Journey into Knowledge | Session 1 | Mufti Abdul Rahman Waheed | Knowledge Retreat 2023

Journey into Knowledge — Session 1

Knowledge Retreat 2023 | Mufti Abdul Rahman Waheed

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Alhamdulillah.

It's nice to see all of you here today. If there are students from Miftah that have studied with me, raise your hands. So, mashallah, for you, this class will be a refresher if you did this class with me in the first year of Miftah class.

For the rest of us, I'm sure you've heard many of these things before, but I believe that this session — I mean, Ustadh Majid that just taught you, of course, his session is important. All the sessions you are going to go through in the next 3–4 days are all important, but without this session and without what you learn from this session, you're not going to maximize your benefit from all the rest of the classes. So, this class I teach in 4 months. And Mufti al-Wahhab told me to teach it in 1 hour. Then he was generous with me and said, I'll give you 2 more sessions. So, 3 sessions.

So, what I did was, I broke it down in 3 different categories. I said, today, I will speak about my top 4 etiquettes — like reading books, teaching — these 4 things you must have before you start studying. Tomorrow's class, I will go over etiquettes you must have during your class. And then on Monday's session, I will go over etiquettes that you must have after learning knowledge. So, it's going to be systematic.

My younger brother then told me today, before coming here, that we may cancel the Monday session. I said, alright, it's fine. Take me off the Monday schedule and I won't mind. So, at least we'll get through today and tomorrow.

The Importance of Adab (Etiquettes)

Brothers and sisters, what is the importance of adab? Shah Waliullah says:

A person who becomes relaxed, unaware, lazy with following the etiquettes of certain things — then a day will come where this person will become lazy with the sunnah of actions. Like, there's Salah has fara'id, Salah has wajibat, Salah has mustahabbat, Salah has sunnahs, and Salah also has adab.

There's also adab of Salah. Can someone tell me what an adab of Salah will be? Standing in front of Allah — but istiqbal al-qibla is not an adab, you have to do it. Wearing proper clothes — but you can even argue that covering your awra is necessary. Being conscious is part of Salah.

Wearing beautiful clothes — yes, that's one of them. Wearing perfume. I'll give you one easy one that we miss all the time. When we were kids, our parents, every time we traveled, my mother and my father would always have a sajjada in their car. In this generation, that doesn't happen that much. Even me as a scholar — when we travel, we always forget the sajjada. We just take our vest off, put it on the floor, and then we pray. And that's against adab. Adab of Salah would be that you have a sajjada and you put it down. The more you are particular about an adab, the higher the chances you'll be particular about the sunnah and the fara'id.

So Shah Waliullah says: a person who is always relaxed and lazy with sunnahs — like there's Dhuhr Salah and there's sunnah after Dhuhr, and there's Fajr Salah and there's sunnah before Fajr — if you become habitual in missing sunnah, a day will come where it'll become easier for you to miss the fara'id. And you can probably see that throughout your life. Sunnah is the way to keep you on Allah's deen. A person who is lazy with sunnah — a time will come where they'll become lazy with fara'id. And it is feared that a person who starts taking obligations easy — "it's only Fajr, it's only Dhuhr" — may one day lose the recognition of Allah.

So adab is very important. It's the start of things. And Imam Malik says:

Good etiquettes, good manners, is the source of every single virtue. Isn't it easier to travel with a person who is generous? Imagine traveling with a person who's not generous. Imagine going to a restaurant with a friend who always forgets their wallet at home. How difficult is that?

Imam Bukhari says:

We are more in need of a small amount of adab than we are dependent on a large amount of knowledge. A small amount of adab can take us way further than just learning a lot of knowledge without having etiquettes. A lot of brothers and sisters get turned away from deen because of a person who is knowledgeable but ill-mannered. "Sister, your hijab is not on properly. Don't come like this." "Brother, what's wrong with you dressed like this coming to the masjid?" And since our tolerance level is not too high, that turns us off. So that's why it is more important to learn adab before learning knowledge, and that's what we're doing today.

And Imam Malik says:

Having etiquettes while performing an action is a sign that that act will be accepted by Allah. At the end of the day, sitting here studying for the next 3–4 days — what is our objective? If it is not accepted by Allah, then what's the point? We're doing all this so that it gets accepted by Allah. So we must know: what are the etiquettes of sitting here? How should I behave? What should be my mannerism so that this amal can be accepted by Allah?

