teach what you know

[London786]

Our beloved Prophet (pbuh) has been reported by Jâbir RA to have said:




RE.491/6 (Lâ yanbaghî lil-àlimi en yeskuta a'lâ ilmihî, wa lâ yanbaghî lil-jahili en yeskuta alâ jahlihî, qàl-Allahu ta'ala: Fas'alû ahl-adh-dhikri in kuntum lâ ta'lamun.)

This Hadith is pointing out an important duty for all of us. It is expressing what we must do in our lives. It is very important for everybody and for all times. The Prophet (pbuh) says: (Lâ yanbaghî lil-àlimi en yeskuta a'lâ ilmihî) "It is not proper for a scholar to be silent while he has the knowledge." If a person has the knowledge, he should not be silent. He must teach what he knows. He must not hide his knowledge. When he sees something wrong, he must not keep silent; on the contrary, he must speak out to tell the truth and correct what is wrong.

This is the responsibility and the duty of every knowledgeable person. Such a person has to tell his knowledge truthfully and honestly just for the sake of Allah. He has to speak without altering, bending or modifying the truth and without any fear of any kind. Just keep in mind that the highest of Jihad is telling the truth without any hesitation or fear before an oppressive ruler.

In the second part of the Hadith, our beloved prophet continues: (Wa lâ yanbaghî lil-jahili en yeskuta alâ jahlihî) "An ignorant, uneducated person should not keep silent while in the state of ignorance." That means that an uneducated person should seek knowledge by asking questions and searching for information. He has to eliminate his ignorance by asking, "Excuse me, sir. Would you please tell me what is the essence of this matter? Could you enlighten me on this subject?"

This is the duty of people: those who are knowledgeable shall state what they know; those who lack knowledge shall seek knowledge and get themselves educated.

Imagine a person who has no interest in learning, studying, or working. He spends all his time watching television. Every now and then he gets the newspaper and works on the crossword puzzles or reads funnies. All day he plays games or does some physical exercises. His valuable time, which cannot be brought back, passes in vain. He spends his years like this, and then his life comes to its end. He has not done anything useful, nor has he learned a word. He would be content with the least amount of work; he would settle for the minimum wage, and he would not mind working under the poorest conditions. Yet he had the opportunities to get up, clean his room, organize everything, put some flower pots here and there. -- In Islam, the duties are carried out not plainly but perfectly and beautifully. Everybody is instructed to aim at perfection. -- Unfortunately, this person is not paying attention on beautifying his home, its cleanliness or its order. He is not trying to improve his business or becoming an expert.

When my students or young brothers from our community ask for an advice, I tell them: "Continue with your education. Go to graduate school. Increase your knowledge. Became the leaders in your fields." I even joke with them "Always try inventing some device. Be experts in your field so that you invent new things in your fields." Once you keep trying, you may come up with something that would be well accepted and used. Remember the person who invented the safety pin. He took a long wire, made a loop in the middle, folded the rest. He sharpened one end and added a mechanism to the other end to keep two ends together. That invention has brought him millions of dollars.

That is why I advise my brothers: "Invent some device!" I encourage them, "If I had some free time, I would invent few things." I must confess that studying Hadith and Qur'an, and spending time seeking spiritual knowledge is much more rewarding than the material inventions and the money they may bring.

It is good that a person finds something be it an invention or new information. An uneducated person shall not remain with ignorance; he shall inquire knowledge by asking someone who knows. Following this advice, the Prophet (pbuh) reminded his companions about a verse of Qur'an. (Qàl-Allahu ta'ala) Almighty Allah says, (Fas'alû ahl-adh-dhikri in kuntum lâ ta'lamun) "Question the people of remembrance if you do not know."[Al-Anbiya:7]

(Ahl-adh-dhikr), people of remembrance, means scholars, those who have knowledge. It is very important to ask somebody who knows the matter in detail. When you run into a problem, you need to find somebody who is an expert in the field.

In our yard there is a tree which had been infested with insects. I asked some friends what to do. They advised me: "Get an infested leaf from the tree, and take it to a drugstore which sells insecticides for the farms. Show them the leaf, and ask them for the proper medicine. They are the experts who can help you."

Sometimes I ask, "What do I do with this appliance which does not function properly?" My friends reply, "Down the street there is a service shop for that kind of appliances. You must take it there." When we ask questions about matters that we lack knowledge, the outcome is always pleasing.


