – If we were able to accept that we may actually be wrong, to listen with an open mind and an open heart and to accept facts based on their rational deductions as opposed to how far they are from our current beliefs. This sort of humility opens a million doors.

It should be noted that these points are simply my disjointed thoughts and hence probably have many flaws! Comments are more than welcome! May Allah help us in our quest for true knowledge