Imam Malik himself says that when he decided to learn knowledge, his mother said:

Go to your teacher Rabi'a, learn from his adab before you learn from his knowledge.

Imam Zuhri says:

We used to go to scholars' programs, and what we used to love more was learning adab from that person more than learning his knowledge.

Abdurrahman ibn Qasim spent 20 years with Imam Malik as a student. He said: 18 years my teacher taught me — sit like this, don't sit like this, eat like this, hold your shoes like this, wear your clothes like this, start your wudu like this. 18 years he taught me etiquettes. And then 2 years I learned knowledge from him — and he said, I wish I had spent all 20 years learning adab.

Aren't we living in a society of people who have so much information but such little manners? We all can agree to that. People coming to the masjid don't know where to put their shoes, how to put their shoes. People coming to the masjid don't know how to park. People meeting each other don't know how to meet each other, how to sit with each other. So, of course, there could be a whole course on etiquettes of life — but we're narrowing it down to etiquettes of a seeker, and you can apply this in many different places.

The Four Etiquettes of the Seeker of Knowledge

1. Tasheeh al-Niyyah — Constant Correction of Intention

The first one, of course, has to be sincerity of intention. What I will tell you to write is not just ikhlas al-niyyah, but write down tasheeh al-niyyah — because those who know Arabic know that sahhaha yusahihu tasheeh means correction of intention. The constant correction of the intention. Not just having a sincere intention, but the constant correction of the intention. Because Shaytan may leave you at the beginning — and I'm doing this for the sake of Allah — but as your amal becomes more and more beautiful, he can come and challenge it. A lot of great people started great actions with the correct intention, but somewhere down the road the intentions derailed and it became for something other than Allah.

Sufyan al-Thawri, rahmatullah alayhi, says:

Of all the good deeds that I had to make an effort to attain — khushu', khudu', present-mindedness when doing dhikr of Allah, crying in front of Allah — of all of these, the most difficult one to attain was sincerity of intention. I had to keep working for it, keep working on it.

And Sufyan al-Thawri also says:

I have received this news that Allah has said in the previous books: "The lowest punishment I give to an insincere person is I snatch the sweetness of ibadah from their life." The sweetness of ibadah. Now imagine if Allah takes away the sweetness of ibadah from our life — there's no more sweetness in our du'a, no more sweetness in our recitation of the Quran, and it becomes difficult to do.

Ibn Jama'ah says — what does good intention look like when you're studying knowledge?

Number one: بِأَنْ يَقْصِدَ بِهِ وَجْهَ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى — that you are doing this only for the sake of Allah and nothing else. And why is that important? Ali ibn Fadl was asked: "Why is it that when we hear the words and stories of the Sahaba, the words and stories are so beautiful, so motivating?" He said, "Shall I tell you, my son, why they're so beautiful?" He said, "Yes, go ahead."

Because from those words and those moments of their life, they did not want anything other than Allah.

Someone else asked: "Why is it that the kalam of the Salaf is more beneficial than our kalam?" He said: because when they spoke, they spoke to honor Islam. This was the du'a of the Salaf:

O Allah, give us honor through Islam and honor Islam through us. Even though Islam is already so honored — but it is possible. The Prophet made du'a: "O Allah, honor Islam through Umar ibn al-Khattab accepting Islam." So they intended only for the honor of Islam and for the pleasure of Allah. And when we speak, we speak to honor ourselves, to seek something of this world, and to please people.

So when we are learning knowledge, our intention has to be — just for the sake of Allah, nothing else. That is number one. Number two: وَالْعَمَلُ بِهِ — as soon as you hear it, your intention should be: I'm going to act upon it. Number three: وَإِحْيَاءُ الشَّرِيعَةِ — your intention should be: I'm going to spread this. Number four: وَالتَّنْوِيرُ قَلْبِهِ — you have intention to sit in this gathering to listen to these words so that you can enlighten your heart. Don't we all want nur in our hearts? Don't we all want to be enlightened? And the fifth one: وَالْقُرْبُ مِنَ اللَّهِ سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى يَوْمَ لِقَائِهِ — that from what I'm doing right now, the objective is that I am close to Allah on the Day of Judgment.

People say: what is the objective of every single thing that we do? The pleasure of Allah, which is true — but at the end of the day, the objective of every single thing we do is qurb ilallah — we want to be close to Allah.

