As an addendum I wanted to enter further into the topic of education.
It is said that my earlier words:
ignores the stewardship of humanity (and Muslims) on the Earth.
I say, stewardship in the hands of people who cannot see a world with different roles and responsibilities is one of confusion and lack of foresight and consequences.
It is often said that the ummah is in need of education, but the immediate response from my point of view has to be “what type of education?” Education is a loaded word, its been the holy grail for many for some time now, so let us qualify it.
Some possibilities of what type of education we could be discussing, keep in mind we are speaking now not of knowledge, but of a broad term of ‘education’ that requires literacy:
1) Secular (Science, Mathematics, etc)
2) Religious – Legal
3) Religious – Doctrine
The criticism of traditionalism was first focused on attacking my qualifications to speak on the issue. Secondly, the criticism was speaking about the need to obtain ubiquitous literacy in the Muslim world and apply at least 1, 2, and 3 into all Muslims life. This is what I will examine.
So let us say we gave you the power to impact some change right now, and immediately educate people. What would you educate them in first, second, last? What and who would you exclude and what and who would you include?
I would remind the reader about the realm of the discussion here. This is on the global scale, for the entire ummah.
Really, now, tell me what is the universal goal of mass literacy and education in its larger context? The truth is, as I said previously, the West has promoted this concept because it has been able to shift those working in jobs which need less education from the public eye. When they do enter the public eye, i.e. Katrina, they shake their head and say “They are just not making enough money because they are not educated!”.
Does everybody, and I mean globally, does every single person on the earth need a secular education right now? I personally don’t think so. Who will be the school janitor when everyone has written a thesis on the contemporary string theory of physics? Who will milk the sheep when everyone can be a professor of fine arts? Who will make the shoes when everyone can build computers? Who will be the waiter when everyone has their MBA to run the restaurant?
It might be said, I am discussing high levels of education and when we are speaking about basic education. Alhamdulillah, ‘basics’ are good, but again then, what are the basics to you and to me? What is the benefit of everyone having that basic secular education if it is not to lead us onward to higher and higher levels within the academic and professional system? People now say, casually that all that math they learned in class didn’t really help them at their professions, yet we don’t really consider the profoundness of that when we are force feeding that same education on families of children who don’t have the luxury of such use of time.
In the traditional days the Awliya would look at a community and help decide who was best suited to be a high scholar and who was best suited to be a porter.
It was wisdom, interpersonal relationships, knowing what people wanted for themselves and for others, knowing levels of ambition, and also necessity which brought whole communities together that made secular education *a useful tool* for the right people.
Today, without their guidance, the world has turned into a rat race of getting on the top of an educational ladder, those who fall by the wayside are only looked upon as having failed and essentially tossed aside for the wolves. In today’s day those ‘failures’ are punished by being priced out of food, not earning enough to cover the costs of an unseen education tax on the growing of their scientifically engineered bread. But in the past those people were content, generally those people lived and sought simple lives, with satisfaction.
In an Islamic context, you might actually know the name of the janitor who cleans your office, and he might have actually been respected.
The promise of modernity has all but erased the desire for a simple life from our lives. The Prophet (Sallalahu’alaiheewassalam) taught us contentment with what we have, contentment with destiny, contentment with our Lord, and what was taught was simplicity in practice, simplicity in lifestyle. This is what the modern ‘scholar’ has forgotten and rejected.
If they have understood the above about secular education they have become confused and applied the same rat race to the religion itself, and that is not only dangerous for the world but to the soul.
Let us continue with the different types of education and their roles.
Does everyone need #2, a legal education in Shariat? Let us realize the number of people who don’t even believe even in its application today personally. Will a mandatory class in understanding of Mukhtasar al-Quduri help save the souls of the world? Will studying the fiqh exposed through Sahih Bukhari in high school lead to a situation where more and more people feel they have the authority to argue on matters of legal permissibility? Most likely. That is what we are seeing today, and it is only creating more confusion.
Nearly all of the world doesn’t practice the Shariat in terms of public policies, and in the traditional understanding it took years before we considered someone satisfactorily studied in the aspects of Shariat in order to utter one word about it. Is a light ‘dose’ of information what we need? I think it would be better to focus and create respect for the scholarship which did exist, to keep alive the practical aspects of learning how to pray, how to fast, which are easily understood by consulting ones knowledgeable local imam. Furthermore, the basic respect for the madhabs and a very high level understanding of the methodologies could be summarized and conveyed in a simple 15 minute talk.
Does absolutely everyone need #3, doctrine? I think few people could read the works on aqeeda and say that every man, woman, son and daughter, needs to understand the principals and differences within the Ashari, Maturidi and Athari aqeedas. Like Shariat, there is questionable worldly and spiritual benefit to knowing exactly the necessary consequences on physics from understanding that Allah is the source of all causality. At the same time, understanding the basic creedal aspects of our religion is something very simple, again, understood in its necessity in a 15 minute talk.
Now let us begin to discuss the power of knowledge and ‘education’ that does not need mass literacy.
4) Religious – Spiritual (Tassawuf)
5) Religious – General, Basics, Dawah
6) Practical ‘On the Job’/Experienced-based Knowledge
Now we can begin to discuss what the Prophet (Sallalahu’alaiheewassalam) spoke about when he commended knowledge and its seeking.
Regarding spiritual knowledge: It is said our Grandshaykh Abdullah Daghestani was Ummi, he could not read nor write outside of the Quran. Yet, when he spoke he was able to speak of spiritual realities which ended moving thousands and thousands of people. Is everyone in need of such spiritual lessons? Yes, because this is what the Prophet (Salallahu’alaiheewassalam) poured into the hearts of people. Shariat was learned largely through his practice and example, and a few orders. But spiritual teachings and awareness of God was the content of our beloved Prophet’s (Sallalahu’alaiheewwassalams) words.
So everyone is in need of it, but yet we don’t see an absolute need of ‘literacy’ to learn it nor to speak about it.
The general aspects of Islam, #5, need to be retaught to many, many, many people who call themselves Muslims indeed. But again, is the reliance on texts or on the people to spread that knowledge?
The Muslim community may be in need of a light dose of Shariat, Aqeedah, etc. I say, those that want it can get a ‘light dose’ through numerous means. There never was a prerequisite of ‘literacy’ when it comes to the basics of the deen. When Saad bin Abi Waqqas (R) went to China, did he bring with him books or knowledge within his heart?
I think the time for dismissing and insulting the Muslims of villages as irrelevant and ignorant fools is long gone. Frankly, I think those are the places where one can still practice Islam and escape from this world with a clean heart. It is in Russia, where texts were eliminated, where people carried Islam within their hearts, through the knowledge of the heart. This was a time when even proclamation of your faith would land you in jail. Turkey, which experienced an elimination the actual Arabic script, escaped with a faith that has lead Islamists into democratic government. In Bosnia, few could name you six books of Hadith, but their faith carried most of them through a genocide.
I think emphasizing knowledge has to now to be prefaced with what type of knowledge exists, I think demeaning those who happen to be born in different conditions as being unable to achieve high levels with Allah is the real Bidaa.
Yes, we need education in this society to survive. The world demands it, as it is not being run by people with faith. But while we participate in this system, we can also keep alive in our hearts the reality and the goal of a simple life. Looking to spread the confusion within the very sciences of Islam is not the answer.
There is more to say, the Ottoman’s decision regarding the printing press, Imam Ghazali’s (R) encounter with those who were ready to eliminate all his books, etc. But I will leave it at this for now.
yursil on 
Ranu on 
Frank Talk on 
Zeynep on 
isah musa ibrahim on 
Alija on 
Akhi, such a small comment prompted such a large response. You are arguing against a phantom, because so much of what you have said, isn’t even the issue at hand and much of it isn’t being argued upon.
