Knowledge can take you to hell!

Knowledge Can Take You to Hell!

A long time ago somebody said knowledge is power, but knowledge is also dangerous. A little knowledge is extremely dangerous. Because when you think you know something but you don't know it, this can cause more harm than good.

The Virtues of Seeking Knowledge

Many of us, we want to seek knowledge. We hear about all the virtues of seeking knowledge. The fish in the sea seek forgiveness for the seeker of knowledge.

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2685)

And knowledge has so many virtues and knowledge will reach us to paradise. But the dangerous thing is that knowledge can take us to the hellfire. Knowledge of the Qur'an can take us to the hellfire. Knowledge of the Prophet's Sunnah can take us to the hellfire.

How Can Knowledge Lead to the Hellfire?

How you might ask — how is it possible that knowledge can take me to the hellfire? It can, because knowledge is deceiving. The Prophet ﷺ informs us that the first person to be thrown into the hellfire is somebody who used to say, "I am a reciter of the Qur'an."

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1905)

Because he did it to be called, to be known, to be perceived as a reciter. He did it for the fame, for the name, for the glam, for the glory. And the second person to be thrown in the fire will be who was a scholar, a knowledgeable person, but he did it to be recognized, to be seen.

And he — or she — will claim on the Day of Judgment, "O Allah, I did it for Your sake." But did he or she really do it for the sake of Allah? All will be unearthed on that day. All will be exposed on that day.

The Warning from the People of the Book

Often Allah blames people of previous scriptures, the Ahlul Kitab. He says: did you not have all the knowledge in the world? You studied the book so closely, with so much detail — but you became jealous, you became arrogant, you backbited one another, you edited the book, the source code, you twisted the interpretation, you changed some of the rulings.

The Danger of Knowledge Without Practice

All of those things that you did — it doesn't matter how much you learn if you don't put it into practice. This is the danger of knowledge.