This is: الْجَارُ قَبْلَ الدَّارِ وَالرَّفِيقُ قَبْلَ الطَّرِيقِ. When Asiya asked Allah for a place in Jannah, she said:

Before she asked for Jannah, before she asked for a house, she asked: O Allah, I want to be near You. And Ka'b ibn 'Ujrah, when asked: "O Ka'b, what do you want? You're serving me so much." He says:

O Prophet of Allah, I want to be near you in Jannah. So nearness — one of the intentions of learning knowledge is to be near Allah. So those are five things:

1. Seeking the pleasure of Allah — for Allah alone. 2. The intention to act upon it. 3. Spreading it. 4. To enlighten your heart. 5. The intention to be close to Allah.

As we speak about the intention, one other very important thing is to speak about what not to intend when learning knowledge — because the hadith is very clear on it. It comes in a hadith:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2654; also Ibn Majah, Hadith 253)

Three things are mentioned. Number one — this is a scary one — a person who studies knowledge to be considered a scholar. We don't have to study knowledge to become a scholar. You hear that a lot nowadays: "I want to study knowledge, I want to be a student of knowledge" — that's something encouraged in deen, that has merit, that has virtue. But "I want to study knowledge so I could be a scholar" — that's not something we should think of. We are students of knowledge. You may be placed in positions where you have to teach, but your identity should be student of knowledge. Because maybe I'm teaching you in this room right now, but in a different room I'm a student of knowledge. There's always someone more knowledgeable than you.

Imam Abu Hanifa said: one day he thought, "I got this, I know the masa'il, I got this down." So he stopped attending the gatherings of Hammad — that was his teacher. In those days, they would have different gatherings in the masjid. Not like an institution — a sheikh sitting here, a sheikh sitting here, like that. And you'd find this sheikh is teaching hadith, this sheikh is teaching fiqh, and you just go sit with them. So Imam Hanifa was a great scholar already, and he decided he wouldn't do that anymore.

One day, he went to see his teacher at the time that he used to sit in his class. At that moment, Hammad got a message from someone in Basra that his family member had passed away and he had to go attend to them. So he left and he put Imam Abu Hanifa on his chair — isn't that amazing? Like: "Hey, you can do this now."

Once Imam Malik was teaching, and Imam Shafi'i snuck into class. Imam Malik is teaching, and in those days, the way I question you — most of the ilm was through questioning. Like, "What do you say about this?" — not "I'll teach you." The students would study all day, read books, and they would come to class and ask questions. That's how the whole class was. Abdullah ibn Abbas says: half of my knowledge I attained through good questions.

So Imam Malik was sitting and presented a few questions. Everyone got them wrong except for one person sitting next to Imam Shafi'i. Imam Shafi'i had his head down — he didn't want to bother Imam Malik during class, because if he saw him, he would be happy to see him. So he bumps the person next to him and says, "Hey, this is the answer." That person — it was his first day in class — says the answer. Imam Malik says, "All of you are wrong. He's right." He asks another question, everyone answers wrongly, Imam Shafi'i whispers the answer again. It happens three times. Imam Malik was so happy. He says, "Come here." He brings him to the front, makes him sit down, and naturally asks: "Where did you study?" The person says, "There was a guy next to me who told me all the answers." He says, "Where is this person? Stand up." And it was Imam Shafi'i — Muhammad ibn Idris. He sees him, he gets up, and as soon as he got up to hug him, he says: "Shafi'i, you sit here and continue the dars while I go prepare food for you since you're my guest." So much adab. And so much trust. "Muhammad ibn Idris, you finish this class off."

So this is Imam Hanifa saying: one day I was with Hammad and he had to go. So he said, "Come, finish this dars off." I sat there for the next two months. People asked me questions. Every question they asked, I would write the answer and say, "I'm going to ask my teacher when he comes back." About 60 different discussions of fiqh took place in those two months. I presented all my answers to my teacher when he came back. I was wrong in 20 of them and correct in 40 of them. He said: at that point I made a qasam that I would never leave my teacher for the rest of his life, and I spent 18 more years with him.

So, we are not studying knowledge to be considered a scholar. We are studying to be considered a student of knowledge. All the virtues that Allah and His Rasul mention are for tullab al-ilm. The angels spreading their wings. Everything in the world making du'a for you. This is for tullab al-ilm. And we should always remember that.