I don’t think anyone is recommending a mandatory education in the deep studies of Shari’ah, nor of mandatory advanced secular education for all peoples.
I think in an effort to staunchly and unflinchingly defend your personal view of what traditionalism is – we’ve gotten to the point that we aren’t even talking about the issue. Part of our tradition is to utilize the secular, the spiritual, and the doctrinal to safeguard the Deen, the Lives of People, their Minds, Their Honor/Families, and their Wealth – the Maqaasid ash-Shari’ah. No matter – we are on different sides of the issue with regards to the actualization of spirituality – this is fine. At least we can agree that Jannah is our goal and Allah (swt) pleasure is our purpose, and the Sunnah is our way.
I still do not think my goal of having every adult Muslim know which verse of the Quran tells him his/her purpose of creation is too much to ask. I think it is a SHAME on our part – not theirs – OURS, if we cannot all do this. Of course, this goal is not by itself, it means we have reached a level as a people where we can ask/answer that question and are literate ENOUGH to know AT LEAST that.
I think you have taken offense to an insult which was never made against the uneducated Muslims of villages. Your point is well taken that many from our Ummah have gone through this Dunya with little more than solid belief in the basics, and closeness to their Creator. But I feel that this overlooks what has happened with everything that HAS gone WRONG in the Ummah because of our own negligence. From extremism, to secularism, to liberalism – there are monsters. Yes, they were there before, and yes, they were crushed before, but that doesn’t mean we should sit back and not engage them actively.
These monsters were crushed because our scholars and their students actively studied, examined, and then refuted the false beliefs by engaging them. They ENGAGED falsehood with Truth. Not by sitting back and limiting their work to a few preconceived ideas. This is why I find your arguments to be imbalanced and lacking in the other side of the story.
I would write more formally and rhetorically, but I don’t see too much benefit in arguing on this because we are on different sides of the issue and I have a feeling we will remain that way – but thats ok.
inshAllah Allah (swt) will reward us all for anything we do sincerely for His sake.
your brother,
Abdul Sattar
as-salamu’alaikum Abdul Sattar,
This criticism although quoting you is actually answering a question posed by others, including the notable Umm Zaid.
As far as the rest, I think you took my response a bit personally, and I’m sorry for that.
Regarding the engagement of scholars, those that do so are indeed to be commended. As I mention in the post, this post is about responding to the idea of ubiquitous literacy, reading and writing as the answer to the ills of the Muslim Ummah (an idea not expressed by you or by me, but by another). As far as knowing the verse, I think its far more important to benefit from the meaning in that verse, and through that find actual application of it. There are already far too many hafiz’s who are ready to sneak out of their parents vicegrip so they can gamble and drink their hearts away.
So this series of posts was addressing the attitude by a certain individual, and responding to those assertions.
If along the way, I digress and point out other issues, that is just how I write and think. I find one point a good way to introduce others which are necessary foundations for discussion.
Aaminah, I think I deleted your comment by accident when I was checking it through my cell phone. The thought was very much appreciated though!
wa alaikum assalam,
No akhi, nothing was taken personally. Its all good inshAllah. I just didn’t want to drag out what is a clear difference of opinion and sometimes differing contexts into those arguments that are really long point-counterpoints, thats why I mentioned that.
Alhamdulillah its all good.
wa salaam
AS
BismillahirRahmanirRahim,
Selam Aleykum,
Mash’Allah again, Yursil. I, for one, don’t find this piece arguementative in the least, but a clear and universal rebuttal of the general rhetoric of secular and modern/moderate minded muslims. Practice is important. Knowing the verse in the Qur’an which tells us our purpose, and making it compulsory for EVERY Adult Muslim is placing a large burden on a neck which is already dealing with the burden of mass literacy and the onus of books&books of knowledge without the implementation or application. The Age of the Second Jahiliyyah personified, literacy for all and real knowledge for none(as real knowledge is practiced and experienced). Practicing the spirit of those verses without knowing the exact verse, but because you were taught and you submitted, is not only, dare I say it, more ‘practical’ but a huge relief.
