Ilm & Tasawwuf Advice to Students

http://islamicspiritualityk.wordpress.com/category/islamic-scholarly-tradition/ Posted in Acquiring Sacred Knowledge ['ilm], Classical Islamic Learning, Essentials of Deen, Fear of Allah, Ibadah, Islamic Scholarly Tradition with tags dar-ul-uloom, ilm, students of knowledge on March 13, 2012 by Islamic Spirituality [Following is a transcription [not word-by word] of an amazing talk addressed to the students of Sacred Knowledge by Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed db ] download mp3 [35:28] [16:43] [37:180-182] All of us know that in a hadith of Prophet , he has said: Al-Ullamau warathatul ambiya Scholars are the inheritors of the Prophets alaihim-us-salam. but perhaps more importantly in another hadith Rasoolullah said: Al-ilmu Noorun that Knowledge is light is a spiritual light; is a radiant light that is meant to penetrate your heart So, Many times this ayah is recited in front of Ullama: [35:28] that Verily those who are the most fearing of Allah swt amongst His servants are the Ullama; are the religious scholars And, normally the bayan that is given then is on the fear or the khashiyat of Allah swt. But today, Im not going to speak about the Fear of Allah swt; Khauf-e-Khuda; Khasheeyat-e-illahi because if you look at this ayah, So, the first requisite is that you make yourself among His ibaad

and those of you who are studying Arabic would know that is for tabyeezia in this case that it means from the ibaad, from the servants of Allah swt will come forth these Ullama who will then be fearful of Allah swt. So, the real purpose of studying in a Dar-ul-Uloom is to become an abd; is to become a sincere servant and slave of Allah swt Al-ilmu bila amalin wabaalun wal amalu bila ilmin dalaalun that knowledge without practice is a wabaal is like a travesty and having practice without knowledge is dalaal is misguidance; that it leads you astray So, what we really need to see is: Are we being an abd? Now what does it mean to be an abd? Allah swt Says in the Quran-ul-Karim: [51:56] that He has not created Jinn or Humanity except that they worship Him. This is the purpose of our life! But it doesnt mean that we sit and worship Allah swt 24 hours in the Masjid it means you have to view yourself as an abd 24 hours a day! You have to carry yourself with the humility of a slave and servant of Allah swt walk like a slave; talk like a slave; act like a slave; think like a slave; hold yourself as a slave; view yourself as a slave and servant of Allah swt this is what they call Uboodiyyah servanthood. Imam-al-Ghazzali rahimahullah in his book, Ihya Uloom-ud-din Revival of the Sacred Sciences on the Chapter of Muhabbah, writes: That there is no greater love for Allah swt; there is no greater rank of love for Allah swt than Uboodiyyah - the greatest love you can give to Allah swt is to be His perfect slave and servant. And, this is also the greatest Sunnah of the beloved Messsenger saw this is why we say in our tashahhud in Salah we say: Ash-hadu anna muhammadan abduhu warasooluhu that we testify that the beloved Messenger is Allah swts abd first and foremost that he is the servant of Allah swt and that he is the Messenger As all of you know, none of us can aspire to Risaalah. But, all of us should aspire to be an abd the way Muhammad-e-Mustafa was an abd. But how many of us have ever made dua like that? that O Allah! make me your servant and slave the way Prophet Muhammad was your servant and slave; make my Salah the way his salah was; make my dua the way his dua was; make my dua the way his dua was. So, the purpose of knowledge is to do aml

Hazrat Mufti Mohammed Shafi rehmatullah alaihs definition of ilm: Once some students were sitting in front of hazrat Mufti Muhammad Shafi rehmatullah alaih - one of the great Scholars of our akaabir Ullama-e-deoband, one of the great Muftis; a real Mufti; a Faqih; a legal Scholar of Pakistan And he asked his students, Can you tell me what is ilm; what is the definition of Knowledge? So, one student replied: Maarifah to know Another student replied, Idraak to Assess; to ascertain. One student replied, Tafaqquh to understand. But Hazrat, he was just quiet. The students realized that they werent getting the right answer that they were well off the mark. So, then one of them said, O Hazrat, why dont you tell us yourself. So, then Mufti Muhammed Shafi rah gave an incredible definition of ilm; a standard through which all students of knowledge should check themselves;a standard through which all teachers of knowledge should check themselves: Knowledge is that light that when it enters the light of a believer it demands that it be practiced upon this is the definition of ilm-un-Nafeh. ilm woh noor hai jub dil k ander utar jayey tu woh bandey ko beychain rakhey jab tak woh usper amal na keray So, knowledge is not just the information we get from books. Theres one thing called, Maloomaat and theres one thing called, ilm. A person can get lots of Malumaat means that a person can get lots of information; news; facts about fiqh; about different things. But, ilm is that noor that light that when it enters the heart of a believer it demands that it be practiced upon. So, if we want to call ourselves Talib-e-ilm that we are seekers of Knowledge it means that we are seekers of that light - seekers of that knowledge; seekers of that practice; seekers of that Uboodiyyah; seekers of that slavehood and servanthood of Allah swt. Intention of Seeking ilm: Hazrat Sufyan at-thauri rahimahullah has said that: If a Talib-e-ilm is sincere in his intention there is nothing better than him on the face of this earth i.e. there is nothing better in the entire earth than a talib-e-ilm who is sincere in his intention So,what should the intention of a Talib-e-ilm be? It should be that he[/she] only wants to acquire knowledge solely for the sake of the Pleasure of Allah swt. It is narrated by some of our Salaf Saaliheen that that is how they used to approach knowledge they wanted to aml on each and everything that they learnt; each and every verse of the Quran. So much so that in one narration it is written that the Salaf Saliheen(Pious predecessors) used to sit there and think and ponder on [2:1] Alif-laam-Meem that how do we do amal on this! that we want to practice upon every single ayah how can we do

amal on . That is the approach they took to acquiring knowledge. Ikhlaas of Imam-al-Ghazali rah: There was a famous sultan by the name of Nizam-ul-mulk. Although he was a political ruler, he had a lot of love for ulama; he had a lot of love for ilm. So he made all these madaris, all these darul-ulooms, called Madaris-e-Nizamiyya, (the Nizamiyya Academies) of Baghdad and of different places. So once somebody came to him and said O Nizam-ul-mulk, you have made these Dar-ul-ulooms because you think people are coming there to acquire the deen, people are trying to please Allah. But just go to your Dar-ul-ulooms and see what the situation is with the students. If you go to one student, he says that I am here because my father is a big khatib, he is a big orator. And I also want to come here so that when I graduate, I can also become a great khatib. If you go to another student, he will tell you that I am here because my father is qazi. Hes a judge, he has a big post, and he has a lot of respect in society. So I also want to graduate so that people will call me qazi, people will call me mufti. Then go to another person, he will say I am here because my father is Imam in the Jamia Masjid in the city, and everybody gives him presents, and people respect him, people come to him and ask him to make dua. So I am here because I want to follow my fathers footsteps and become Imam. So Nizam ul Mulki heard these things, and he said no, Ill check for myself. So he went to his madrassa, the one in Baghdad. And he asked one student, then he asked another student. And he found that the person was right, that every student he asked seemed to have some riya, some show, some ostentation, some ujub (vanity, thinking how great you are instead of thanking Allah swt). So anyway, Nizam-ul-mulk found that his students were full of these things. So then he made a niyyah in his heart. He said that this is terrible. That my whole plan has backfired, I am going to close this madrassah down. As he was walking away from the madrassah after making this niyyah, he saw one more student sitting in the corner, and he saw that that student was reading. And Allah swt put it into his heart that he thought: let me go and ask this one last student, what does he say? So he went to that student, and he said, O student, why are you here. The student just looked up, and looked back down, and kept reading. Just ignored him. Then he asked a second time, why are you here? The student just looked up, ignored him, and looked back down. And the third time he said, O student, do you not know who I am, the founder, the principal, the person who made the madrassah. O student, I am Nizam-ul-Mulk; I am asking you why you are here. So he looked and said yes, I know who you are. And now I realize that you wont let me be. So let me answer your question. I am only here because I realized that I need to live a life that is pleasing to Allah swt. And I did not have the knowledge, I did not know how to live such a life, so I have come here because the knowledge of how to please Allah is in these books, so thats why I am here. So if you would be so kind, please dont disturb me, because I am busy trying to get that knowledge.

So when Nizam-ul-Mulk saw that there was one student who was still so sincere, he changed his niyyah in his heart, and said no, I will keep this madrassah open. And that student later on became known as the famous Imam Ghazali (ru). That was Imam Ghazali. This is a story of his student days, and he later on became one of the most famous professors of the Nizamiyya Academy in Baghdad. [taken from: here] So our niyyah, our intention in studying should only be to seek the Pleasure of Allah swt from the moment we enter to the moment we leave and even after that our niyyah during our entire life should be that we are only acquiring knowledge so that we can seek the pleasure of Allah swt Ilm, amal & Ikhlaas So there are three things: ilm, aml & ikhlaas. Ilm is the knowledge that is contained in these books. Alhamdulillah, every student in the Dar-ululoom here is learning that knowledge or intends when he grows older to attain that knowledge. Ikhlaas, means sincerity that you are doing everything to seek the Pleasure of Allah swt and, amal means practicing upon our knowledge. Now, how do we get these things? So, practically speaking, ilm you get by entering a Dar-ul-Uloom by studying hard; working hard doing your takraar; doing your mutaala. But, how is it that you get amal in your heart. Well, for each and everything that we do we have to look at our akaabir Ullama-e-Deoband that how is it that they got everything. Infact, we will look even before that, our salaf saliheen, our big scholars who were the people of ilm how did they make themselves people of amal? So, the way they used to make themselves people of amal was that they learned another science and that is called the Tazkiyah the science of purifying yourself. - Hazrat Sufyan at-thauri rahimahullah used to keep the company of Abu Hashim Sufi rah and it is narrated from him, that If it wasnt for Abu Hashim Sufi rah, Sufiyan At-thauri would not have learnt the details of riyaa(to do something for display, showing off) and he wouldve been caught in riyaa. - Imam Abu Hanifa rahimahullah a famous saying by him: If it were not for two years, Nauman(his real name) would have been destroyed! > Which two years? The two years that he sad learning the purification of his heart & soul from the company of Imam Jafir-e-Sadiq rahimahullah - Imam Ahmed ibn-e-hanbal rahimahullah used to keep the company of Bishar Hafi rahimahullah. Once his students asked him that, Oh Imam Ahmed you are such a big Scholar you know so much why do you go and sit at the feet of this Sufi Bishar Hafi rah? And he said, My students! Im aalim bikitaabillah and he is aalim billah that I know the Book of Allah swt, but he knows Allah swt. He has the maarifah the deep knowledge and understanding of Allah swt and therefore I sit at his feet. Now, these are the stories of early early generations. Imam Abu Hanifa amongst the Tabieen; Sufiyan At-thauri amongst the Tabieen; Imam Ahmed ibn-e-Hanbal amongst the Taba-e-Tabieen. And all of you know that the Sahaba, they learned Tazkiya from the very first Muzakki

 which is also mentioned among four functions of Prophethood:

[3:164] So, the one of the functions of the Prophet was to do tazkiyah of the Sahabah radiyallahu anhum. to be continued, inshaAllah