Importance of Seeking Knowledge - Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed

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Fellow brothers, elders, mothers, sisters, and students. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

Almighty Allah has made you and I from amongst the best of His creation by blessing us with knowledge. By blessing us with the ability to understand Allah's greatness. This has awarded us the opportunity to become from the best of creation.

Allah says, we indeed, we honored the son of Adam.

Allah says, We created the human being in the best of forms. Allah gave the human being that intellect, that intelligence by which he can focus deep into the heavens, focus deep into the depths of the sea, and understand Allah's might, Allah's power.

Allah has given this human being the aqal and the intellect to be able to differentiate between right and wrong.

Allah says, We have guided the human to both paths. Allah has given this opportunity for the human to utilize something which the other animals have not been given.

Besides eating, drinking, reproducing, and leading their mundane lives, the human beings go beyond that. Instead Allah says, those humans that do not go beyond that, and all they do is they consume, and all they do is they reproduce, and all they do is they fulfill their desires, and they don't think beyond that. Allah says that they are not fulfilling what it takes to be a human.

This is not human life. This is not worthy of being called a human.

Allah is telling us, that those humans that merely consume, eat, drink and reproduce, they are not acting like humans.

Instead He says, Dharhumm, leave them. O Prophet of Allah, leave them. You've given your effort, you've tried to guide them, they don't listen, leave them.

What are they good at doing? Ya'kulu, let them eat. Wa yatamatta'u, let them enjoy life. Wa yulhihim al-amal, And let their long drawn out plans for the future.

My home will be like this, my car will be like this, my bank balance will be like this, my kids will do this, my grandkids will do like this, my company one day will become like this. Let their long drawn out plans put them into deception and make them forget the hereafter. Because that's what they're doing.

They're setting themselves up for disaster. Fa-asuwwu fa-ya'lamun — Soon they shall come to learn. Soon, the time is running out, the clock is ticking, and they will realize that they were in a fool's paradise.

In another place Allah says, Lahum qulub — What's wrong with these humans? They have hearts, la yafqahu biha — But they don't think, they don't think with these hearts. Lahum a'yun — They have eyes, they don't look with these eyes. We're not talking about just looking what's around you.

We're speaking about looking at Allah's greatness. Allah says, Lahum adhan — They have ears, la yasma'un biha — They don't hear. We're not talking about listening to each other's speech here.

We're not speaking about listening to all sorts of pleasing things to the ears. But instead listening to the Quran, listening to the chirping of the birds, listening to the flowing of the river, and focusing on Allah's greatness beyond all of this.

Allah says, These are actually like livestock. They are even more astray, more lost. Meaning, I created them as humans, but they are deciding that they don't want to act as humans. They want to make themselves of an inferior class of creation that hasn't been gifted with all of that.

A person who's been given a very nice expensive sports car. Imagine he takes that, which is meant to be on a racetrack, or meant to be on a nice highway to be driven, and enjoy the scenery, and the speed, and the luxury of that car. Imagine if a person puts that on a non-paved pebble road in the middle of a farm area.

What a misuse of that machinery. What a misuse of that beautiful automobile. What a sad scene to see the tires being ruined, and the dust flying all over that car, and the pebbles hitting the expensive paint, and ruining it, and scratching it all.

And of course you can't even speed on those type of roads. That would be the misplace, what we call, ظُلْمٌ وَضَعُ شَيْءٍ فِي غَيْرِ مَحَلِّهِ. To put something in a place where it doesn't belong.

For a human to eat, consume, marry, and just simply lead his life without thinking about the big picture, is just like that. It is a sad wastage of resources. Sad waste of resources.

My elders, my brothers, mothers, and sisters, and young friends. What is then the potential of this human being? The potential is, utilize the God-given gift of your intelligence, of your heart, your mind, your imagination, your senses to seek knowledge. Become a student of knowledge and understand Allah.

That is why Allah in the Quran, He mentions in Surah Muhammad:

Know very well that there is none worthy of worship but Allah.