This is exactly what those adorning the mantle of ‘Sheykh’ have been trained to do, and have been doing so since they inherited the role of representing the Prophet(Alahi Salaatu-was’Salaam).
Hard on themselves and easy on others. Of course, there are those who the Sheykhs recognize potential in, and the real training of the ego begins, once that trainee/mureed/dervish has submit himself to his Sheykh, in the spirit of the Sahaba ekram submitting to the most Beloved One in Divine Presence. Yes, that road is not easy. But help is reaching the sincere, always. Here Allah lightens the load of that burden, because you’ve made sincere intention to work on yourself for His sake, and are making steps in His direction according to the sunnah, advice and the instruction of the Holy Prophet(ASWS).
In perfect example our Sheykh Effendi is speaking of Ayub (AS) and the trials of sickness and poverty which he endured for Allah’s sake. But the burden of that debilitating disease(which Allah gave him) was lessened with patience(which Allah also gave him), as he was ever at the door of thankfulness.
One day, among all the days, when there were maggots busy with eating his flesh, and his body was crumbling, one fell to the ground. Ayub(AS) picked it up and put it back on his flesh, saying, “Allah has commanded you to eat my flesh”. But when he did this, the maggot bit hard, and a pain so severe, which he had never felt throughout the ENTIRE ordeal, swept his body. Ayub(AS) cried out, and remembered Allah, and heard a voice – saying, ‘Ya, Ayub, why do you burden yourself more when We have lessened it for you’. He was not feeling the pain before, because he was submitting to His Lord, and Allah was giving Mercy and Patience with it, but in the latter instance – When Allah’s Mercy caused the worm to drop, and Ayub(AS) replaced it – he was increasing his own burden, and THAT was the cause of the following agony.
This brings us back to the point of the very nature of human beings, of man collectively – which our Sheykh is speaking about – that of a weak creature. Physically, Mentally, and Spiritually weak, unless we submit ourselves to the advice of the Mercy for all Creation, to reach those areas and gatherings of Saliheen and to seek out the Ahle-Zikr when you want to know something, or desire betterment for yourself. There we find support for our weak selves. Strength, and protection and support, from the forces of our environment and the very nature of duniya and it’s patron(Sheytan), as well as those created foils inside us – the ego and our desires – which are all designed to fool us.
So, Alhamdulillah for those ones who are there to protect us, the Sheykhs. Just as you would call one a fool, for braving the harsh winter without a warm coat or blanket, saying “I must be strong enough, I am this, I am that!” – No, you’re not, you’re a pink and naked thing without protection, and will succumb to those forces which are not in your control. We all are. To protect ourselves, and to aknowledge our weakness, is to begin to know ourselves. That protection is to take a guide, a Sheykh, and to say you know better than me in the Way of all ways, and this is why I accept you. And only then can we, custodian and Sultan, begin to know our Lord. For the naysayers who would call this cheap talk, I can only point out that to the contrary, I have witnessed with my own weak eyes, success in Allah’s way as a reality of life in the manner of Islam, and do so on a weekly basis. Alhamdulillah and Shukr Alhamdulillah. May Allah bless Sheykh Mevlana and our Sheykh Effendi, and keep us in their sohbet and their company always. Ameen. For the sake of the Most Beloved One in Divine Presence, Alahi Salaatu was’Salaam.
Selam Aleykum,
Hyder
Masha’Allah Hyder, ameen to your prayers..
Imam Shafi`i’s is related to have said:
“Knowledge is what benefits. Knowledge is not what one has memorized.”
I think Abdul Sattar does make valid points. While educational credentials have taken on a caste system dynamic, to suggest that it ultimately has only a meager value, is to overlook the blessings that’ve come about from it – for Muslims and nonMuslims alike.
It’s true that much of our educational focus is on the secular – but I feel that’s more the byproduct of civilizational and geopolitical realities. If history is written by the victors, so too are the textbooks by the latter day educators.
