Reflecting Over Some Old-Age Afflictions

It has been mentioned in the biography of the Ālim of Qazwīn, the Faqih Imām Abū Al-Hasan Ibn Al-Qattān – rahimahullāh – who passed away 345 After the Hijrah that in his old age he had some ailment in his eyes and said:

_” I am afflicted with ailment in my eyes and I think I am being punished for the manyness of my talking during the days of Ar-Rihlah.”_

The Students or Knowledge in the past would leave their homes after exhausting the Ulamā of their home countries, and travel to distant lands, and around the entire Muslim world ( _dār Islām_ ) to the Ulamā of those lands, and spend years with them until they have been certified by the Ulamā of the time to be worthy of teaching and possessed of Ilm. This journeys and excursions were known as the _Rihla_.

Imām Adh-Dhahabī – rahimahullāh – in his commentary on this study of the Imām said:

_”I say: he has indeed said the truth, they were a people that despite their purity of intentions and lofty goals, used to fear much talking and showing their talents, seeking recognition and merit. But today, they (students of Knowledge) speak too much despite meagerness of knowledge and wrong intentions. Then as a result, Allāh exposes them and make known their ignorance and caprices, and their contradiction of themselves in that which they know. We ask Allah for Tawfīq and Ikhlās”_

Ref: _’Siyar A’alāmi An-Nubalā_ 5/464

That is what was applicable in the days of Imām Adh-Dhahabī in the 8th century Hijriyyah. What then is to be said of our time?

We have very little students of Knowledge using the mass media to propagate their ignorance to millions of people across the world.

Be a disciplined Student of Knowledge, be one possessed of wisdom and fear Allāh.

Bārakallāhu fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran