Problems Associated with Seeking Ilm in the modern times: Part 1
HALQAH SERIES: EPISODE 7
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
الحمد لله رب العالمين
والصلاة والسلام علي من بعث رحمة للعالمين وعلي آله وأصحابه ومن دعي بددعوته واستن
بسنته إلي يوم الدين
Assalāmu Alaykum Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh.
Once again! We are all welcome to tonight’s session of our Halqah! We ask Allāh – ta’ala – to bless it and to make it beneficial for both the presenter and the listeners. Āmīn.
As we introduced, essentially, today’s session is going to be a Discussion and it borders on the Problems associated with seeking Ilm in the Modern Time.
Firstly, we will discuss the absence of true teachers in this era of ours. In the Hadīth transmitted by Abū Dāwud and narrated by the Companion Abū Ad-Dardaa, the Rasūl – salallāhu ‘alayhi wasallam – said:
“إن العلماء ورثة الأنبياء وإنما الأنبياء لم يورثوا الدينار ولا الدرهم وإنما يورثوا العلم”
“Indeed the Ulamā are the Inheritors of the Prophets, and indeed, the Prophets are not inherited by the Gold and Silver moneys that they leave behind but they are inherited by Ilm”
So, why do we lack many true scholars in this era? The reasons are broadly three in number;
Firstly, there is an absence of sound teachers and school syllabuses to impart Ilm in the youths.
Secondly, emphasis is not in any quarters given to Islamic Learning. Thus the youths go to study Dunya knowledge and abandon any knowledge of Dīn.
Thirdly, unlike the time of some of the predecessors, people of this era are stingy to spend their wealth in the cause of financing and progressing the search for Ilm.
For instance, Imām Ibn Hajar Al-‘Asqalānī- rahimahullāh- wrote in his Book ‘Ad-Duraru Al-kāminah’ the biography of some of the Ulamā of the Ummah. He wrote over 300 women Ulamā .
The talk of women Ulamā in this era of ours is strange! Why is that?
Answer- because the necessary circumstances that produce that is absent. For us to become people of Ilm and for the Ummah to move ahead, the youths must be able to navigate this hurdle effectively.
In the past, wealthy merchants would build Madāris (Colleges) with their wealth and then establish guest inns, shops and malls whose proceeds are to finance the school and its students. They used to refer mainly to such projects as ‘Waqf‘.
The necessary circumstances for the making of Ulamaa are seven (7) as some have put it- A learned teacher, finance, erudition, patience, distance from home/solitude, a long period of time and dedication.
Most times, it is the environment in which the child grows that determine whether or not he is able to attain these 7 things.
Waqf comes from the Arabic root ‘waqafa’ which is to withhold, to stand, to imprison or to restrain. Technically it is when a person dedicates a farm, a building, a house or a landed business for the general use of the Ummah. We can call it ‘Public Endowments’ or Foundations.
In essence, the youths of today must fight out those impediments which does not make its search easy for them. They must struggle hard to get true teachers and mentors even if they have to travel far in its search.
We talked of the various sciences last week, there are still Ulamā that have all of these sciences perfected and if one is not able to get all of these sciences, he should get that which he can from the Ulamā that he has available. That is because the Arab man used to say ‘whatever is not gotten in its entirety must not be abandoned in its entirety’. They must also struggle hard to fight the impediment of discouragement. That’s because the era in which we live is full of people who discourage striving to learn as opposed to the people of the past that encourage it. The youths must be able to help themselves in this regard. Otherwise, they will achieve nothing in the end. They must also navigate the hurdle or finance. A student of knowledge needs money to finance his search for Ilm, that is if he truly wants to achieve his goal. In the absence of the wealthy people of the Ummah giving all of these, the youths who want to further the cause of Islam must help themselves.
Secondly, we will discuss the information noise that we have in this Era.
Information is a double-edged sword and it is imperative to understand that. That is why the Ulamā clearly differentiate between Information and Knowledge. We will return to that difference later In Shaa Allāh. Today we live in an Information Age where large volumes of data reach the ends of the world in splits of seconds. Even with its advantages, its disadvantages are much indeed.
Some of them are:
1. The Noise and distraction it causes.
So many people have in their Memory Cards books and data they do not even know that they have. That is because the Information they have are more than they can consume. He never picks up anything and is able to finish it before he is distracted by another thing. When he picks up his phone to browse online, he may spend the entire day reading everything he sees. I once told a friend: ‘Had I been reading everything I find online, I would have become mad some years ago’.
Just pick for instance someone who intends to study a book on Aqidah. He doesn’t get to the middle of the book before he sees another book that he – by virtue of the information web – thinks is also important to study. In the end of the day, he becomes a disorganized dude like a donkey carrying books.
Just look at your email box. It may contain mails that will take over a week to finish reading and very unfortunately, the same thing happens in Islamic Forum like this one where people are been bombarded with contradictory and irreconcilable information that they cannot all read. And in the end of the day, it turns into a market place. All these are things that a student of knowledge must be aware and careful of.
2. It helps in propagating misinformation. If someone was to fabricate a Hadīth and falsely attribute it to one of the Compilers of Hadīth such as Bukhāri now in a place as far as Australia, in a split of a second, it will be read and propagated in a far place as Senegal. That is why a Scholar once said: ‘most of what is found on the internet are copied one from
In the times of the Salaf people who do that are supposed to be flogged in public for mishandling information and spreading things that they did not verify. We should know that people, as regards information, are either victims or victors. Because people behave and react with respect to what they know and are told from the sort of information that they consume. Lots of information out there O People are junk! We should realise that, don’t fall victim to the Copy-and-Paste syndrome. As a student of Ilm, you must beware of that, don’t think you can learn anything tangible in Islam by relying on all these posts that people send to and fro themselves You have to tighten you belts and block the excess information that comes through to you that you do not need and don’t waste your time reading what is not beneficial.
The Ulamaa used to say:
Lifetime is short and Ilm is much; the waajib on man is more than the time accorded to him. So, your ability to set your priorities right is what makes you praise-worthy.
Our time is since past, we will pause here In Shaa Allāh and continue next week
We will In Shaa Allāh close for the night.
Bārakallāhu Fīkum Wa Shakarallahu sa’yakum!
Jazākumullāhu Khayran!
سبحان ربك رب العزة عما يصفون وسلام علي المرسلين والحمد لله رب العالمين.