For the reasons given above, we must add a value to our time by seeking knowledge, learning or teaching. The most rewarding work in Islam is seeking knowledge and teaching. The highest rank is the rank of knowledge, i.e., that of a scholar. It is said "(Rutbat-ul-ilmi a'lâr-rutab) the rank of the scholar is the highest of all ranks." That is why we must value our scholars and their knowledge as well as seeking knowledge. Those who lack knowledge shall not remain in ignorance forever! They should not live their entire life in ignorance.

On the other hand, the scholars should not stay idle, either! Be it his room or a corner in his house, he must prepare a place for teaching. I have heard of Husrev Hodja -- May Allah bless his soul and elevate his rank in the hereafter -- who was an imam at Fatih Mosque in Istanbul. During the years of oppression in 1940s and 1950's, he would teach classes day and night. Once some people came to him and asked if it was possible to have classes with them at the suhur time (pre-dawn) during the Ramadhan. He opened his house for them at an early hour to have classes. He did not think of sleep or comfort. He knew the importance of teaching and seeking knowledge, and so he grabbed every opportunity to teach. All of us should be like him.

[The Fake Shaykh]

On the other hand, the scholars should not stay idle, either! Be it his room or a corner in his house, he must prepare a place for teaching. I have heard of Husrev Hodja -- May Allah bless his soul and elevate his rank in the hereafter -- who was an imam at Fatih Mosque in Istanbul. During the years of oppression in 1940s and 1950's, he would teach classes day and night. Once some people came to him and asked if it was possible to have classes with them at the suhur time (pre-dawn) during the Ramadhan. He opened his house for them at an early hour to have classes. He did not think of sleep or comfort. He knew the importance of teaching and seeking knowledge, and so he grabbed every opportunity to teach. All of us should be like him.

this is very rare nowdays, its a shame, i know many brothers who want to learn from some ulama but they say they have no time, ajeeb

may allah (swt) forgive us

[hope1]

this is very rare nowdays, its a shame, i know many brothers who want to learn from some ulama but they say they have no time, ajeeb

may allah (swt) forgive us

Assalamu alaikum,

I want to ask a related question. If a scholar is teaching certain subjects, but you are interested in other subjects, is it correct to ask him if he can teach you what you are interested in without expecting him to say that I should learn what he is teaching.

Also who does not have time - the scholars or the people who want to learn?

[UmHasan]

Assalamu alaikum,

I want to ask a related question. If a scholar is teaching certain subjects, but you are interested in other subjects, is it correct to ask him if he can teach you what you are interested in without expecting him to say that I should learn what he is teaching.

Also who does not have time - the scholars or the people who want to learn?

A question of etiquette? I guess it would depend on the subjects taught. Many times the knowledge of certain subjects is necessary before moving on to other more detailed matters. For example, we see many people on this forum confusing themselves in the intricate masaail of aqaid, usool fiqh etc when the majority of their questions arise because they have not grasped the fundamentals that precede it.

I once had a salafi student, with a phd (who almost drove me up the wall!) because she wanted to move straight onto the exegesis of the Quran without understanding basic translation, Arabic language, etc. Another student, also highly educated, who wanted to delve into the method of istidlaal and ijtihaad but had not even grasped the understanding of the most basic rules of usool fiqh and was asking question based on little understanding.

So basically, a teacher might consider certain knowledge to be a prerequisite and refuse to teach the other subjects on this basis.

Also you may have certain scholars who specialise in certain branches of deen and have devoted much time to researching it. If they are asked to teach something other than that, they may refuse or ask you to go to another scholar.

Often, I have steered a class away from certain discussions because I felt they were not ready to tackle it or because I felt there were more pressing subjects to learn first or merely because in the lesson on Ramadhan, for example, I did not see the benefit in learning why there is ikhtilaaf in the issue of moonsighting when they had not even learnt about the actions that invalidate a fast. I felt they had their priorities wrong.

[Sulaiman84]

Here's something along the lines of what was posted. Taken from the book, Prophet Muhammad -the teacher and his teaching methodologies

by Shaikh Abdul-Fattah Abu Ghuddah . Translated by Maulana Mohamed Mohamedy.


Rasulullah s.a.w teaches aspects of the Shari’ah in stages

The prophet s.a.w. used to consider a gradual approach in teaching. He used to present the most important aspects first and then the less important and so on. He used to teach little by little,portion by portion so that this could be easily absorbed and more effective on the heart as regards memorizing and understanding [what has been taught].

