How the Men of Knowledge are Ruined

Pearl of Wisdom

was asked about jihad, as to whether it was a recommended act or an obligatory one, to which he replied, 'jihad comes in four forms, two of which are obligatory, one of which is recommended but can only be undertaken withan obligation, and one which is recommended. The first obligatory jihad is that which a man wages against his own self in keeping away from acts of disobedience to Allah. This is one of the greatest forms of jihad. Waging jihad against those disbelievers who persecute you is also an obligation. As for the jihad which is recommended but can only be undertaken withan obligation is to fight the enemy, which is an obligation upon the whole community, and which if they abandon, they are all Punishable for it. It is a recommendation upon an Imam, the limit of which is to come and face the enemy and fight them with his community. As for the jihad which is recommended, it is [embodied in) every recommended practice which a person performs and strives in its performance, its completion and its revival. Such an act, and the stnvmg to perform it is one of the best deeds because it is a revival of the Prophetic practice, and the Prophet (SAWA) has said, 'Whoever establishes a good habitual practice, he will get his own reward for it as well as the reward of whoever performs it after him until the Day of Resurrection, without any decrease in their reward thereof.'

Imam Hussain ibn Ali al-Shahid [as]

Tuhaf al-'Uqul, p. 243

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Library » The Lantern of the Path » How the Men of Knowledge are Ruined

How the Men of Knowledge are Ruined

Caution and fear are the legacy of knowledge and its measure; knowledge is the ray of gnosis and the heart of belief. Whoever is denied caution is not a man of knowledge, even if he can split hairs in dealing with obscure items of knowledge. Allah said,

Only those of His servants who are possessed of knowledge fear Allah. (35:28)

Men of knowledge are ruined by eight things: greed and miserliness, showing off and partisanship, love of praise, delving into things whose reality they cannot reach, affectation by taking excessive pains to beautify their speech with superfluous expressions, lack of modesty before Allah, boastfulness, and not acting upon what they know.

‘Isa [a] said, 'The most wretched of all people is he who is known for his knowledge, not for his actions.'

The Holy Prophet said, 'Do not sit with every presumptuous caller who summons you from certainty to doubt, from sincerity to showing off, from humility to pride, from good counsel to enmity, and from abstinence to desire. Draw near to the person with knowledge, who summons you from pride to humility, from showing off to sincerity, from doubt to certainty, from desire to abstinence, from enmity to good counsel.' None are fit to preach to creation except that person who has gone beyond these evils by his truthfulness. He sees the faults of speech and knows what is sound from what is unsound, the defectiveness of thoughts, and the temptations of the self and his fancies.

'Ali said, 'Be like the kind, compassionate doctor who places the remedy where it will be of benefit.' They asked ‘Isa [a], 'With whom shall we sit, O Spirit of Allah?' 'With one the sight of whom reminds you of Allah,' he replied, 'and whose speech increases you in knowledge, and whose actions make you desire the next world.'

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