Western civilization, especially after the Enlightenment, moved away from the religious sphere – and this is why education in turn, has emphasized the material and the empirical, and left any relation to the Divine, in the hands of theologians who ceased to have any relevance.
Our collective traditional legacy as Muslims, in centuries past, contributed much to the pursuit of knowledge. Not only did we have the presence of awliya; sometimes they were themselves polymaths, or through the grace of Allah, harbringers of those who contributed to both the dunya and the deen.
The question we should ask ourselves is, whether Muslims are STILL contributing. Our contemporary state, provides much evidence to the contrary.
The divide between the countryside, and the city life has always existed in different cultures. Both sides have a tendency to glorify themselves, and condescend upon the other. But since we’re talking about the role of education and ego, I think it would be a step backward, to over-romanticize the village folk.
New doors & new horizons were opened up for Muslims whose forefathers ventured out from the backwardness of their rural dwellings, to immigrate to countries that enjoy greater prosperity. It’s not sinful to want for better opportunities for one’s family. Why shouldn’t Muslims demand more from themselves – and yearn to set an example through accomplishment?
In earlier times, Jews, Christians and others would flock to the universities in Cordoba, Baghdad, Samarqand and elsewhere because they were the eminent centers of learning. Times have changed since then, and now the flipside is reality – Muslims, and other post-colonials, flocking to London, Paris, New York, Berlin, in search of prosperity.
If Rasulullah – Allah bless & grant him peace – taught us to pray for true wealth, and to seek refuge in Allah from poverty – there’s our guidance.
Sure, there’s been cultural and religious dilution (and dissolution) for many that sought the dunya, but Allah rewards those with what they intend.
A tendency of a defeated people, is to have excessive nostalgia over a former glory, to be over defensive, and fail to meet challenges that come their way. Our respect for our traditional legacy should inspire us to go forth, not have our heads in the sand.
So while I agree with the general thrust of sidi Yursil’s warning against the ego-poison that education can be, I think we have to realize that Allah has, in His wisdom, put us all in our individual situations.
Allah guide us all, to that which benefits us.
Asalaamu alaikum.
Thanks for the note brother Yursil, I was so afraid I had peeved you!
as-salamu’alaikum Abu Dharr,
I will respond to this point:
I’m not sure who suggested that. The reality is what is being suggested as a worldview from both the West and Eastern academics (secular or not) seems to be complete, ubiquitious education for all people as a means for them to escape poverty and somehow meet ‘challenges’ that I have to see an example of.
When education becomes currency, we have a problem. Where the learning disabled are cast to professions that offer no honor, respect, that is a problem also. Islam honored the slave. When we now are considering various means of selective reproduction and genetic engineering to increase IQ’s we have a problem. A side thing has become the goal.
It was the Prophet (Salallahu’alaiheewassalam) that sent uneducated former slaves to Kings, while Abu Jahl (representing high class aristrocacy within the Makkan system) looked down upon them all (including our noble Messenger -Salallahu’alaiheewassalam). And frankly, no one really has a response to the hadiths that mention the illiteracy of the nation, and specifically the power of the illiteracy of the Prophet (S).
To change my point into one of suggesting its meagerness is a bad misunderstanding, as I never really belittled it, rather I have emphasized that education has a ROLE and a responsibility for those who are ready for it. There is a time, place and person for every profession, for every purpose. Indeed education needs to be viewed, as it once did, as a burden and responsibility from which Imam Abu Hanifa (R), for example, rose to meet. He had the education, he distributed it properly, but he never made it equal WEALTH.
Not being considered a complete requirement for our salvation, spiritual and worldly (which seems to be the dominant world view) is very much a different story than considering it meager.
If you notice in what you wrote we find an almost synonymous relationship between poverty and lack of education. In the hadith you mention the Prophet (Sallalahu’alaiheewassalam) meant the former you seem to take it to mean the latter. I seperated out education into that which requires literacy and that which does not, there was a reason for that. Using the broad term confuses us as the Prophet (Sallalahu’alaiheewassalam) spoke of Ilm, which at that time was spiritual knowledge.