Number two from what not to intend:

You're not studying knowledge so you can debate with people. "Sheikh, this one person in my college always talks about this. What book can I read so I can shut him up?" First of all, you should learn it because you yourself need to know it. But don't learn it because you want to win the argument — because you're never going to win the argument. That's what الْمِرَاءُ بِهَا السُّفَهَاءَ means.

The third reason why you don't want to study knowledge:

That people start looking towards you, looking up to you. Don't do that. We don't want people to look up to us and praise us — we want to run away from that. Abu Hazm says about the usul of life:

Hide your good deeds more than you hide your bad deeds. Hide them. It's between you and Allah.

So that is the first etiquette of being a student of knowledge.

2. Al-Jidd — Hard Work and Struggle

The next etiquette of knowledge is — I can't say one is more important than the other; they all have equal importance. It is called al-jidd. Al-jidd means hard work. It means putting yourself through struggle. That's what it means.

A person who works hard, who puts themselves through some struggle — they will attain what they're searching for. It is a lofty status to be a student of knowledge, to be inshallah among those under the 'arsh of Allah. It is a lofty status. So you cannot attain that lofty status until you do go through some hardship and some struggle.

Brothers and sisters, when I think of this, I want to laugh at myself for even mentioning it — because what struggle do we go through? But then I'm reminded that, actually, proportionate to our era, we are going through struggles. Yes, if we compare it to the previous years and ages, it might not be considered a struggle. They were sitting there — no AC, no chairs, no food. They had no idea where the food would come from. Traveling by foot. Many of them dying in the pursuit of knowledge because no one was there with them. Putting their lives on the line as they were learning knowledge.

So when you look at that and compare it to this — we're sitting here, mashallah, on this beautiful campus, drove here, flew here from different places — but there's still a struggle with it. There's no doubt there's always going to be a struggle with it. Some of us are struggling with marriage. Someone's struggling with their children. Someone might be struggling with their finances. Someone may be struggling with the fact that they're going through some loss in life. Everyone has their own struggles.

And above that, sitting in one place for 5, 6, 7 hours is a struggle. My ask of you is to do it. Okay, it doesn't matter how hard it is — just sit on your chair. Don't leave. Stay there. And that's why it is said:

Knowledge will not give you a portion of it until you give your full 100%. You came here — that's good. Now give 100% while you're here. Then of all the different things the speakers and teachers speak about in the next 3–4 days, you may take away a portion of it — if you give all of yourself. You're thirsty, you're hungry, you're tired — keep yourself fresh, keep going.

Abdullah ibn Abbas says:

As a seeker of knowledge, I had to struggle. I had to humble myself. But then I did that for so long, and then I became someone who was honored and sought after. People would come to me. So if you don't go through this —

The Salaf used to say:

A person who cannot be patient upon the struggle of learning — their entire life they will live in the blindness of ignorance. They will never learn, because you have to go through it.

In every book you'll read it — there used to be the struggle of the harshness of the teacher, الصَّبْرُ عَلَى جَفَاءِ الْمُعَلِّمِ. But no longer — because if you're harsh, I say, "Brother, why are you sitting like this?" — he's not coming tomorrow. I guarantee you that. We're living in a snowflake era. There actually used to be teachers who, when you walked into their class and weren't paying attention and you were wearing an imamah, they would take your imamah off. And taking someone's imamah off is like taking their honor away.

I will stop with one more statement about this:

The treasure of bounties lies on the peaks of calamities. The more we go through, we should be happy — no problem. Let's sit in class all four days. Let's stay a little hungry. You came from out of town — you're going to go to the restaurants around here, and that's fine, but you go once in three, four days. If we're here and we finish class, keep ourselves committed. Don't just come for the vibe and relaxing. Struggle, put yourself through a little struggle.

This is actually one of my favorite quotes of one of the greatest minds of Islam — his name is Allama Raghib al-Isfahani. This is gold:

If you do not want to get tired, then tire yourself — so that you actually don't get tired. You don't want to get tired? Alright, put yourself through more effort. Because your comfort will be in the result of your effort. Keep that in mind: I'm getting tired — put yourself through a little bit more, a little bit more. Be fresh. And then you will realize that your comfort is in you putting yourself through some discomfort. Of course, don't kill yourself — that goes without saying. You should know your body, know what you can handle, and based on that, you move.