And seek forgiveness for your sins. Allah in this ayah, orders people, Allah orders people to practice on the knowledge, even before, or rather I should say, Allah orders us to gain ilm first, and then practice.

He says, Fa'lam anna-hu la ilaha illa Allah — Know very well, gain the knowledge that there is none worthy of worship but Allah. That's the first priority, seek knowledge. Number two, wa'staghfir li-dhanbik — And then seek forgiveness from Allah.

That is why the seeking of knowledge, the basic seeking of knowledge is important before any action. A person cannot perform salah, a person cannot perform wudu, unless and until they learn the etiquettes and the rules behind salah and prayer. And that's for anything.

Whether it's a funeral, whether it's a distribution of assets after someone's death, whether it's a payment of zakat, whether it is an aqiqah, whether it is a waleema, whether it's marriage or divorce. All the jurisprudence related to that issue and affair, a person must seek knowledge about it, must become well-versed with it before they move forward. And that is why Imam Bukhari, in his Sahih, he has an entire chapter where he speaks about seeking of knowledge before practicing.

Many times a person says, I don't have time to learn, I just want to do. But that just ruins it. That just kills it.

If a person sits on a machine of some sort, and begins to try to operate that machine without learning how it is used, then instead of becoming a source of benefit, most definitely will become a source of harm. Just like the excitement of driving a car, maybe for a young person. But look at the process of learning.

Look at the process of the permit process, and the process of a license. A couple years go into that. In order to simply drive this small vehicle around town, without crashing into anyone else.

Although it may seem very easy and natural, you see thousands of cars driving by as we speak. But it's an art and a talent a person has to learn. So what about driving this human body throughout life? We're always bumping into each other, as spouse, as a parent, as a sibling, as a business partner, as a musalli in a masjid, as a student, as a teacher.

We're always interacting with one another. What are the rights that these people have upon me? What is called a good interaction? What's called a bad interaction? I have to learn about that. I can't simply blindly drive my body around everywhere, without realizing what it entails.

And that's why it is so important for us to seek knowledge of every aspect of our life. Allah, He mentioned certain virtues. Number one, the aspect of the fact that this is the very first thing Allah revealed the ayats of the Quran for.

First revelation was about reading and seeking knowledge. Number two, Allah speaks about knowledge giving us a farsightedness, gives us the light of the heart.

That blindness, blindness is not of the eyes. That is a very small problem. SubhanAllah, it's a beautiful, huge blessing to have eyesight. But what we're learning from this ayah is that although blind people are worthy of pity, but the ones who are worthy of much more pity are those whose hearts have become blind.

They may have 20-20 vision, perfect vision, but their hearts cannot differentiate between right and wrong, between goodness and evil. And that's what he says, fa-inna-ha la ta'ma al-absar — The eyes are not that what go blind, wa-laken ta'ma al-qulub al-lati fi al-sudur — Those hearts that are within the chest are that which become blind. So ilm gives us the nur of the heart by which we can differentiate right from wrong.

Number three, ilm and knowledge of Allah and the deen will create within us fear of Allah's punishment. Allah says, regarding those who've been given knowledge:

Those who've been given knowledge from before, whenever the Quranic ayats are recited, they don't stand up in arrogance in front of those verses, instead they fall down in prostration, crying in front of Allah. Because that verse of the Quran meant something, it touched something, they knew what it meant.

For example, I'll tell you, when a person comes out, Allah forbid, Allah forbid, Allah protect, grant all of us health and our family's health. When a physician comes out of the surgery or out of the hospital room and tells the family, these are the reports. And he reads out a bunch of numbers.

There's kids there who have no idea what's happening. For example, the father of the household, the mother, the elder of the household, maybe someone who's in the medical field, he looks at that report, he hears what the physician has said, and you see tears flowing down their cheeks when they realize that their loved one has got a last few weeks, last few days left. Well, the kids are still playing around.