Since we are speaking of abstracts, of really unreachable goals such as mass education as the answer of the worlds problems, I would suggest that we really should be discussing what it will take for education to cease being a currency. I reject education as the necessary currency of a good, Islamic, happy and content life. I don’t think it is mass education which will equal prosperity for Muslims.. not at all.
It can help certain ones become high saints and Very Important People Who Should Be Remembered, but what it has become today is the new tool for discrimination of souls. And we have perfect examples on certain blogs today who attack traditionalism.
as-salamu’alaikum Aaminah,
No not at all, I was very happy to see your comment! Sorry again!!
BismillahirRahmanirRahim,
“New doors & new horizons were opened up for Muslims whose forefathers ventured out from the backwardness of their rural dwellings, to immigrate to countries that enjoy greater prosperity.”
If you look at rurality as backward, then the ‘cure’ or being ‘forward’ is what exactly? Money? Financial Success?
Jahiliyya – real backwardness – was a state where the practices and the customs of the people was deplorable,- (not their innate dwellings) – the antidote being Islam, which Prophet (ASWS) brought.
The reality and the message of the hadith, ‘Seek knowledge, even in China” – has never been more crucial than in these times.
W’salam Yursil, & Hyder,
I don’t believe that education is a panacea for the world. Often that’s parroted as a mindless slogan by people who could care less for the underprivileged.
But I do hold the view, that secular education has opened up doors for many in our world. That’s just an undeniable reality of contemporary life.
Had it not been for our parents’ immigration, I doubt any of us would be enjoying the ease with blogging, the access and ability to grasp secular and Islamic scholarship (however limited), the ni’ama of living in an area free from absolute dictatorship and overt religious persecution, a general understanding of the world, and a perception that there is more beyond our personal and cultural domains.
Rasulullah – Allah bless & grant him peace – did ennoble former slaves with high positions. That itself is evidence that they were in need of upliftment in THIS life. A slave, or relative poverty, is not a position that we desire in a fit of romanticized piety, and I feel this is why we were taught to seek refuge in Allah from such a state.
To seek refuge in Allah from poverty, does not entail despising those who are impoverished, either. I don’t think I made a synonymous relationship with poverty and lack of education. Nor do I hold such a view.
As for the meaning of ilm and what Rasulullah – Allah bless & grant him peace – meant by it, the scholars have had differing opinions on what it comprises. I think you’re mistaken in saying that what was meant was spiritual knowledge (and by implication, only that).
Imam Shafi’i (rh) is reported to have said:
“al-’ilmu ilmaan: ilmu t-tibbi lil-abdaan, wa’ilmu l-fiqhi lil-adyaan”
(meaning: there are two kinds of knowledge; medicine, for the body and fiqh, for religion) as if the other branches of knowledge are secondary while these two are paramount.
Imam shafi’i also used to express his regret that muslims did not go into medicine, and that they left it to the jews and christians.
So I think it’s critical to not limit knowledge merely to the spiritual domain, and in doing so, to attack education per se, because it’s used as yet another tool of distraction and criterion to esteem our fellow man.
As for backwardness, Hyder – I didn’t intend to equate the rural with ‘backward’. Backwardness to me, is someone who does not make use of what Allah has bestowed on him in this life, to improve it and the next.
as-salamu’alaikum Abu Dharr,
Indeed, our parents immigration allowed us to learn quite a bit, and opened up many worldly doors for us. And indeed, education has become a currency, we lucked out on this matter. This is why I said:
So what I am speaking to is balancing the understanding of education as:
1) A means for “treading the water” the world has built today. While we were lucky to be born to families of some education, others have not. Looking to take that education to merely turn it into more wealth is a disease that has affected most of mankind. We need to ‘tread water’, I think in this matter, which means learn as much as what fits of role and responsibility, and help ourselves and others with that knowledge. Make it knowledge that benefits us in this life and the hereafter.