3. Al-Muwazabah — Consistency and Punctuality

The third quality — again, one is not more important than the other — is called al-muwazabah. Al-muwazabah has two translations in English: sticking to it and punctuality.

This is an interesting thing that Imam Hanifa said about his student Imam Abu Yusuf. He said:

He said: "You weren't smart. But your muwazabah took you out of that. Made you smart. It opened up your brain." You're sitting there: I cannot understand this fa'il, maf'ul, tamyiz, mumayyaz, I don't get it. He's saying to Imam Abu Yusuf — the qadi of the ummah — that you couldn't get concepts. But your muwazabah, the fact that you stuck with it and were punctual — that helped you get out of it.

Not all of us would be lying if we said that whenever we pray we feel like praying, whenever we work we feel like working. No — a successful person is the one who works even though they don't feel like it, who prays even though they may not feel like it. And I'll tell you — there were times where the Sahaba did not want to do what they were supposed to do, but they did it, and that was their greatness. Like in the Battle of Badr — they did not want to fight. But despite not wanting to, because the Prophet wanted them to, they did it. And that makes you great.

What does muwazabah look like in today's practice? What does it mean practically for us?

Muwazabah means that we wait for the teacher, and the teacher doesn't wait for us. That's a practical lesson for us.

Imam Ja'far ibn Darastuyah says:

We used to go and huddle up in the masjid after Asr so that we could be there for Ali ibn al-Madini's class. Ali ibn al-Madini's class was not after Maghrib, was not after Isha — his class was after Fajr. And they said: we used to get there right after Asr and wait for our teacher.

Imam Malik himself mentions a story about himself — that he used to go to his teacher and stand outside his house for about half an hour in the middle of the day, waiting for him to leave his house. And when his teacher would open the door, Imam Malik would pretend like he was just walking by — he wouldn't be standing there like, "Yes, I've been waiting half an hour for the sake of Allah!" He would just, right when the teacher would walk out, pretend like he was just passing by — and then he would wait until he was ready, and then say, "Assalamu alaikum, Sheikh, how are you doing?" He did this every day of his life.

So this is what muwazabah means. For us practically: we are there before the teacher; we are particular with our lessons. And one more thing — it says Imam Nafi'i asked about this hadith:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 2606; Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1212; Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 2236)

O Allah, bless my ummah in its mornings. Nafi'i asked Ibn Umar about this hadith and Ibn Umar said: it means O Allah, bless my ummah — the ones who are early morning, who wake up to learn knowledge. So for us, class starts at 8am — that's early. There's going to be a Q&A session till 9. Those who wake up early, come — there's barakah for us. This means: be in the first saf.

4. Al-Ihtiram — Honor and Respect

I'll conclude with the fourth one: al-ihtiram. Having some level of hurma — respect, honor.

The ulama say: no one attained the status they attained except by the virtue of their honor and respect, and no one fell from any rank except for the fact that they did not have hurma, they did not have ihtiram. And:

Honor and respect is actually better than even obedience.

Shams al-A'immah al-Halwani, rahmatullah alayhi, says:

All this knowledge that you see that I have attained, I attained it all through ta'dhim — azama, having greatness and reverence for what I am doing.

Imam Malik's mother — I've been saying all their words, not any of my own — when he told her that he was going to go learn knowledge, his mother said: "Son, come here."

You want to study knowledge? Wear the garments and the clothes of the ulama, have some ihtiram, some respect — and then you go learn knowledge.

And then, subhanallah, it comes in the Quran:

Those who honor the sacred things of deen — this is good in the eyes of Allah.

Those who honor the sha'a'ir — the landmarks of deen, the symbols of deen, the acts of deen — this is from the piety of the heart.

What does that mean for us? I'll say a few things.

Number one: when we come into class to learn hadith, to learn Quran, to learn deen, we come in the state of wudu — that's ihtiram. Shams al-A'immah al-Halwani — he had diarrhea one night, he was studying knowledge, and he got up 40 times to use the restroom, and he made wudu each time. Each time. Because he said: how can I sit down and read hadith without wudu?