They don't realize what that message means. It is like a person receives a letter by mail from the bank or from somewhere else. And it says, you know, it's reading a lot of jargon there from lawyers.

It's got very bad news related to your job, related to your house. And the kids don't care. They're not worried about it at all.

They're just going about their business. It doesn't mean what's in that letter isn't important. It simply means they are heedless and unaware of the gravity of what's in that letter.

And you as a father, as a mother, unfortunately, Allah protect us and grant us Aafia. As you read that, the color of your face may be changing. And you're so affected by that while the people around you are not affected.

What happens to you? Because you have knowledge of the depth and the contents of that letter. When the ayat of the Quran, a hadith of the Prophet, description of the hereafter is narrated in front of us, the one who has knowledge of Allah, it will allow them to take effect. And the ones who maybe elderly, maybe have masters, PhDs, MDs, JDs in their works, but they don't have knowledge of deen, it will hit and bounce right back.

It won't affect their hearts. It won't humble them. It won't make them want to come towards Allah.

Because they don't know what they're dealing with. They don't understand the gravity of these verses. They don't understand the depth of these statements of the Prophet. They don't know who they're up against. You don't want to go up against Allah's wrath if He is the best friend to have and most definitely the worst enemy to have. Right? So, what happens when a person seeks knowledge? It creates khashiyah and fear within us.

Only the true scholars of deen, only those who've been endowed and gifted with the knowledge of deen will be the ones who will truly fear Allah the way you ought to be feared. My friends, Allah is to be loved, most definitely. Most definitely, Allah is supposed to be loved.

We're supposed to have hope, most definitely. But at the same time, we have to also know where the red line is, where we don't cross over. Just because someone gives us a finger, we don't want to take the hand.

Just because Allah is so kind to me, so kind to you that He doesn't punish us immediately for the sins that you and I may commit. That doesn't mean that we cross the boundaries over and become as they say a pushover because then they're dealt with very harshly. So, Allah says, who are the ones who truly understand my might, my strength, my power, my wrath and my love are the scholars.

So that is the third benefit that a person will get by seeking knowledge. And number four, the only place and the only thing that Allah has asked in the Quran for you and I to ask Allah for more. When you're given something, you should be appreciative and thankful for whatever you've been given.

But there's one aspect of our faith that Allah tells the Prophet, I don't want you to be content with what you have. I want you to keep on begging and asking for more.

And O Muhammad say, Rabbi, O my Lord, Zidni ilma — increase me in knowledge. I'm not content, I will never be content with what I have. I will always be asking you for more. So if this is the message to the Prophet, imagine the message to you and I. We have at the very offset super small teeny amounts of knowledge.

In Musa and Khadr, a story, you see that they are in a boat as they are traveling, and a bird comes, small sparrow or bird comes, and it sits on the boat, and it takes a small one teeny drop of the sea into its beak. And Musa Alayhi Salaam that makes a comment, and says, look at the amount of water that's in the beak of this bird compared to the water that lies in front in this ocean, in this endless sea. Musa and Khadr, Khadr who is a great, great friend of Allah, bestowed with extreme knowledge that human beings don't have.

And Musa of course being one of the Ulul Azam, one of the top prophets of Allah. He says, your knowledge, my knowledge and the knowledge of the entire creation combined together in relation to the knowledge of Allah is less than that of this one drop of water that is in the beak of this bird compared to the endless sea. So there is no limit to how much we have to be struggling and striving to seek knowledge of Allah from Allah.

What else beyond that? Seeking knowledge is regarded as one of the amazing struggles or what we call Jihad. Allah says in Surah Al-Furqan:

Allah in this Ayah, Surah Al-Furqan, He speaks about, He addresses the Prophet, He says, Do not obey the disbelievers and struggle with them a great striving. So the scholars of Tafsir, for example Ibn Al-Qayyim, He says, Hadha jihad lahum bil-Quran — This is a struggle against the disbelievers and the hypocrites with Qur'an.