2) In our hearts respecting the understanding that every person has their role and responsibility with respect to education. Looking to see what is possible in improving quality of life without the prerequirement of education in the ‘third world’.
3) Giving utmost importance to keeping the same type of ‘educational caste system’ outside of our religion in matters of faith. Mixing up spiritual knowledge with that of fiqh, aqeedah, etc is a fundamental mistake. It is much better to recognize spiritual knowledge, where the wealthy academic learns to respect the secrets of the shephard.
Where I saw the relationship between poverty and lack of education was where you said:
Even if we put aside even the deeper understanding of this hadith, to seek refuge in Allah from worldly poverty, does not entail automatically seeking out the university. So we need to pray for that refuge from poverty, in whatever means that refuge happens to arrive at our doorstep. If it means life as a successful farmer, MashaAllah that is good. If it means life as a medical doctor, MashaAllah that is good.
There is a difference when speaking about individuals with roles and responsibilities in having the few learn what is necessary and beneficial for them (as the hadith states), and applying one specific role (the academic) to all of humanity. As I have represented, some people need to carry that burden, and they need to do it with spiritual insight.
If Muslims with access to knowledge of medicine simply use their newfound knowledge for the hoarding of wealth (which is what we see as a general rule), then the knowledge has not benefited anyone.
And yes, I do believe the knowledge mentioned by the Prophet (Salallahu’laiheewassalam) was generally of that of the spiritual realm. Specifically of those hadith which mention the superiority in religion of those who possess “ilm”:
That is the near mandatory knowledge, the primary focus of his blessed message. It was certainly not knowledge which had a prerequirement of literacy.
BismillahirRahmanirRahim,
Selam Aleykum Yursil,
Just checking in – I was going to respond to a few points of Abu Dharr’s, but Mash’Allah, couldn’t have said it better, you got it all.
The Saint vs. Scholar series is an excellent way to bring those who rely enthusiastically on ‘official’ scholarship as the backbone and organization of Islam up to speed with ‘real’ knowledge and book/university knowledge. The latter without faith is empty and defunct, but even with it, – secular or madhab-i, it cannot hold a candle to the oceans of a Vali’ullah.
I think here it comes back to balance and balance is not always 50/50. Duniya and Akhirat can never be two halves of a whole.
I remember Sheykh Effendi speaking about the justice of men and the Justice of Allah. Man, if asked to deal justly with 5 persons in a room, with a 100 dollars, he would give each man 20. To be ‘fair’.
Allah, however, with those same persons, may give 2 of them 50 dollars each, and the rest of the three nothing, and that would be his Ultimate Justice. How will so many of us understand this? How many can submit to that justice with conviction, knowing nothing else could be the Truth, and this alone, sweeping aside our pre-conceptions of simple arithmetic or our own frail sense of ethics, pangs of compassion for the empty-handed bursting here and there.
Who will say, ‘I know nothing’, and say, ‘I must only hear and obey’? I ask myself that question and I don’t know the answer. I’m grateful to Allah that he has kept me with my Sheykh, and that I don’t have to carry the weight of that burden alone. Otherwise, I would surely be crushed under it.
Selam Aleykum,
- Hyder
W’salam,
Yursil, we see eye-to-eye on many points you’ve made, alhamdulillah – particularly on the need to ‘tread water,’ as you described.
I think the root of the problem, then, is the love of wealth & prestige. To the extent that education is utlilized as one’s ticket to the ‘yuppie good-life,’ to that extent it is abused.
I want to re-emphasize that I do not advocate the path of scholarly pursuit, or even basic college education, as a desirable aim for all people, whether poor, middle class or rich. A truck driver with taqwa is more dear to the Almighty, than a faqih with hawa’.
Those who are ‘stewards’ of any extra blessings Allah has bestowed on them, if anything, have greater accountability to live up to them.