Hadith 23: Ibn Majah narrates on the authorityof Jundab ibn ‘Abdillah r.a. who said: “We were with the Prophet s.a.w. – a group of youngsters close to the age of maturity. We learnt what was iman before we could learn the Qur’an. Thereafter we learnt the Qur’an. In so doing, we increased our iman.”

Hadith24: Bukhari and Muslim narrate on the authority of Ibn ‘Abbas r.a. who said: “The Prophet s.a.w. sent Mu’adh r.a. to Yemen. [When sending him, he advised him thus]: You will come to a people of the Book [Jews and Christians]. You should therefore invite them towards bearing testimony that there is none worthy of worship but Allah and that I am the Messenger of Allah. If they accept this, inform them that Allah made zakah compulsory upon them. This zakah is taken from their affluent ones and given to their poor people. If they accept this, abstain from their valuable wealth. Fear the cry of the oppressed for there is no barrier between him and Allah.”

Among the important lessons of this Hadith is that when inviting towards Allah s.a.w. and teaching [the religion of Allah s.w.t] one must start with the most important aspects. Asking a person to act on all the demands of the Shari’ah at one time would estrange him. Similarly, presenting all the different sciences at once to a student would cause him to lose and forget everything.

In his Sahih, Imam Bukhari rahmatullahi alayh has a sub-chapter tiltiles “Knowledge before words and actions”. Under this sub-chapter he writes: “A rabbani is he who teaches the people ‘small’ knowledge before teaching them ‘big’ knowledge.” In explaining this statement of Imam Bukhari rahmatullahi alayh, Hafiz Ibn Hajar rahmatullahi alayh writes: “small” knowledge refers to things that are clear and obvious while 'big' knowledge refers to things that are intricate. Another explanation of this is that a rabbani teaches the people the specifics before going on to teach them the general rules, or the subsidiary matters before going on to teach them the principles, or teaches them the introductory matters before going on to teach them the objectives.1”

Ibn ‘Abdil Barr rahmatullahi alayh narrates on the authority of Yunus ibn Yazid who said: Ibn Shihab said to me: “O Yunus! Do not try to contend with knowledge because it is valleys after valleys. Whichever one you start with, it will break you before you can reach it. Therefore, acquire it [gradually] with the passage of days and nights. Do not acquire knowledge all at once because whoever tries to acquire it all at once, loses it all at once. Therefore, acquire little by little with the passage of days and nights.2”

Hadith25: Imam Ahmad rahmatullahi alayh narrates on the authority of Muhammad ibn Fudayl on the authority of Abu Abdir Rahman who said. One of the companions of the Prophet s.a.w. who used to teach us, narrated to us that Rasulullah s.a.w. used to teach them ten verse. They would not learn the next ten verses until they learnt what knowledge there was in these first ten and what they could practice upon [from these first ten].

Hadith 26: Tabari narrate on the authority of Ibn Mas'ud Radhiyallu anhu who said: "When any of us [ Companions of Rasulullah s.a.w] learned ten verses, he would not go further until he learned their meaning and how to put them into practice."

1 Hafiz Ibn Hajar, Fathul Bari, vol. 1, p. 162
2 Ibn 'Abdil Barr, Jami'ul Bayanil 'Ilm, vol. 1, p. 431

[UmHasan]

Off topic sorry- and this might be another very dumb question, but some members (like Sulaiman84 and Brother Fake Shaykh, etc) often quote long passages from kitabs. Do you type them out from from books you have at home or find them on other websites that you copy and past from?

I am intrigued as it's very useful for the questioner when members do this.

[The Fake Shaykh]

Off topic sorry- and this might be another very dumb question, but some members (like Sulaiman84 and Brother Fake Shaykh, etc) often quote long passages from kitabs. Do you type them out from from books you have at home or find them on other websites that you copy and past from?

I am intrigued as it's very useful for the questioner when members do this.

ok then ill answer your dumb question sometimes sister i type from kitabs i have at home or i ask some other ulama and type from what i hear and sometimes (well most of the time) i copy and paste from other websites or online kitabs/fataawa (if that does the job why stress the keyboard out)

[Sulaiman84]

I do it from both but mostly copy and paste from reliable websites because the nafs is lazy

The last one was taken from prophet Muhammad - the teacher and his teaching methodologies, a must have book.

zawjati gets most of the credit on this one as she typed out most of it.

[UmHasan]

Jazakumullah.