And he mentions that this is one of the greatest struggles. Why? Because struggle with the Qur'an using Qur'anic knowledge, using prophetic knowledge to profess the message of Islam, to further the message of Islam, and to remove misconceptions. This is not done only against open disbelievers.

This is done against hidden hypocrites as well. So the Prophet did not pull out the sword, for example, against the hypocrites within Medina. Instead these hypocrites at times actually work together with the disbelievers to fight against the Prophet.

But what jihad did Rasulullah do with them? Jihad with the Qur'an. Jihad with the tongue. Jihad with the pen, for example, as we say.

Using Islamic knowledge to struggle and strive and present the image of Islam properly. And that is what a person gets a Mujahid when he comes to seek knowledge. The Prophet related in a hadith related by Abu Hurairah, mentioned by Ibn Majah.

He says, Whoever comes to my masjid, the Prophet said, whoever comes to my masjid, and the only reason that he comes to my masjid is to seek some goodness, to learn some knowledge, or to teach this knowledge. Meaning, you're coming to the masjid as a student, or you're coming to the masjid as a teacher.

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 225)

The Prophet said, then you are enjoying the status of a mujahid, as a one who is striving in Allah's path. Simply by walking, driving to the masjid here. Inshallah, this reward is not specific to the masjid of the Prophet. But instead, for any masjid that is on the method of the Prophet, where people are coming and seeking knowledge of deen, knowledge of the Prophet, knowledge that has been passed down to us by the Prophet.

The teachers and the students of knowledge will all be regarded as people who are striving in Allah's path. And then the Prophet said:

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 225)

And whoever comes to the masjid for any other purpose. What was the first purpose? Seeking knowledge or teaching knowledge? And he said, whoever comes for any other purpose, he is like the one who comes, and he is just looking at other people's goods.

Like the person, the person is the one who drives up in a nice car, and goes to a parking lot, it was a car show. And there is another person who drives up on a bicycle, and just looks at what other cars people own. SubhanAllah, what a powerful example the Prophet gave.

That a person who is seeking knowledge or teaching knowledge, his example is the one of a mujahid fi sabil Allah. And the one whose purpose of coming to the house of Allah is not to learn. Like right now, you're sitting in this khutbah.

My purpose should be, your purpose should be, I came here to learn. I came here to learn, I didn't come here just in and out, two rakaats and out. Instead, I came here to learn something so I can get closer to my Lord.

So that I can learn how to embody the teachings of my Prophet. So inshallah, you will all be inshallah today, and hopefully every Friday as well, be regarded as mujahideen fi sabil Allah. Those who struggle in the path of Allah. But the one who is blank with his intentions, his goal of coming to the masjid is not to seek knowledge.

The Prophet saying, he's like the one who comes about just looking at other people's goods. The Prophet, number six, if you wanna speak about the virtues of that, the Prophet spoke about the importance of competition. Competition when seeking knowledge.

He said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 73)

Jealousy and, you know, competition or ghibta, envy is not permissible except with regards to two people. And one of them is:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 73)

A person who's been granted wisdom by Allah, and he decides the affairs of the people using that wisdom, and he spreads and teaches that wisdom to people, meaning knowledge of deen. You see a wise person, you see a knowledgeable sister, a knowledgeable brother, who uses the knowledge that Allah has given them, and the knowledge that they sought out, to help people, to serve people.

You and I should look at that person and say, I wish I could be like that. I wish I can also have the same. I wish my children become like that.