Number two: Imam Malik — when he would speak about masa'il and fiqh, he would sit there with beautiful clothes. But when it was time to teach hadith, he would go take a shower, put on good perfume, wear nice clothes, and then sit in his specific place where he would teach. He would have bukhur around him all the time, and then he would say: "And the man who is resting in this grave said this" — and he would cry. All of that to prepare himself to be a person who is teaching and learning knowledge. So for us as we come every day for classes: be fresh, look nice, wear some nice itr, nice clothes.

The third thing — what does it mean as far as honoring knowledge? The third thing, brothers and sisters, is the pre and post — the pre-game and the post-game. How we are pre-class and post-class, how we are pre-amal and post-amal, determines how much honor we have for that amal. Wallahi, it does.

The Prophet heard the angels discussing something. There is a great book — Rasa'il Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali — he has a whole book on this hadith about fima yakhtisamul mala' al-a'la — what are these angels discussing? The Prophet was asked, "What are these angels discussing, what are they talking about?" And they said: these angels are discussing those good deeds that completely wipe away your bad deeds. Sometimes your crime goes from a felony to a misdemeanor, and sometimes the judge says: delete the record, there's no more, you can't find it anywhere. So what are some good deeds that completely delete the record of bad deeds? They mentioned three things:

Number one: walking towards Salah, going towards the masjid. Number two: doing wudu properly. Number three: waiting for one Salah after you complete one Salah — so you pray Asr and you wait till Maghrib.

All three of these acts are pre and post amal — they're not the amal itself. The amal is Salah. But in the eyes of Allah, He has so much regard for the one who honors it — that they're doing wudu properly, they're going to the masjid on time, they pray Salah, and they're like: "I don't want to leave, I want to stay here for another Salah." It is so honorable to Allah that these three good deeds wipe away all your bad deeds.

Brothers and sisters, same thing with pre and post class. How are we sitting before class starts — with ihtiram — and how do we sit after class ends, with ihtiram? Jumu'ah khutbah in a masjid — even if Ustadh Majid is speaking and he's blowing the speakers off — right after the khutbah, for the most part in every masjid in America, everyone gets up and starts talking. Am I right? So you don't even let it marinate. You heard such beautiful things and you don't even give it time to marinate — and then you start talking.

I remember at my brother's funeral, rahmatullah alayhi — we were there, and literally the amal here was janaza, the amal here was the burial. It was a young man; so many people were there. I'm standing there at the cemetery, and wallahi, two or three people came up to me while I was in that situation — my brother had just passed away — and they asked me: "Which restaurant is halal in Dearborn? Tell us a restaurant that's halal in Dearborn." The fact that you did not even let this huge lesson in your life — that you should change your life — marinate for a second. You're thinking about eating at that moment.

I thought to myself: inshallah, whenever I go to a funeral, I'm never going to eat after that. Because the family can't eat, and if you really want to participate in their grief, you shouldn't eat either. And then I looked back at the Salaf al-Salihin, and this was common among them — that you would walk into a cemetery where someone was being buried and you would not know who to give 'aza to, because everybody would be crying exactly the same way. That's how much love they had for each other.

So you have this amal of class. You know this hadith — we always hear it — that the Sahaba would sit in the gathering of the Prophet, and they were so still that if a bird sat on their head it would not move. If you've never heard it before — where have you been? This is a hadith of the Prophet about the Sahaba — that they would sit with so much sukoon and waqar and ihtiram that if a bird were to sit on one of their heads, the bird would not move because they were so still.

Actually, Ibn Hajar mentions about this hadith that what we're mentioning is not accurate — that was not their condition when the Prophet was speaking to them. That was their condition after the Prophet left them. They were so frozen and stunned by what they had heard. They just sat there: "What did we just hear? What did we just observe? Can you believe this?" And the Prophet would sometimes come out and they would still be sitting like that, and he would ask: "What's making you sit there right now?"

So the fourth thing — ihtiram for us — is the way we respect the class before and after. Take a few minutes out after class. Sit down. Don't just get up and leave, start talking and joking — you can do that afterwards. Sit down. Before class, be there ahead of time, ready to go. Have ihtiram. Come on time.

Summary

Inshallah, if you have these four qualities, you will benefit from the lessons and classes that we go through in this Knowledge Retreat:

1. Tasheeh al-Niyyah — Constant correction of intention
2. Al-Jidd — Hard work and struggle
3. Al-Muwazabah — Consistency and punctuality
4. Al-Ihtiram — Honor and respect

Wassalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.