Friday, December 7, 2007

Dear Beloved Son: Knowledge


Extract: Counsel 3. Knowledge

To counsel others is an easy matter, the difficulty is accepting advice since it is bitter for those who follow their own inclinations and desires. They love the forbidden from the depth of their hearts. This is more applicable to seekers of knowledge and students of learning, those of them who are busy in the grace of spirits and the benefits of this world.

They believe that mere abstract knowledge, without proper action, will rescue them. This is the belief of the philosophers. Praise and Glory be to Allah, The greatest of all. They do not know this much, that when they acquire knowledge, if they do not work according to it, the indictment against them is certain.

The Messenger of Allah said: "The person most severely punished of the Day of Judgment is the learned one who did not follow Allah's guidance and did not benefit from his knowledge."

It has been narrated that someone saw al-Junayd after his death in a dream. Al-Junayd was asked: "What news do you have Abal Qasim?" he replied: "Perished are the speeches and vanished are the allusions, nothing benefited us except the prostrations which we made in the middle of the night."

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