The Prophet is saying that is the only true, two only accepted reasons to envy someone. One of them is the one that Allah gave knowledge and uses that knowledge to spread goodness. And another one:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 73)

A second person is who Allah has blessed him with wealth. And he uses that wealth, and Allah ensures that this person uses that wealth to spend in the right path. The Prophet, the seventh virtue, the Prophet mentioned regarding knowledge. He said, related by Abdullah ibn Abbas:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 71)

Whenever Allah intends to be kind with a person, whenever Allah intends to be nice with a person, He grants him the ability to gain a deeper understanding of the faith. How do you know Allah loves you? How do you know Allah? You know, say, Allah is very kind with me. Well, let me ask myself, what understanding of Allah do I have? What understanding of my faith do I have? If I am been blessed with an opportunity to spend a few hours a week, reading through the seerah of the Prophet, if I'm blessed with being able to try to work and understanding the meaning of the Qur'an, if I'm blessed with being able to read on the Islamic history, and the great rise as well as fall of various dynasties in the past, and take lessons from that. If I'm blessed to focus on learning on what breaks the marriage, and what makes the marriage in the teachings of Islam, then I know very well that inshallah, I've been chosen by Allah.

And Allah is wishing and hope, or I should say Allah has got a good plan for me. So when a person is bestowed by Allah to seek knowledge, that is a very amazing sign from Allah. The Prophet said in yet another hadith:

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 225)

Allah has revealed to me a revelation. That whoever seeks a path to seek knowledge, whether it is one weekend, one month, one year, five years, ten years, whoever starts treading the path to seek knowledge of the deen, Allah says, I shall pave the path for paradise. Whoever begins to tread the path towards seeking knowledge, I shall pave the path towards knowledge. And the Prophet mentioned in the hadith that I narrated to you at the very beginning, that the scholars and those who have been blessed with knowledge are the heirs of the prophets.

And those prophets definitely did not leave behind gold and silver coins. Instead they left behind prophetic, prophetic knowledge. So whosoever has been blessed with the ability to gain that prophetic knowledge, has indeed been blessed with a huge bounty.

My friends, my brothers and sisters, my mothers, my elders, my students, this is what differentiates between us and all other creations of Allah. This is what differentiates us and people who have not been blessed with Iman and Islam. It is the desire, the burning desire to learn.

The burning desire to know our deen. The burning desire to know what happens after I die. What happens in the grave.

What happens tomorrow on the day of judgment. We can lead another year of heedlessness. We can lead another life, another year.

And it will go as quickly, even quicker than the past. We're back to where we were. Our beards will have grown a little bit more white.

Our bones will have gotten a little bit, you know, weaker. And our youngsters will have grown a little taller. But SubhanAllah, we may remain as clueless about our faith as we were before.

And there are millions and millions of people who are leading their lives completely heedless, clueless. Absolutely no idea where they came from and where they're headed. And unfortunately, that's how the ending comes.

You and I have an opportunity to change that. We're listening to this talk. This is a reminder for myself and all of us.

We don't have to dig a pit for ourselves. We don't have to ruin our lives. Allah has given us the power to take control.

We can decide that, yes, I would like to become a student of knowledge. And I would like to learn about my deen. My friends, all of you sitting here, fathers and mothers, every one of you has got a bachelor's or a master's degree.

And your sons and daughters are probably going beyond that. How shameful it is if we cannot even pinpoint in our past 40-50 years of our life, where we spent a dedicated one month. Not 18 years, not 22 years, not 24 years, and not constant seminars that we must attend to keep our license.

But it's just a one month or two months or a weekend where I sat down with a teacher and studied the deen. Started learning the Quran. Started learning memorizing du'as of the Prophet. Learning how to recite Quran properly.

Learning the meaning of the Quran. My brothers and sisters, the yearning, the call has to come from within us. It has to be a war against ignorance from within us.

To say, I refuse to lead a life as an ignorant Muslim. I refuse to lead a life not knowing anything about my faith. Because this is definitely the most despicable and most depressing thing.

Not to be aware. You go outside when everyone's driving. You go outside when everyone's doing something.

And you sit there and everyone's having a good time. Kids, you know what I'm talking about. You go to a gym, everyone's making bath hoops and everyone's playing.

And you're on the sideline not even knowing how to dribble. That is a horrible feeling. Imagine everyone's leading their path, paving their path towards Jannah.

And I'm sitting there on the sideline not even knowing how to recite Surah Fatiha properly. Or not knowing what the meaning of Surah Fatiha is. Or not knowing the beautiful teachings of Surah Fatiha is.

Or not knowing the names of the wives of my Prophet. Not knowing the difficulties and the enjoyments that the Prophet went through. That is a very painful feeling. That is a very hurtful feeling.

On what basis am I going to align myself with the Prophet on the Day of Judgment when I don't know anything about him. On what basis am I going to be able to stand in front of Allah tomorrow and answer questions when he will speak to me and without any translator in between when I don't know much about him. We can stand up and say enough of that.

Enough of that. Let us use this new year opportunity to make a resolution. This year inshallah will become a year where I begin my path towards Allah.

My path towards seeking the knowledge of Deen. At any level. All of us who are working, our students, mashallah, university and college students.

You have so many opportunities in the city of Chicago. You have weekend seminars. You have weeknight programs.

You have weekend semesters. So many are provided within the community. Just here at Masjid Darus Salaam.

We have alhamdulillah for the past over 3 years. The weekend program. Actually 4 years now.

4 years. This is going to start the 5th year. That we have mashallah started and continue to offer weekend classes.

Saturday mornings and Sunday mornings for working professionals and young adults. College students, high school students. A very nice 10am to 1pm program on Saturday mornings and Sunday mornings.

You have a spring semester. You have a fall semester. 16 classes per semester.

3 weeks you come, 1 week you're off. For 3 hours in the house of Allah. With other young and elderly.

Brothers and sisters. You get a chance to ask questions to the teacher. You get a chance to learn relevant questions.

Answers to questions that are bothering you. My brothers and sisters. We are at the banks of the river.

Let us not go home thirsty. There is no reason for that. This institution alhamdulillah is providing knowledge to people from across the country.

We have so many out of state students coming here and studying. And filling up their buckets and going back home. As locals here, it would be a very, very, very sad thing.

That our life goes by. Our children grow up. And we remain deprived of the knowledge and the inheritance of the Prophet that is being distributed at this masjid.

Through the academy over here. We invite all of you inshallah to benefit from those courses, from those classes starting tomorrow. Saturday mornings and Sunday mornings.

There is flyers outside. You can register on the kiosks. There is everywhere.

We send out emails. We send out text messages. Let us not fall on deaf ears.

Let us say inshallah. Let me start somewhere. You don't have to take all classes.

You don't have to do every weekend. Take small steps. But ensure that you are consistent.

There is many of you I see sitting here. You used to take classes 3 years ago. And then you fall off the grid.

Come back on. It happens. You fall, stand up again and say inshallah ta'ala.

Let me make that. Because my brothers coming and performing Jummah. Is not going to help us face the challenges outside.

There are very strong challenges that all of you in corporate America and in universities are being bombarded with questions. Objections. Whisperings of shaitan.

What's going to help you combat that? Knowledge. Without knowledge we are going to be extremely vulnerable to these attacks. And we are seeing people falling off the grid completely.

Because of them not being attached to the masjid. And most importantly not having the knowledge required to answer those questions. I pray to almighty Allah that He makes myself, my progeny, yourself, your progeny, your spouses, my spouse and the entire ummah.

And those who are listening here. In person or live stream afterwards. May Allah make us all true students of knowledge.

Say ameen. May Allah allow us to seek knowledge as they say from the cradle to the grave. May He make us from amongst those who have the proper etiquette of seeking knowledge.

May He grant us the firasa and the farsightedness that comes through knowledge. May He grant us the nur of knowledge. May Allah make us from amongst those who one day very soon will be able to understand what we recite in the Quran.

May He make us from amongst those who will understand His power, His greatness. May He make us from amongst those who know in and out the life of the seerah of the Prophet. And truly love him the way he ought to be loved. SubhanAllah wa bihamdihi, SubhanAllah wa bihamdik.

InshaAllah please come forward, fill up the rows and perform the sunnah salah.